CT vs RI New England Regional Video

[MD Longhorn]

Originally Posted by Fittske

I would disagree that "LL goes out of their way to exclude a lot of umpires" LL does not exclude umpires, umpires exclude themselves. LL's policy is simple, If you take money for umpiring Little league baseball, you are not eligible to umpire in any post season tournaments including regional’s and World series assignments.

Semantics. LL creates an environment, via their choices, which excludes a lot of umpires. I'm not saying that NO good umpire would ever volunteer - obviously you (and Rich) are examples of good umpires that do volunteer. I'm saying that the policy eliminates a solid majority of the good umpires out there.

Originally Posted by Fittske

Unfortunately some of the “better” umpires are “disqualified” because they refuse to give their time for free.

This is kind of my point.

Originally Posted by Fittske

I would be the first to agree that some of the umpires have never seen or been to a umpire clinic....but these umpires have "paid the price" of volunteering their time through their local leagues to be there.

Again, exactly my point. LL places emphasis on working for free, rather than training. Other organizations place their emphasis on training. Hence the blatantly obvious quality difference. They are getting EXACTLY what they want - free, low-quality umpires.

I'm not criticizing any umpire that works for LL - kudos to them. I'm just saying the system LL has set up creates the problem we are talking about.

My only real criticism is that you would think, with the amount of TV money LL rakes in, that they would figure out a way to spend some of that on the quality of their product. Seems a little hypocritical to me that the one organization getting HUGE dollars from a TV contract is also the one organization that won't pay to improve their umpires.