LLWS - Championship

[EsqUmp]

I thought that he did a pretty dreadful job. He missed at least three dozen pitches that could have been called strikes. Thought there is room for some deviation, how is it that with him behind the plate the number of pitches per inning more than doubled per pitcher? Not 3 or 4 pitches, but an increase from around 13 to around 27? That's absolutely ridiculous. There were at least a dozen pitches that were strikes in ANY umpire's zone, which were called balls.

He seemed more focused on pleasing the spectators by doing things like showing the count every single pitch (which didn't help him when he gave the batter 1st base on ball three). He also had an egregious "swinging" third strike where the West player's bat barely came off of his shoulder (bases loaded - inning over!).

It was also great how he would say, "ball, no swing" all the time, only to go for help on the checked swing. Was he trying to convince the base umpires that he was right?

With regard to game management, he didn't appear to have much there either. Players and coaches (at least the one I could understand) were on him all game and he didn't address it once. The players antics and demonstration of displeasure with his zone is understandable, but not acceptable and he never seemed to address it.

Unfortunately, I didn't anticipate a 3 hour game so my DVR cut off going into the 6th inning