WEBVTT 00:00:13.060 --> 00:00:15.960 Welcome to Blue Crew Diaries, an umpire podcast. 00:00:16.339 --> 00:00:18.820 My name is Daryl, and I will be your host as 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:21.039 we take a look behind the mask, so to speak, 00:00:21.179 --> 00:00:24.320 sharing stories, insights, and experiences from 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:26.859 the unique perspective of the baseball umpire. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:29.480 In this episode, we're going to talk a little 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:31.620 bit about a couple of controversies that have 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:34.219 happened in Little League so far this season. 00:00:35.109 --> 00:00:37.549 If you have any questions, comments, or ideas 00:00:37.549 --> 00:00:40.829 for future episodes, drop me a line at bluecrewdiaries 00:00:40.829 --> 00:00:44.850 at gmail .com. So if you're ready, grab your 00:00:44.850 --> 00:00:46.929 indicator and plate brush, and let's hit the 00:00:46.929 --> 00:00:56.210 field. Alright everybody, welcome back to another 00:00:56.210 --> 00:00:58.750 episode here of the Blue Crew Diaries, and I'll 00:00:58.750 --> 00:01:03.789 buy your podcast. Interesting couple of weeks 00:01:03.789 --> 00:01:07.590 it has been. Had a little bit of controversy 00:01:07.590 --> 00:01:11.189 down in New Jersey and also had a little bit 00:01:11.189 --> 00:01:13.109 up here in Maine. So we're going to get into 00:01:13.109 --> 00:01:18.189 that in just a minute. But as always, some just 00:01:18.189 --> 00:01:23.189 basic announcements. The first one is to all 00:01:23.189 --> 00:01:26.269 of the umpires that are working the Little League 00:01:26.269 --> 00:01:29.590 regional tournaments, state tournaments, which 00:01:29.590 --> 00:01:32.150 are pretty much wrapping up. And the World Series 00:01:32.150 --> 00:01:39.450 tournaments, best of luck to all of you. Having 00:01:39.450 --> 00:01:44.989 just worked a couple of state games myself, I 00:01:44.989 --> 00:01:50.829 know it is not exactly easy. So, best of luck 00:01:50.829 --> 00:01:55.689 to all of you. Really looking forward to watching 00:01:55.689 --> 00:01:59.609 the regionals in the World Series. And, yeah. 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:04.500 Watching the kids have some fun. Let's see, what 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:07.620 else we got here? Again, as always, Little League 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:10.219 Umpire Outreach Clinics are still going on. You 00:02:10.219 --> 00:02:12.740 can sign up for those on littleleagueumpire .org, 00:02:12.840 --> 00:02:17.199 the Little League Umpire Registry. Even if you 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:19.740 don't intend to sign up for one of these outreach 00:02:19.740 --> 00:02:24.620 clinics or the ID camps, they're doing a bunch 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:27.080 of those this fall. Those are on there as well. 00:02:28.669 --> 00:02:30.949 even if you don't plan on signing up for any 00:02:30.949 --> 00:02:33.849 of this stuff, at least sign up for the umpire 00:02:33.849 --> 00:02:37.409 registry. A lot of good stuff on there, and you 00:02:37.409 --> 00:02:40.729 can make yourself and your information, as far 00:02:40.729 --> 00:02:44.389 as contact info, visible to whatever leagues 00:02:44.389 --> 00:02:48.710 you want in your area. So if they need an umpire, 00:02:48.830 --> 00:02:52.090 they can contact you, and maybe you can help 00:02:52.090 --> 00:02:56.629 them out. Also, there's the rules challenge on 00:02:56.629 --> 00:03:01.039 the registry. There's training material, just 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:04.520 all kinds of stuff. Highly recommend it if you 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:09.419 have not done so already. And if you are interested 00:03:09.419 --> 00:03:14.580 in really learning the rules, once again, California 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:18.099 District 4, check them out on YouTube. A lot 00:03:18.099 --> 00:03:27.960 of good stuff there. As for me, I have... Pretty 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:34.840 much concluded my season. It's more or less done 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.180 and over with unless I randomly get a call, which 00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:40.939 I don't think is going to happen because pretty 00:03:40.939 --> 00:03:45.419 much Little League is done in this area. All 00:03:45.419 --> 00:03:50.219 the state championships are done. There's really 00:03:50.219 --> 00:03:54.780 nothing left to do. So I worked my last two games 00:03:54.780 --> 00:04:00.560 this past week. which were 8 -9 -10, or some 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:04.139 people call them 10 -U, and then others will 00:04:04.139 --> 00:04:06.259 complain, there's no 10 -U in Little League. 