I have a great deal of respect for the men (and women?) who worked a Little League World Series Tournament in August. I can just imagine all of the hard word each of these umpires put into their respective positions and all of the volunteer work they devoted to their local communities and Little League Organizations. I cannot think of a greater ambition for a volunteer umpire who only works Little League games.

On to my point... I attended a couple of games in Williamsport (12 year old tournament) near the end of the tournament. I had the opportunity to catch a couple of Semi-Final Games on the Wednesday evening (Canada/Japan & California/Florida from my memory). I know that it's late to comment on these games, but I thought I'd refer to a couple of 'different' observations I made in my time at the World Series.

#1 - There was no "crew" flow... 6 umpires... acted like 6 individuals. Was that just me?

#2 - The PU seemed to wear a radio or something to communicate on his back (maybe even a microphone?). Why?

#3 - For disputed calls/plays, the umpire crew would not come together, but rather have one-on-one discussions for situations that could have involved the entire umpire 'team.' Is that the procedure taught in Williamsport?

#4 - Between innings, every base umpire would dust their own base, and in some cases the LF or RF umpires would come in to assist with the base dusting, while either the first base umpire or second base umpire would dust the pitcher's mound. I've never seen this before at any level (not even t-ball). Was that for television?

#5 - I only saw one or two balls "disposed" of throughout each game, but the other baseballs would always be returned to the plate umpire. Example: foul ball off the right field fence would be retrieved by the first base umpire, who would then deposit the baseball into his pocket, and return it to the plate umpire between innings. Again, is that something they teach when umpires arrive in Williamsport?

Thanks in advance.

Are you Andy O'Brien?

No.

Thank God.

hahahahaha

Even if you are Andy O'Brien, you deserve an answer. Here are my thoughts, displayed publicly, and subject to the ridicule of a few neanderthals:

#1 - Crew flow nonexistent. They hardly know each other, since they just met a week ago.

#2 - The plate umpire was wearing a camera for "UmpCam" so you can get an umps-eye-view of the play/pitch.

#3 - I doubt if they actually teach a procedure like that, but they probably don't trust each other enough because of #1.

#4 - I've never seen the base dusting ceremony myself. If one of my bases or the rubber gets absolutely obliterated where I can't see it any longer, I may kick it once or twice, just to see a little white.

#5 - I think the baseballs there are at a premium, since the fans can keep the foul balls there (and homeruns of course). They will only throw out balls that have severe damage, kind of like the HS policy, still round it's okay.

I hope that helps.

We weren't ingnoring the questions, SDS. We aren't LL umpires and didn't know the answers. You did. I'm sure Umpandy is equally appreciative that those of us who don't understand LL didn't attempt an answer and that someone who does, did.

well, you lost me after that first paragraph.

Didn't all this jump the shark months ago?

I knew the answers because I like to watch the LL World Series. I don't even fit on a small ballfield, and haven't worked LL since my first 2 years of officiating.

The responses you gave did not indicate that you didn't know the correct answer. You merely mocked Andy O'Brien, which apparently gives all your buddies here a good chuckle, like all my posts seem to. If it was just the fact that you didn't know the answers, you wouldn't need to post anything.

OK, I'll take the bait. Who is Andy O'Brien?

DG,

Andy Obrien is an annonymous person that has recently solicited the entire internet umpiring community to join a new umpiring forum.

I've been told by several other umpires that he is a teenager posing as an adult amateur umpire. He was humiliated by some offials on other boards for being their equivolent of our very own dudeinblue and dumdrum.

The Official Forum is the only credible message board that I know of that was not hit by his solicitations. Maybe Carl, Mick, or Bob caught his sales pitch before it showed up here.


Tim.

[Edited by BigUmp56 on Oct 18th, 2005 at 04:56 AM]

Andy,

#1) Of course there was no crew flow. How much rotating do you expect 6 men on a 60' diamond to do?

#2)The PU , the managers, and the assistant coaches all were miked for the televised games. That's what you saw on the belt of the PU. In several games, BU2 wore a hat cam.
ESPN pays LL international big $$$ for the exclusive rights to televise these games. They're the reason why this is done. It's all about "face time" to put a more personal spin on the games.

#3) I can't speak for what's taught at Williamsport, but I can tell you that Central Region teaches the umpires to call only the umpires necessary into a conference. In other words they would not call BU3 into a conference on a missed tag at first for example.

#4) Again this is something done due to a directive issued by ESPN. I have no idea why the RFU or the LFU would come in to help with this. Maybe they too were seeking some "face time."

#5) I've never been to Williamsport so I cant speak for what you saw there. I have been to the Central Region games that were televised and I can tell you that there are quite a few ball that are not necessarily discarded, but they are sent to the scorers table to be looked at, and returned to the game if they are still in good shape.


Tim.

Thanks. I had not heard. I occassionally check out the ABUA site, but other than that I pretty much stick to this site so I had not heard of him.

Andy O'Brien, in the opinion of some, is a pathological liar who impersonated a veteran umpire to gain access to some private forums. He has, in the past, attempted to create umpire forums and news sites to continue his charade and to try to make a buck. His level of competence, again, in the opinion of some, is somewhere between junior high ball and JV.

He resides in Canada, perhaps not coincidentally, in the same area that Umpandy does, according to Umpandy's ISP.

Recently he spammed many posters at internet sites with notices of his new forum, Umpire Forum. Some people report getting spammed with over 300 copies of his email.

Andy's a real sweetheart.

And,
 

As Garth noted when ISP address's were checked both "Andy O'Brien" and "UmpAndy's" were located near Toronto and less than 15 miles apart.

Note: In the e-mail Andy noted they were shooting for 5,000 registered members by Nov. 1.

Understand that Andy's Forum site is sponsored by the same people that fill your e-mail with spam for male enhancement and sexual fullfilment drug offers.

Be aware.