I have no idea what Andy Konyar is talking about, since I didn't see your post to him.

I DO know that I have been involved with LL longer than he has.

And I can state that, any time I see a plate umpire set up on the "outside" shoulder of a catcher in a regional final game, is a bad thing.

AK has the big job in W-port. Congratulations. LL, year in and year out, advocates a mightily flawed umpiring system at regional and WS levels. I've seen this personally.

Some day, one of these poor souls is going to call an infield fly on a bunt attempt or kill the play on a catcher's INT, and a team (on TV) will get the short end of the stick on a key call (not a judgment) and a coach or a team will take it to the mat. And the umpire will be flat wrong.

Players and coaches work hard to get to regional and WS levels of play. It is a shame and embarrassment when umpiring at those levels is shoddy, as it too often is.

Ace

Ace,

I didn't see the game in question, so I can't comment about the Smitty that worked the plate. But there is a precedent for working over the outside shoulder of the catcher. If the batter is extremely crowding the plate, and the catcher is setting up inside, this takes the umpire's slot away, and the other corner is the only possible place from which to get a good view of the pitch. Like I said, I didn't see what this guy looked like on this LL game, but I have been forced outside, and I have seen plenty of occurences in MLB games as well, as recently as last week.

Ace: He replied to a private email. I sent him my comments about the umpire in the IA/MO game, which was the FIRST message in this thread. I said a friend of mine who should know say umpires at LLWS were instructed to call "Foul" every timie.

His reply was: "That's nonsense."

And I've been involved in baseball longer than you have. (grin)

Umpiring in general, and Little League umpiring in particular, has a very large component of mentoring in it. Rookies learn from vets, over and over. Given the historical lack of formal training available to Little League umpires (the regional schools are really only an invention of the last decade or so, at best), I think the "screaming foul" mechanic is, rather than being a formally taught mechanic, simply a learned mechanic from what was, just like so many of the other things we see such as "weird" strike call mechanics, a homegrown monkey-see, monkey-do situation that has perpetuated itself throughout the organization.

Then I guess we don't play ball that day.



But that's never happened, and it won't.

Let's see,
 

I guess in alabama one umpire would picture me as "lazy" . . .

I would never help replace a dislodged base . . . ever . . . never!

I am not a grounds keeper and I am not part of the "home team."

Regards,

Where you been WWTB? I didn't have anyone to stalk for over a month now. You really should let me know when your taking a vacation. :D

A couple surgeons felt the need to do some work on this old body. Thanks for the card and flowers, it did my heart good to know you cared.

Hysterectomy?

Couldn't help myself.......:D

That's too bad. I hope it's nothing serious. Take care and get well.

It is and thank you.

Well,
 

Last night rather than watching the LLWS I tuned to the Cal Ripken 12U game between Mexico/Canada. (I made the edit on Ripken, my humor was missed -- I guess.)

The plate umpire was far superior to any umpire I have EVER seen at the LLWS.

BTW: Cal Ripken 12U is the ONLY organized National baseball program (for children) that has shown GROWTH in numbers over the past three years.

Little League (tm) should start to be concerned.

Regards,

I watched a little of the Cal Ripken WS and I saw Cal Ripken, Jr. talking about how starting next year CR will be going to 50 foot pitching and 70 foot bases in the 12u division. I don't know what those here think of that, but it sounds pretty good when you see 60.5 equivalents of 107 mph.

LL league will have to do something. Watch today's game with Georgia (1:00 EST). If Kyle Carter pitches, you will see 80+ on the gun. Almost unhittable from 46 feet. 105mph + from 60'6".

As a coach/father of a team that competed in the SE regional, IMO, it won't be long before LL starts to resemble fastpitch softball (pitching dominated with lots of 1-0 games).

Cal Ripken's got it right. The field needs to grow as the player grows.

Also, what you are witnessing is a lot players (or in some cases complete teams, ours included) coming back to LL after playing travel *REAL* baseball (duck). They get out of LL because the local leagues are not competitive anymore and they get back in it for their final year of eligibility to give it one last shot. And with the age change effective this year, alot of these kids have been 13 for a while. Way too big for the LL field.

Since Cal Ripken Baseball is an age dvision of the Babe Ruth League, does this mean that Babe Ruth is seeing an increase, or just the Ripken age level?