Little League WS: WA v MD

[Carl Childress]

The plate umpire in Washington/Maryland is clearly the best I've seen. (5 games)

But....

Sometimes I hear his voice just (barely) before I hear the pop of the ball in the catcher's mitt. It doesn't LOOK like he's rushing that much though compared to some (me) he's Speedy Gonzalez.

Anybody else see/hear that?

Anybody agree he's one of the better ones?

Two other points:

Earlier today I saw a ball hit on a line drive to center field. The ball was caught, but the camera also caught something, the second base umpire heading for the infield without even turning to make the out/safe call in right center. Is that LL mechanics? If he's supposed to come in, why was he so deep? Is the umpire on the right-field line supposed to make that call?

I thought he was so certain the ball would fall in that he wanted to be at second for a possible play. If that's blown mechanics, a very fine play by F8 made him look bad.

An inning or so ago in WA/MD, a ball was hit just down the line fair and went into the right-field corner. The camera caught the right-field line umpire hustling toward -- first base. Shouldn't he be watching the player and the ball in the corner?

[Edited by Carl Childress on Aug 22nd, 2004 at 10:24 PM]