RJM posted:fenwaysouth posted:joes87 posted:No worse then the call at the 30 second mark of this video...
Little League World Series umpiring is in a class all by itself.
Getting LL post season assignment to are not based on merit. It's based on a seniority/good 'ole boy network. One of the lifer umpires from out LL was as bad as it gets. He's done every level of the post season including Williamsport.
Heres one of his classic calls ... On a wild pitch my runner broke from third. The ball was still banging around the backstop when he crossed home. The pitcher ran in front of the runner while there wasn't a play at the plate. They collided. The runner was called out for not sliding.
Im not going to argue that there are a lot of politics involved in getting to the Willamsport games. In addition there are a lot of bad umps that make it that far due to the politics, but there are also some very dedicated good umps that work their way up to Williamsport.
All of these guys are doing this on their own. Other then housing these guys are paying their way to the games and in addition are not getting any pay. I know of a couple of really good umps in our area that work the LL games and area LL tourneys for free. They are currently working their way up the ladder to make it to Willamsport. In order to make it to Williamsport they need to work a lot of the regular, district, sectional, state and regional games without pay and without any reimbursement for travel or housing. This includes taking a week off of work to ump at the regional games. In addition your not going to make it to Williamsport until you have worked a number of other World Series. Basically before you make it to Williamsport you would have to taken weeks off of work, and paid your way to a few regional tourneys, and 2 or 3 finals tourneys as well.
I know of one really really good ump who so far has had to pay his way multiple times to Indy (from Chicago), Detroit, California and will probably need to head to South Carolina before he gets to Williamsport. He will eventually make it there but needs to put his time in before he does.