LL Minn vs Iows

[TBBlue]

...the TV umpires are so over the top and almost comical.

This year I worked District finals (13-14 juniors), Sectionals (9-10), State (13 - 14), and Southern Region fill-in (16-18 Big League). At no time in any of those tournaments did a local or Southern Region evaluator either coach us, or mark off for not calling these games like a Fed HS playoff game. Pro mechanics are what were expected in all levels, especially the Big League Southern Region. That was a very intense weekend, especially for the 8 appointed guys. The SR evaluator actually said before the pre-tourney meeting for BU's to lose the brushes, only one foul call, and only if not an obvious foul. Nothing over the top. Sell it if it needed to be sold, otherwise just solid mechanics. Everything was to be by PBUC book, and they were very very strict on the four man mechanics. I had a blast and learned a lot in three days.

I live near Southern Region HQ, so it floored me when I went to some games last week and the umpires were so...how do I say it???...They weren't really bad (one was), but they appeared to have been coached by someone to be over the top on all of their calls. They weren't being evaluated by the S.R. guys who evaluated my games. Emphatic outs when BR is halfway to 1b. Emphatic foul calls always. They didn't look natural. It was like Harold Reynolds coached them to be on T.V. and was evaluating them. It wasn't one or two guys either. It was the whole 12 man crew. They were like robots, and weren't comfortable with what they were doing.

Bottom line is that I think they look so horrible on TV because the World Series Evaluators are so damn worried about the TV that they forget umpiring is not a made for TV sport.