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:11.680 Okay, 8 -9 -10 were two state tournament games 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:19.720 for that. It was different. It really was. A 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:22.720 lot more pressure because it's a state championship 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:29.139 tournament. totally different venue than I'm 00:04:29.139 --> 00:04:34.540 used to. This is the first state game I've worked, 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:38.819 and this is actually the first game that I've 00:04:38.819 --> 00:04:44.519 worked that has not had a team from the league 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:48.819 that I normally umpire for in the tournament. 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:55.790 So I feel very fortunate to have been asked to 00:04:55.790 --> 00:05:00.589 work a couple of the games. Let's just say the 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:04.750 games did not go as I had hoped, but that's another 00:05:04.750 --> 00:05:08.430 topic for another episode. Maybe I'll get into 00:05:08.430 --> 00:05:14.290 that next month. But, as far as this episode, 00:05:14.589 --> 00:05:19.110 yes, I know it's going to be a few days early, 00:05:19.269 --> 00:05:23.810 but we'll just consider this the... the August 00:05:23.810 --> 00:05:30.389 2025 episode, but I wanted to do an episode on 00:05:30.389 --> 00:05:33.209 some of the stuff that's been happening, one 00:05:33.209 --> 00:05:38.110 of which, if you know, you know, if you pay attention 00:05:38.110 --> 00:05:41.509 to Little League, I'm more than certain that 00:05:41.509 --> 00:05:46.209 you've already heard about it, and that is the 00:05:46.209 --> 00:05:53.420 Haddonfield, New Jersey bat flip. Call it that. 00:05:54.319 --> 00:06:03.980 So, last week, on July 16th, a Little Leaguer 00:06:03.980 --> 00:06:08.480 from Haddonfield, New Jersey, Haddonfield Little 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:15.339 League, cranked a two -run homer in the final 00:06:15.339 --> 00:06:19.800 game of the sectional tournament. Great hit. 00:06:19.899 --> 00:06:24.480 There's video all over of it. It's a home run 00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:31.379 out over the fence. And then as he starts going 00:06:31.379 --> 00:06:35.399 down the first baseline, he flips the bat in 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:43.579 the air. Now, how many times have you seen something 00:06:43.579 --> 00:06:47.899 like that? You see it at the Little League World 00:06:47.899 --> 00:06:51.319 Series. You see it in even just regular recreational 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:54.990 games. If somebody hits a home run or something, 00:06:55.189 --> 00:06:59.670 they throw the bat in the air. It's a celebratory 00:06:59.670 --> 00:07:08.709 thing. One of the umpires that was working that 00:07:08.709 --> 00:07:18.949 game ejected the player for the bat flip. And 00:07:18.949 --> 00:07:23.759 he pulled out the no horse play. card from the 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:30.839 rulebook. So obviously this got major attention 00:07:30.839 --> 00:07:37.680 because with that ejection this player is also 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:42.060 suspended from the next played game which was 00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:45.959 their first game in the state championship tournament 00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:54.779 in New Jersey. So This player's parents decided 00:07:54.779 --> 00:08:03.540 to file a temporary restraining order against 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:11.279 Little League to basically put that one game 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:16.600 suspension on hold so he could then play in the 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:23.529 state tournament. It went to court. And the judge 00:08:23.529 --> 00:08:28.009 that heard the case basically said, you know 00:08:28.009 --> 00:08:33.529 what, this is stupid. I am going to lift the 00:08:33.529 --> 00:08:40.830 suspension and he will be allowed to play. Now 00:08:40.830 --> 00:08:46.330 the judge made a very good point with this. A 00:08:46.330 --> 00:08:51.009 good part of the reason that he... ruled the 00:08:51.009 --> 00:08:55.169 way he did was due to the fact that little league 00:08:55.169 --> 00:09:02.049 themselves have posted video on social media 00:09:02.049 --> 00:09:07.289 and and all over the place of a player hitting 00:09:07.289 --> 00:09:09.809 a home run as the world series flipping the bat 00:09:09.809 --> 00:09:12.710 in the air as he's running down the or he or 00:09:12.710 --> 00:09:22.330 she is running down the first baseline promoting, 00:09:22.330 --> 00:09:29.330 celebrating. And that is essentially what the 