how much should an ump crew influence a game?

Ok,

I understand umpires are mortal men and make mistakes but how the Umpire Crew the called the Coppell - Keller series inserted themselves into this series was just plain wrong.

All three guys had small strike zones, a shoe box is bigger. In game one the guy behind the plate had to wait to decide if he thourht it was a strike or not. If a ball passed through the strike zone it wasn't a strike. To Keller's credit their hitters at least figured it out early and just waited for the ump to make our pitchers either walk them or put it on the tee...right down the middle. This same guy would again insert himself in game three but we will get there later. I think that guy really thinks the game is about him.

A wise man told me tonight that he was told by a wise old ump that if an umpire wants to stay an umpire for a long time that that umpire should have a strike zone that promotes hitters swinging the bat and moves the game along. ( I change the words a bit but I think you get the point).

Games two was just as bad from a strike zone perspective. No corners and no calls on strikes that got the black.

Hey, buy at least the first two guys were consistent on their non-strike zone.

Game three, WOW!!! not only did the homeplate umpire have a small strike zone small but it was all over the place. That was confirmed by one of our top hitters. Then the ump that was behind homeplate in game one decides he needs a little attention so he calls a balk on Cole Green, Cole had not even stepped on the rubber yet and would have had the guy on first picked off but instead the guy on third was awarded home.

Then in the bottom of the sixth inning with the bases load and 1 out, Higgy lays down a great two strike bunt on for a squeeze, our guy on third get to the plate before the third baseman can get to ball to the catcher who is squatted beyond the plate, the homeplate umpire calls him safe, the runs scores.....but nooooooooo mister I got to control the game on the firstbase line comes in to talk with the homeplate umpire and reminds him it was a force out situation and calls our guy out and disallows the run. The homeplate ump was the only one who could see the play and once he made the call then the call should stand and the run should stand. He never asked for help and didn't need it.

But justice does prevail, Johnny Walsh comes up and hits a towering pop-fly to left and the wind grabs the ball and does all kinds of funny stuff to it. The left fielder drops the ball and three runs score for Coppell to take the 5-3 lead. Unfortunately for the kid playing left field, we did feel bad for him, a higher power decided he waqsn't going to let this crew change the outcome of the game. I hope to never see those three umpires again.

Hey, a bad call happens, small strike zones happen but not three in a row on the same crew. All these guys need to go back to umpire school, I wouldn't even wish these guys on the JV.