It's that time of year again - LLWS

[ManInBlue]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

He's called several pitches up in the zone that I thought were too high.
The LL strike zone is armpits to the top of the knees so you're going to see higher pitches called strikes.


I have seen several breaking balls that just touched any resemblence of a zone and had F2 reaching outside to catch that he called for a strike

Are you sure you typed what you meant? It touched the zone and you think it wasn't hittable and not a strike?

LL catchers tend to set up way too deep which makes it look worse if you're looking at where he caught it.

No that was not exactly what I meant. It was to be taken in context with the wide zone comment. The breaking balls were outside and tailed farther outside -didn't appear hittable.

Armpits I call in "little boy ball" - 9-10 year olds - You have to to get strikes called and "make them swing the bat." With 12 year olds that have made it through states, they can pitch better than most others, I don't think armpits is needed. High strikes (middle to top of the letters) I can agree with. I called games in the Dizzie Dean World Series and I did not give them the arm pit strike - they don't need it once they get to this level of play. As a matter of fact, I probably wouldn't give a 12 year old that strike anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not insulting LL in anyway. This is strickly a comment based on one game and the PU in that game. His timing was very good, he had good position, his strike mechanic I didn't like and I thought his zone was too big. I have not insulted him or anyone else. I don't think this thread was even intended to insult LL.

About the mask thing - I was hoping someone could tell me why he did that. I saw it, but had stepped away from the TV, so I didn't know if something happened to his bucket or if he was just trying out a mask.