00:09:29.330 --> 00:09:33.549 judge said. Like, you promote, you know, you 00:09:33.549 --> 00:09:36.629 want kids to be happy, you want kids to celebrate, 00:09:36.850 --> 00:09:42.029 but then when they do celebrate, you just shut 00:09:42.029 --> 00:09:44.190 it down. Because, oh, well, he flipped the bat 00:09:44.190 --> 00:09:48.860 in the air. Now, yes, I understand their... is 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:52.720 a safety issue here but if you watch the video 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:56.960 real close when the player throws the bat first 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:00.539 thing he does is look up to make sure the bat's 00:10:00.539 --> 00:10:03.700 not going to hit anything or anyone he he wants 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:07.279 to make sure that the bat is going where he thinks 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:15.200 it's going as far as what the umpire was thinking 00:10:16.700 --> 00:10:23.899 and why he pulled out the horseplay card, if 00:10:23.899 --> 00:10:26.519 you will. He also pulled out the unsportsmanlike 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:31.419 conduct card. But as far as what he was thinking 00:10:31.419 --> 00:10:36.120 and why he ejected this player, I don't know. 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:42.399 I really don't. But everybody in the grandmother 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:44.980 is now going after Little League about this. 00:10:46.509 --> 00:10:50.429 well, you know, why are you suspending him and 00:10:50.429 --> 00:10:53.710 this and that and the other thing? Well, it's 00:10:53.710 --> 00:10:57.230 right in the rulebook. In the tournament rules, 00:10:57.450 --> 00:11:02.070 if a player is ejected from a game, they are 00:11:02.070 --> 00:11:06.129 suspended from the next played game by that team. 00:11:06.870 --> 00:11:11.250 I mean, it's very simple. I think what a lot 00:11:11.250 --> 00:11:13.250 of people are upset about is the fact that Little 00:11:13.250 --> 00:11:18.730 League, upon finding this out, Did not. More 00:11:18.730 --> 00:11:23.909 or less reverse. The umpire's decision. They 00:11:23.909 --> 00:11:27.750 just. Went with the umpire's judgment. And okay. 00:11:27.809 --> 00:11:31.870 You ejected him. So he suspended. Period. Done 00:11:31.870 --> 00:11:41.230 and over with. I honestly. I mean. Those of you 00:11:41.230 --> 00:11:43.970 that. That listen to this podcast. That know 00:11:43.970 --> 00:11:47.960 me. that I've worked games with, or you've seen 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:52.879 me work games, you will know that I have a very 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:59.779 high tolerance for, let's just call it BS. A 00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:04.720 very high tolerance. As I alluded to in a former 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:08.240 episode of this podcast, last year I literally 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:13.580 had two managers. manager from each team, standing 00:12:13.580 --> 00:12:16.639 on each side of home plate, screaming at each 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:20.399 other in the middle of a game over a possible 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:26.139 obstruction call. And I did not eject either 00:12:26.139 --> 00:12:31.559 one of them. I should have. I mean, hindsight 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:35.919 being 20 -20, they should have been gone. But 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:39.440 I didn't do it. So, something as simple as a 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:47.740 kid flipping a bat, I mean, come on. Now, again, 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:51.759 I can't speak for Little League. I can't speak 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:57.799 for that umpire. But I think an ejection was 00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:01.379 a little extreme. You know, that should have 00:13:01.379 --> 00:13:05.399 been when the batter comes back around, hey, 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:11.440 don't throw the bat again. Simple. Or you go 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:15.360 to the coach. Hey, coach, can you please tell 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:20.460 him next time don't do the bat flip because of 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:24.580 this reason? You know, whatever the umpire's 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:28.120 reasoning was. And have the coach talk to the 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:32.980 player. And that's it. There's no ejection. There's 00:13:32.980 --> 00:13:35.080 no suspension. Now, if the kid does it again 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:39.120 in the same game after you've warned him not 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:43.200 to. then yeah, that's worthy of an ejection. 