A LLWS Observation

[KJUmp]

Originally Posted by mbcrowder

Pfft. Did you watch? Holy cow. The opinion that these guys were awful is based on the fact that they were awful. The fact that they work for free seems to absolve them of the responsibility to not suck in your book. Not in mine. Bad calls happen. But consistent bad positioning, bad mechanics, unnecessary overhustle, lack of rules knowledge, etc. (One thing I will give them is that I haven't seen any laziness at all - but I guess that's a little easier working just one game with a 6 man crew).

Don't tell me what's "in my book." Don't presume you know what I look for from myself as an umpire, or what I look for from partners. You have no idea what type of umpire I am. One thing that you should know, it's not my style to trash other umpires or to not treat them with the respect any fellow umpire deserves.

JM, Pete, Rich have all posted replies that I think put the whole LLBB regional and WS umpiring in the right perspective.

My point is that this is an organization (LLBB) who's leagues and post season tournaments the large majority of us here on the board do not work. It's a level of BB we may have been involved in at one time, but we no longer work small diamond BB for whatever reason.

So unless there are some of us here who harbor some deep desire to be working an LL regional of WS, to be standing in the place of these guys are this week, why all the criticism?

They're Little League umpires. LLBB is a different gig, we all know that (or should anyway), it's why we don't/won't work it. That's our choice. The guys we've seen on ESPN made the choice to work LLBB, let them umpire.

You want to slam LLBB and the powers and the whole replay thing fine, have at it, they deserve it....not the umps.