The Kids From Oregon Were Robbed Last Night Because Little League Officials Are Money Hungry Scumbags
I understand a very minimal amount of people think I operate as a "rational" person. That's fine, and in some cases it's most likely a fair assessment. I'm passionate about being right, I'm passionate about weird things, and I yell a lot. It can rub people the wrong way. However, what no one can say is that I am not willing to go to bat to prove I'm right. Last night, the world saw I have been on the right side of history for a while regarding the crooks at Little League, most notably Steve Keener CEO. Back to that in a minute.
Last night in the Northwest Regional final, Washington was at bat in the bottom of the 7th inning with Oregon in the field. With 1 on and 1 out, a liner down the 3rd base line landed foul and was called foul by the 3rd base umpire. When his hands go up it signals a dead ball stops play, no doubts about it, no wiggle room.
What also happened during the play was the home plate umpire apparently said Fair, setting off a chaotic scene in which the running from first ran all the way home to score the winning run. They reviewed the call and incorrectly upheld the run scoring sending home kids from a once in a lifetime opportunity of playing in the Little League World Series.
Now you may ask why I care so much about the umpiring practices in Little League. Well I'm glad you ask. It's because they are money hungry scumbags.
Just some quick facts... Little League acts like they are a high and mighty "love of the game" type organization, they are not.
Steve Keener's salary in 2014 was $430,000 according to our friends at Google.
In 2013 ESPN inked a deal worth 60 million for the TV rights through 2022
SBJ- ESPN finalized a deal that ensures it will carry the Little League World Series through 2022. As part of the deal with Little League International, which was first reported by SportsBusiness Journal in June, ESPN will pay around $60 million over the eight-year extension, around $7.5 million per year, sources said.
That figure doubles the $30.5 million, eight-year deal that ESPN signed in 2007.
ESPN recently reupped for the TV rights on a deal so massive, the figure wasn't publicized.
Deadline- ESPN and Little League International have announced an eight-year, multi-platform media rights extension, effective 2023 through 2030.
Under the deal, ESPN will produce and televise live Little League events as the exclusive global media rights holder of Little League Baseball and Little League Softball. The announcement was made today by Stephen D. Keener, Little League president and CEO, and Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN president and Disney Media Networks co-chair.
Little League is big business plain and simple.
You also may be asking what it takes to be an umpire in these regional or national tournaments such as The Northwest Regional or next week's LLWS. Great question. That's also a money grab by the scumbags at Little League Headquarters AKA The Keener Crime Family.
It's not written out word for word on their website, but from MANY people in the know who have done local tournaments as umpires, and people who have worked at Little League in the past, the only way to get assigned regional games and LLWS games as an umpire is to attend one of the Little League's "Umpire camps or clinics". These sessions or camps aka heists cost anywhere from $275 - 350 and happen in Williamsport.
If you are following, that means that El Chapo aka Mr.Keener and his merry men of soldiers, are sitting on a fat tv deal of $60 million and collecting money via every ump that signs up for these clinics, yet they are not shelling out a dime to the umpires, and worse they are not providing these kids with the best umpires possible. In fact they aren't even trying to give these kids a fair shake. Year after year calls are blown, year after year we hear how wonderful it is to have volunteers, and year after year Little League gets rich while kids suffer.
Now a few things…
A. I have no issue with the current staff of umpires, I actually think its very noble that they volunteer their time for no pay. But at a certain point you need to be able to do the job. I could volunteer to do open heart surgery on you, or fix your car - two things I know nothing about. It's nice I volunteered, but you need someone qualified. Same for umpiring. If you notice I also don't attack them for their calls, it's not their fault they got selected. They do the best they can, they are just clearly not the best in the country.
2. Every problem needs a solution. My solution to fix this would be have every state tournament umpire be graded by the coaches in that tournament. Also have every umpire be graded by a Little League official. The games are streamed somewhere. It's 2022. Little League can see these games if they want. From there, take the highest graded officials from each state and make up crews for the Regional. Ie- The Metro Regional involves NY, NJ, CT and RI.
Take 3-4 umpires from each state who grade out the highest in the state tourneys and send them to Bristol, CT for the Regional. Pay for travel and give them a stipend for the games - I don't think it should be a 6 figure deal like The Godfather Steve Keener gets, but maybe $1000 or $1500 for the week + travel and lodging is a decent week. Do this for the other 9 regions.
From there the 10 Regionals will once again grade every ump in their region and a Little League Official or a team of Little League Officials. Send the best of the best to Williamsport and pay them. Everybody wins.
D. I will not rest until I get answers, and neither should you. If you see Steve Keener or see bad calls speak up. Send him this blog, tweet at him @LittleLeagueCEO and demand better for the kids.
I wont sleep until I get a public statement on this.
Final Update : Our wonderful Talent booking team reached out to Steve Keener for an interview and he declined.