I disagree BIG time with that statement abou Kathy.



on another note... the U2 ( second base umpire) was jumpy and looked out of posistion A lot. He looked terrible as a matter of fact. The guy on the dish also looked like white hammerd dog crap and he screwed the pooch on that play at home

A couple of examples:

1 - In senior play, the runners must touch a different "scoring" plate that's 8 feet away from the normal HP. If a fielder attempts to tag and blocks the runner while holding the ball, there's nothing in the book that says this act is OBS, despite the fact that the book clearly declares that this is not an out.
2 - Another sitch is where the defensive player is holding the ball and blocks the runner's progress while making no attempt to tag them (basically an USC call, but not OBS by ASA rules).

That Mario Bro's 2nd base umpire is the same crappy PU umpire from USA vs Italy.

He is terrible and IMO, offers nothing that one could learn from except perhaps what not to do.

Thats pretty sad for such a high profile event.

Another thing was the lack of IP calls with Abbott so clearly off the plate. Kinda embarrassing when they are doing close ups and shes 3 inches back off the plate, 4 umpires, what, only a token call or two?

Of course, we can all sit back and beat up these umpires, we have the comfort of our couch, chair, bar stool, whatever and multiple angles and replays.

I am not condemning the umpires, we have all made mistakes at one time or another, just not in front of a world-wide audience. And, hopefully, they earned their way to the field while we sit home.

Another thing not in our purview is the umpire's instructions prior to the tournament or game. I would like to think that there would be no exclusions of standard rules offered, but we do not know that nor have to deal with the politics which, like it or not, are a major concern to some.

I don't think there are any comments in this thread that are out of line or wrong. A couple calls were missed, Monica Abbott is illegal and the coaches know it (Hell, there are probably groups of lama at temple in Nepal that know it) and there needs to be a better assignment process even if it means the best umpire isn't on the dish for a championship game.

The thing is, the best umpire of the tournement should be on the dish for the championship. We need to get away from the slack attitude we take to some of these rules.

The other thing is that your right it is easy to critque umpires from our couch yet the people evaluating are doing one of two things 1) letting this crap go 2) not getting threw to these people. That's if they even HAVE evaluators there or at all. After all these should be the "best" from wherever they came from

I can see your point.

My statement is based on the finals which is probably not a good idea as many of the regionals and supers were populated with elite and ISF umpires. Four of the six in the finals were elite and ISF and of these, only one IMO did not call in the ocean strikes. He went to the Men's World Championship this year. Katrina K from what I recall, was using college mechanics and in the ocean strikes in the first two innings of the KFC cup. She changed that in the third inning and did a much better job. She heard the fans and made an adjustment.

The umpires that did the college finals did not do a good job as a group. Two stood out for their ability not to call in the ocean strikes. The rest went there way too much.

He sure did and on the strike call but his strike zone was a lot better than many of the umpires I saw on TV during the college tournament. The ball had to be on the plate.

What is this white hammerd dog crap? Other than putting his hands on his knees, he used heel toe, ear on the inside corner, ISF/elite hammer, real strikes from what I saw.

I did not see any camera looks from befuddled coaches about umpires strike zone like we saw in the w college world series or pitchers laughing about generous strikes or wondering why their in the river or ocean pitch was not a strike. I'd say somebody told them that this is the real deal and most of the time your pitch has to hit the plate to get a strike (assumes low and high ok).

I thought his position was good and was actually impressed at the job he was doing until he choked when he needed to have his head in the game. I was giving him kudos .. then he flopped out when he needed to do more than call balls and strikes.

But IMO, he did a fine job for his ball strike/zone/mechanics.

Do not understand how that happens Mike. Would you mind explaining? Thanks.

What does elite/ISF have to do with anything. Isn't the subject of this thread about this elite/ISF crew's poor showing on their biggest stage? Do you expect college umpires to be better because they're elite or ISF than those that aren't? Some choose not to enter more than one political arena at a time.

They make fewer errors when all is said and done.

[QUOTE=topper;615946]Isn't the subject of this thread about this elite/ISF crew's poor showing on their biggest stage? Yes but I hijacked it for a moment.:)


Yes.

[QUOTE=ronald;615956]They make fewer errors when all is said and done.



I dont know man they are missing a lot of stuff ... more than I seem to remember the NCAA umpires missing

Then expect to be sorely disappointed.

You need to remember, the "elite" is strictly ASA and has no bearing on the ISF umpires from outside the US. For that matter, no matter how much Henry and Merle travelled around the world conducting clinics, it is still up to each country's NGB to establish and qualify their ISF umpires. And they do work other tournaments as the US doesn't have a monoply on international play, though I would like to think the US has some of the better-trained umpires.

What about college umpires who have had their paperwork lost for three years (at least), or the college umpires who are eligible for 'elite' status but do not want to spend money to be eligible for tourneys their metro will never put them in for and don't want to go to anyhow?

Elite is a nice piece of paper on the 'I love me' wall. But when it is said and done, work the mechanics and call the outs 'out', and safes 'safe'. That is what really matters.