A LLWS Observation

[Rich]

Originally Posted by KJUmp

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.

While I may have perspective, I find the performance of many of the umpires embarrassing. I think there are enough top-notch umpires out there working LLBB that they could staff the WS with decent umpires -- instead they treat the WS assignment as more of a gold watch for lifelong service to LL rather than any indication of umpiring ability. It's a shame. It's also not going to change.

[KJUmp]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

While I may have perspective, I find the performance of many of the umpires embarrassing.
I think there are enough top-notch umpires out there working LLBB that they could staff the WS with decent umpires
Absolutely there are

-- instead they treat the WS assignment as more of a gold watch for lifelong service to LL rather than any indication of umpiring ability. It's a shame. It's also not going to change.

Agree, and that's the long term problem.
The WS assignment has always been the DC's & WP's gold watch. It's also a bargining chip to be used by the higher ups to get support for ideas and programs in other areas of LLBB which have nothing to do with umpiring.