These Little League Umpires Have Reached an Epidemic Level of Incompetence

It is with sincere regret I must inform you the Little League volunteer umpires are at it again.

We haven't even made it to the actual Little League World Series yet and this is already the third instance I've seen of one of these guys calling a pitch a foot out of the zone a strike. Just look at this shit.

What are we even doing here, guys? Those last two are bad examples because they're so egregious, but I can almost understand a directive to the umpires to give a little bit off the plate, because after all these are kids and we can't just have 26 walks in a game. But holy hell, these pitchers are getting a foot on either side of the plate and now apparently balls at the neck, too. How do these kids ever give up a hit?

Little League needs to get off its high horse telling us what a great organization it is and how many people want to volunteer. You know what? It's time to reach into the pocketbook a little bit and find some guys who have actually seen a strike zone before and give them $100 a game to do a serviceable job for a few weeks out of the year. Because we've got kids getting rung up by dudes who wouldn't know a strike if it bit them in the ass.

Thankfully, the Nolensville, Tenn. team — the beneficiaries of this latest gaffe behind the plate — had already advanced to the LLWS and ended up winning today's Southeast Region Championship 10-3, but we need to do something about these umpires before we get to Williamsport. This is insanity.