Re: Great Collaboration!
 

Hi Peter,

Love and kisses as always, my favorite slimeball.

Anyhow, I think you take an unnecessary run at the average LL umpire. Sure, those who umpire nothing but LL for 20 years and think it puts them at the top of the Internet world deserve all the crap you dump on them, but many are not like that at all.

I worked a lot of LL come tournament time last season. It was truly a fun experience and I worked with umpires who have all worked at the NCAA level. Of the six umpires who worked the junior state championship game, only the outfield umpires were not college umpires. This crew could've worked any state HS championship game.

Sure, many of the regular season LL umpires are less-than-optimally trained. It is hard to find umpires and these kids are willing to learn and be taught by trained umpires. Some of them will make up our umpiring corps of the future.

What's the point in blasting an entire organization just because 1 out of 100 LL umpires thinks he can work the CWS?

--Rich

Little League Umpires
 

Rich;

How come those NCAA umpires who worked the state championship game with you aren't selected for the regionals and LL World Series. It's fairly obvious from watching the LLWS on TV that those guys have never seen an NCAA field. What kind of politics is it that eliminates the good umpires and selects the marginal ones to appear on television before a national audience?

It's the system that I take issue with. Requiring volunteers to spend large amounts of money on uniforms and equipment with no financial renumeration is a guaranteed way to produce mediocrity.

You write:

"Sure, many of the regular season LL umpires are less-than-optimally trained. It is hard to find umpires and these kids are willing to learn and be taught by trained umpires. Some of them will make up our umpiring corps of the future."

The are less than optimally trained because there is no money in it. There are few adults or kids willing to participate for free because slimeballs like me have offered them money to do the same thing.

Finally, you write:

"What's the point in blasting an entire organization just because 1 out of 100 LL umpires thinks he can work the CWS?"

I don't know know how many of them think that they can do the CWS, but I do know that most of the them think that they are a lot better than they are. The LL system is insular. It is only when you get outside of it that you realize how bad you are. When you surround yourself with inadequately trained and equiped coworkers, it's easy to see yourself as an umpire god when you have not yet graduated from the apprentice level.

In any event, from reading the extensive comments on this board, (many of the threads were deleted), the views that I wrote are shared by a large number of non LL umpires.

Peter

Re: Little League Umpires
 

One of those college umpires worked the plate on the 12-year-old regional championship this past season (on ESPN2) and another worked it 2 seasons ago. A third will likely be assigned in the next year or two. All of these guy, if you made me guess, will eventually end up at Williamsport.

They all put much more time into Little League than most umpires put into umpiring.

To you, umpiring will always be a job, nothing more. To them, and since last season to me, helping Little League is about community and baseball.

Those guys last season spent hours working on turning the local LL diamonds into tournament quality diamonds. They helped run the tournaments, acting as PA announcers, gophers for the concession stands, umpires, UICs, field coordinators, etc.

Some people give time to their church or other charities or other community organizations. These people give time to Little League and I'm proud to join them and help them when I can. These people make playing baseball more affordable for a lot of kids whose parents can't afford to spend mucho money for their kids to play.

To you, they are people to mock and are people that, in your opinion, steal your business. Sure, you could do a better job than 90% of the umpires we put on the field. We don't care.

I don't think that LLBB cares that they don't put the best UMPIRES on the field during the LLWS. If they did, there are a LOT of college umpires out there whose seasons are finished who would love to umpire on national TV, regardless the level.

I have a lot of respect for people who umpire for free. I can't afford to be one of those people, mainly because I have a serious gear and clothing habit I don't want to break.

In my experience, the teenage umpires who stick with umpiring through a few seasons of LL want to go on and umpire at higher levels. Some of the people I saw at the state rules meeting got their start umpiring on the small diamonds. That's where I started when I was 13 years old.

As for all those umpires who unilaterally blast LL and LL umpires -- hey, that's up to them. I probably was one of them at one point. However, some very good friends of mine have shown me that there's a lot more to LL than just showing up and working your games and cashing your check.

--Rich

As President of a local Little League program I see the difficulties on a regular basis when it comes to umpires. Not the quality mind you but the issues around getting and maintaining good people.

First, most Little League programs especially ones in small towns like ours, do not have a large reserve of cash to afford paying for umpiring services. As it is we show a loss every year due to the rising costs of insurance, equiptment and field maintenance. And before you suggest raising our registration fees or doing additional fundraising, we already do. And we need to keep our registration fees reasonable so that no one miises the opportunity to play because of money.

Second, we do not seem to have a stream of people beating down our doors to assist in any area never mind umpiring. And due to what appears to be a serious decline in sportsmanship across all youth sports these days it becomes difficult to retain good volunteers becuase who want's to get blasted by every mother, father, sister, brother, grand-parent and so on who thinks that their little Susie or Johnny is God's gift to baseball. And when we do get good people on board, you don't have them for long because Little League is transient in nature. When one's children move on, the volunteers who are mostly parents, move on as well.

Based on these issues we have to take whoever we can get to get the games covered so that these kids can enjoy their games. We also try to do our best to get these individulas trained to the best of our ability through clinics and such so that there is a degree of knowledge on the field.

Perhaps each of you "veterans" of higher level ball should look within yourselves and ask, what can I do for my local organizations to assist. But since you all seem to want to get paid for everything you do, I am not going to hold my breath. I am not saying that you need to go and umpire any games, but how about offering to give some instructional clinics to help these volunteers.

When one is not involved it is very easy to criticize. Get involved with your local Little League board and see what we as administrators go through.

As far as people thinking they are the best at something... Well I have sure seen my fair share of "professionals" who give off that impression as well.