Quote:
Originally Posted by flipper
Unfortunately for the game of softball, it seems impossible to watch a televised game without seeing sloppy play, listening to horrible announcers, and watching the "best of the best" umpires absolutely lay an egg. The kicked calls Monday night were bad enough, but not placing the BR on 1st after the supposed runner's INT (the ball was foul) is inexcusable. There were FOUR of them on the field! Four "brain farts" at once? Please!
I don't see the kinds and number of mistakes made in NCAA baseball or certainly not MLB games as I do in almost every televised softball game. This and the low quality of play and announcing will make these games un-watchable to the casual fan and particularly a baseball fan.
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USA, Canada, Australia, and Japan generally have very high quality of play, certainly on par with similar levels of amateur baseball.
However, I think it is past time for major international sporting event organizers to recognize the third team on the field and quit assuming they can mix and match game officials however best meets their diversity or fairness objectives and allow a team of officials to work together over the course of the tournament. MLB (since you bring them up) has umpire teams that stay together the entire season (barring injuries and allowing for time off / vacations).
Since fastpitch softball is a developing sport in most countries, it is also should be recognized that officials from those "developing sport" countries see fewer games of elite play. It would improve the officiating if this was taken into account (how, I don't know... shutting out officials from those countries won't work, either).