LLWS How wide is the plate?

You know the saying "you get what you pay for". I think it applies to the LLWS umps.

I've heard that the wide strike zones are there to keep the length of the games reasonable for TV. What does happen is that the wide strike zones give teams with weaker pitchers a chance against stronger teams.

We dominated our regular season and then in the playoffs ran into an umpire who widened the strike zone. Their pitcher was able to get away with poor control and the game was decided on breaks, not on ability. There was no bias involved, just an overly wide strike zone.

There were super wide strike zones in most of the games. All they really accomplish is forcing batters to swing at bad pitches to avoid striking out. Not a good way to learn discipline at the plate.

bkecks,
The only game I saw was the Conejo vs. Maryland game. The strike zone seemed wide but within reason in that one. The ump seemed to like calling strikes on curves. There was one fastball, waist high, down the middle that was called a ball that shocked everyone. There was also a ball called on a pitch where the batter knew he had gone around that confused the batter enough that he almost refused to take first when he later walked.

We have always encouraged our umpires in minors to widen the strike zone a bit as it becomes a necessary evil to get the bats off the kid's shoulders.

However, even in regular season majors we expect the umpires to call the plate and we've seen our best games when we did get that type of umpiring.

We had one umpire who I've never gotten along with. He called as close to a perfect strike zone as I've ever seen in LL and never let his personal feelings intrude. They were the best umpired games I've seen in LL and the players played their best games. Of course we had the league's best pitchers so a legitimate strike zone was a plus for us. I asked my son once or twice if he was being squeezed after a walk and he said that strikes were strikes and balls were balls.

They should really be calling a legitimate strike zone at the LLWS so that the best teams have the best chance of winning.

All of these games have run together in my head so I can't remember who did what in what game. There were some very reasonable strike zones but I saw several strikes that were in the middle of the batter's box, including a couple strikes on the Costantino kid from RI that were 6" inside the box he was standing in. But despite it all it is still a lot of fun to watch.

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But despite it all it is still a lot of fun to watch.

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You are soooo RIGHT.

I really get a kick out of these games and so does my son.

I am seriously thinking of taking my vacation in S. Williamsport next summer.

I've saw the called strikes that appeared to be in the opposite batter's box. It seemed to me that the pitcher was, in some instances, throwing with a low 3/4 delivery that moves diagonally to the other side. The ump may have judged location based on what he saw as a diagonal cut across the corner. Videotape made these calls obviously wrong.
In many cases some of these umps may have had the opportunity to call some minor league games in which a tight strikezone can lead to a walk fest. Relaxing the strike zone allows the rest of the defense to play because the batter is forced to swing and put the ball in play.
At the LL World Series level these considerations are counter productive because the pitching can be so dominate.
The worst case scenario is when there is an apparent or obvious bias towards one team or another. I saw that twice (Whole games, not just a couple of plays) in the Allstar tournament in our area.
Steve

Selection to be a LL world series umpire is based on years of service to LL and not neccesarily the best qualified umpire.

Observations from the LL world series usually are bad zones and poor mechanics. Also no way does the LL world series need 6 man crews working the games. The field is only 200', thats at least 2 too many umpires running around. The PONY league World Series on a much larger field only uses 4 man coverage.

piaa_ump,
Regardless of their qualifications I think the overly wide strike zone is too common, year in, year out, at the LLWS for it to be a coincidence. For some reason LL must be insisting on a liberal (need to be careful with using that word with some of the political threads running around) strike zone.

The CV - MD game was the tightest zone I have seen. Do you think camera angle has anything to do with it? Where is that strike zone box thing that shows where the pitches are that ESPN uses on its games sometimes.