What a nightmare!

[thumpferee]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cmckenna

Originally posted by thumpferee

What does taking this completly out of context do for any of the above conversation? Other than make your reply useless.

Your replies regarding officiating are useless!

Out of context? You said I was B1tching instead of offering to conduct clinics. We are not volunteers! We get paid! The same I might add.

I study every rule set daily. I take pride in how I look and in my knowledge of the game. I have 6 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, 2 masks, 6 ball bags, 2 chest protectors, 2 pairs of plate shoes, 4 hats, 2 pairs of base shoes(one for turf one for grass) I study mechanics and stand by my partner.

But for you it is ok to have an official wear jeans and a tee shirt in your league and think he is FAIR and knowledgable?

[akalsey]

I think you're taking his words out of context and twisting them. If your Little League is all volunteer, then you'd rather have an unskilled volunteer who is doing his best than no volunteer at all.

[cmckenna]

Originally posted by akalsey
I think you're taking his words out of context and twisting them. If your Little League is all volunteer, then you'd rather have an unskilled volunteer who is doing his best than no volunteer at all.

That is exactly the point.

[GarthB]

Originally posted by Dave Hensley
Some general comments on this overall thread.

The premise of the original post in this thread seems to be something along the lines of "I never understood why so many of you guys stereotype Little League umpires as clueless nimrods until I worked with this guy yesterday, yada yada yada, and now I understand..."

As my 9th grade English teacher Mrs. Byrd taught me so many years ago, stereotyping is a lazy man's way to forming an opinion on just about anything and everything. Are there nimrod Little League umpires? Yes, of course there are, for a whole host of logical reasons. But the truth is, and we see evidence of this ALL THE TIME, there are nimrod umpires working at every level - the "hobos" Kyle mentioned working high school ball (that was a great post, Kyle), the the NCAA D1 umpires who botched a simple batter interference call on live national TV the other day, and the list goes on and on.

As a participant and observer of the Little League program on both a macro and micro level for about 15 years now, my observation is that Little League has made and continues to make reasonable progress in improving its program in a number of areas, most notably with rule changes that in general are "mainstreaming" it to be more consistent with "real baseball" rules, and secondly with respect to its umpire development program. Simply comparing the quality of umpiring in the televised games - regional championships and LLWS games - over the last 8 years or so since they've been televised, shows a clear and significant improvement in the quality of the umpiring.

Little League is unique among national youth baseball programs in the establishment of formal umpire training programs in each of its 8 U.S. regions. Many of them aren't perfect (and in my experience some of them are next to worthless, so far) but at least it's a start, and it's more of a start than any other youth program.

Anyone who knows me knows I am frequently an outspoken and politically-incorrect, overly-blunt critic of some of Little League's decisions and overall operation. When I criticize it, though, I stick to SPECIFICS and name names, rather than painting everybody in the LL hierarchy with a broad, general brush of incompetence.

The stereotyping and general bashing of "LL umpires" in this thread reminds me of the Saturday Night Live character the Church Lady, doing her little Superior Dance.

Speaking for myself only, I was not posting about stereotypes. I was posting about the LL umpires I have personally watched work games.

As I said, I understand there are better LL umpires than what I witnessed. You, Dave, and Rich Fronheiser are at the other extreme. I assume there are many in between.

No need to be hypersensitive. I would never claim that all LL umpires are like what we have in Spokane. I know the WR works hard to try to train LL umpires. But not one from Spokane has attended.

Not one LL that I have seen locally (and I've only seen about half their crew) even have a uniform. Not one cares. They are all volunteers who sneer at the local high school and college umpires as "mercenaries". The only ones doing the superior dance here are the volunteers. Again, do not mistake what I am describing as the universal LL umpire. No stererotyping, just reporting on what I see.

We are all products of own experiences. Your's, as it relates to Little League, has been far superior to mine. But that doesn't mean mine is invalid. Just different. If it bothers you to hear it, I'll not post about it again.

[aevans410]

For the record, I didn't stereotype anyone either, I shared a story of an experience with a partner in a PONY LEAGUE game, where (around here at least) the umpiring is expected to be better.

Although, when I show up to a LL game in my high school blues, I'm held to a higher standard by the leagues, the coaches, and the parents. When one of these guys blows a call, they get the "hes doing his best" routine. When I ring up a batter on a great pitch on the corner, you would have thought I just sat there on home plate and killed a puppy. I'm the worst human being on the face of the earth at that particular moment. These guys are making the same amount of money that I am.

I tried to hold a mini clinic for the local little league umpire squad this year. Not the same town I umpire in, my son plays in the local league and I don't want that conflict of interest. Exactly 1 out of 10 showed up. They had 3 weeks notice. The coaches told me his umpiring improved 100 percent afterwards.

Volunteering ones time for the kids and showing up for a paycheck are 2 different things. The LL umpires that show up thinking they know everything, won't take criticism or instruction and missaply the rules on a regular basis are the ones we are talking about here.

We all have had plenty of good experiences in LL, a lot more than bad. The problem is they seem to run together, especially if you do a lot of games like most of us do. The bad stuff sticks in our minds because it usually drags out, where the good moments pass quickly.

[Edited by aevans410 on May 18th, 2005 at 07:43 AM]

[Dave Hensley]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GarthB

They are all volunteers who sneer at the local high school and college umpires as "mercenaries".

In other venues I've written extensively about the Little League "true believers" who do indeed contribute greatly to the holier-than-thou reputation Little League and its participants have in the eyes of many. I don't deny their existence; however, I do dispute the notion that they dominate the overall Little League program.

I didn't think you were one of the ones doing the Superior Dance, by the way.