Little League umpire in the regionals
 

The thread to which I responded has gone south. I don't know if I'll get everything in again, but....

Yesterday, my wife and I watched the Little Legion regional game between IA and MO.

The plate umpire was the best Little League umpire I've every seen on TV.

He is clearly a trained ump:

He used the Gerry Davis stance. (An umpire who followed on the West Coast seemed to want to do it but didn't know how.)

He verbalized his call on every pitch: "Ball." "Strike."

He waited for the pitch to end before making his call.

He used the umpire school hammer for strikes.

On a half swing ruled a strike, he pointed to the batter. On swinging strikes, he did not point and he simply signaled strike.

On a third strike swinging, he simply signaled strike.

He did not have dancing feet on pitches in the dirt, he kept his head steady (presumably he was tracking the pitch with his eyes).

He busted into the infield on every batted ball, mask in left hand, hat on his head.

Someone emailed privately to say the umpire lost the count twice in the same inning. My reply: Compared to what he did right, losing the count witg all the electronic counters on a national TV game was less than a pimple on an ant's a$$.

MO won, and they're going to the World Series. I imagine the umpire won't.

BTW: The only thing I saw him do wrong was call "Foul!" in a loud, commanding voice on obvious fouls. I'm told by a friend who should know that LL wants the umpires to do that.

I was surprised that the mandatory play rule was in effect as high as the regionals. They always suspend it for the World Series.

If you already replied to the other thread, you don't have to do it here. We can't rebuild the missing pieces. Gosh, I'm reminded of the midnight massacre when the Rhode Island flash struck down his posts.

Carl,

I explained what happened in your thread "Missing LL Thread". Again, I apologize that some good posts had to be elminated to get rid of the nonsense.

"I was surprised that the mandatory play rule was in effect as high as the regionals. They always suspend it for the World Series."

Carl, MPR is in effect during all levels LL Tourn'y play (has been for more than 10 years).

One could easily start a thread on the wild things that happen when LL managers don't get all the kids in ... just look at the what happened at the East Region semi-final Sat.

I agree he was very, very good. He was rock solid, had a perfectly appropriate strikezone, and as best as I could tell, never came close to missing a pitch.

He loses a couple of style points in my book for his fairly robotic, softball-style strike and out mechanics. And his shirt didn't quite fit over that +POS chest protector with 5,000 rivets.

A close second was the umpire in the first regional game, the Southeast region in Florida. Another very solid plate performance.

In fact, there hasn't been a bad plate performance yet, which supports the contention I've been making for awhile that "LL umpires" have come a long way, baby, compared to only a few years ago. Anyone who remembers "lobster claw man" will probably agree.

The only significant glitch in 5 games so far, is the blown call at 1B in the Southwest Region game, that took the game tying run off the scoreboard, in a game that finished 1-0. An unfortunate gross miss at the worst possible time.
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He won't this year, because that's not the way LL regional and WS assignments work. You work one or the other, not both. This year's WS umpires are, this week, basking in the celebrity of "LLWS hype week;" they'll go to work next week. This year's regional umpires are, by their performances, positioning themselves in the pecking order for future LLWS assignments.

With respect to Little League rules, you should never say "never" or "always." The tournament rules are exactly the same at all levels of tournament play, and MPR has been part of the tournament rules, in some form or fashion, for several years now.

I agree. The plate umps so far are better than last year's and far superior to those of just three years ago. The work on the bases is a little off, but some of that is probably due to some less than accepted mandated mechanics. However, the missed call at first was just plain horrid and unexcusable.

The next step for the LL umps who are positioning themselves for this level is to begin working on their appearance and conditioning.

It is not in effect at the World Series. At least, it wasn't last year.

Wow:
 

I have watched parts of five regional games so far.

UNTIL todays IL/IN game (with "Mr. Let me hide my arms behind my back") I was very, very impressed by the plate umpiring.

TWO things that LL managment REQUIRES from umpires:

1) All foul balls are to be called "FOUL" loudly and clearly and,

2) All bases are to be whisked clean after any play occurs.

While these things don't fly in "big boy ball" I can look past these edicts and see that umpring at the Regional Level has become vastly better in the last three years.

We'll have to wait for Friday to begin piling on the the horrible umpires that will be working.

Well all will be poor with the expecting of "JK" who will shine.

Regards,

Yeah, the IL/IN was definitely the worst PU so far in the coverage. He did a lot of smitty things including pointing to the batter on pretty much every swinging strike call, pointing to first on ball four, and (as you mentioned) hiding his hands behind his back.

Carl, you are just plain wrong. It was in effect, in exactly the same format as this year, at last year's LLWS.

From the 2005 tournament rules published by Little League:

2005 Tournament Rules and Guidelines for
Little League Baseball
9-10 Year Old Division Baseball, 11 Year Old Division,
Junior League, Senior League and Big League Baseball

Rules: Except where noted in these Tournament Rules and Guidelines, the Little League Baseball Official Regulations and Playing Rules will be used in the conduct of the 9-10 Year Old Division Tournament, the 11 Year old Division Tournament, the Little League Baseball Tournament, Junior League, Senior League and Big League Baseball Tournaments.

TOURNAMENT PLAYING RULES

9. MANDATORY PLAY: 9-10 Year Old Division, 11 Year Old Division, Little League,
Junior League, and Senior League: Every player on a team roster shall participate
in each game for a minimum of three (3) consecutive defensive outs and
bat at least one (1) time.

By nonsense I assume you're talking about the *****ing about LL umps and the organization as a whole again this year just like every year at this time. Yeah, come to think of it, you're right. It is a bunch of nonsense. Good call Garth!!

Like I said before, all the good umpires are too busy posting on this forum to work these LL games. Plus they couldn't afford to hire Rich, Garth, and Tee, so they aren't getting the "best" umpires for their games.:)

I bow to superior knowledge.

Now tell me, is that the same MP rule used in the regular season?

In the thread I deleted, NO ONE b!tched about the LL umps, nor the organization, and two LL umpires, Rich and Dave can attest to that. In fact, it contained many congratulatory comments towards the LL umpires working the televised games from so-called Big Dogs. It was an amazingly civil thread in that regard.

The only b!tching was aimed at posters.

No, it is relaxed from regular season. Regular season MPR is 6 defensive outs and 1 at bat. Tournament is 3 consecutive defensive outs and 1 at bat.

Years ago, there was no MPR in tournament play. When they first introduced it, it was only at 12 and under levels (Juniors, Seniors and Big League had no MPR requirement) and it was a very easy to comply with 3 defensive outs OR 1 at bat. That eventually turned into 3 CDO AND 1 at bat, and in recent years they've expanded MPR requirements to, first, Junior League, and then, this year for the first time, Senior League (15-16). The only division exempt from MPR today is Big League (17-18).

Oh, good grief, I saw the third base umpire do that and almost s*** my pants. LL management mandates that?!?!