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:48.039 But the first time, I think a warning would have 00:13:48.039 --> 00:13:55.399 been more than adequate there. So those are my 00:13:55.399 --> 00:14:03.419 thoughts on that one. The next one that I want 00:14:03.419 --> 00:14:09.519 to talk about is the... Issue that we had up 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:14.179 here in Maine with the state majors tournament. 00:14:15.220 --> 00:14:19.159 Now, some of you may have heard about this. Others 00:14:19.159 --> 00:14:23.299 may not have. So basically what happened was 00:14:23.299 --> 00:14:31.179 a majors all -star team from Gorham, Maine. They 00:14:31.179 --> 00:14:34.779 won their district championship and went to states. 00:14:35.450 --> 00:14:38.049 The state tournament was held in Machias, Maine. 00:14:38.870 --> 00:14:45.129 They were the host town or city, whatever you 00:14:45.129 --> 00:14:50.850 want to call it. I think Machias is a city. Maybe 00:14:50.850 --> 00:14:54.730 they're a town. I don't know. Anyway, the state 00:14:54.730 --> 00:14:59.970 tournament was held in Machias, which is like 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:02.470 three and a half to four hours away from Gorham. 00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:12.240 Essentially what happened, and this is just information 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:16.139 that I have from publicly available sources from 00:15:16.139 --> 00:15:18.500 both Gorham Little League and Machias Little 00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:21.759 League. This is all stuff that they have posted 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:26.220 on social media, so I'm not making any of this 00:15:26.220 --> 00:15:39.960 up. all of their games in for at least some of 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:42.419 their players. Now, for those of you who are 00:15:42.419 --> 00:15:46.159 unaware, Little League has a rule that in order 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:50.820 to be eligible for All -Stars, you have to play 00:15:50.820 --> 00:15:56.419 a minimum of 12 regular season games. Now, I 00:15:56.419 --> 00:15:59.059 can understand why Gorham didn't get all 12 games 00:15:59.059 --> 00:16:02.360 in because we had a hell of a lot of rain up 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:07.330 here this spring. In fact, the league that I 00:16:07.330 --> 00:16:14.110 normally umpire for, we actually lost one of 00:16:14.110 --> 00:16:20.769 our two fields because it was a mud hole the 00:16:20.769 --> 00:16:25.289 entire season. Pretty much the entire season. 00:16:25.789 --> 00:16:30.250 The field was just absolutely unplayable due 00:16:30.250 --> 00:16:33.470 to the amount of rain that we got this spring. 00:16:35.179 --> 00:16:37.899 So we end up having to find other places. Luckily, 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:42.679 we had a couple of other fields around that we 00:16:42.679 --> 00:16:49.120 were able to work games at. So Gorham apparently 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:52.860 did not have that option, which I fully understand. 00:16:53.100 --> 00:17:01.600 I can see that. So at some point during the state 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:06.859 tournament, One of the Gorham coaches was talking 00:17:06.859 --> 00:17:10.220 to a coach from Mendomic Valley Little League 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:16.220 out of Waldeboro, Maine. And somehow in the conversation, 00:17:16.440 --> 00:17:22.440 the Waldeboro coach found out from the Gorham 00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:24.660 coach that some of the players didn't get their 00:17:24.660 --> 00:17:37.230 required number of games. as far as the actual 00:17:37.230 --> 00:17:41.950 events that occurred in the timeline of them, 00:17:42.029 --> 00:17:47.950 because it's basically he said, she said. According 00:17:47.950 --> 00:17:57.029 to Gorham Little League, Machias, who also obviously 00:17:57.029 --> 00:18:00.809 had a team in the tournament, and that team... 00:18:01.180 --> 00:18:03.200 ended up winning the state tournament the other 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:10.619 night. According to Gorham, Machias found out 00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:18.539 about this issue and went to East Region in Bristol, 00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:28.720 Connecticut. Machias claims that they found out 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:33.960 that the Machias tournament found out from the 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:39.839 Waldeboro coach about Gorham's possible ineligibility. 00:18:40.579 --> 00:18:48.140 And once they found out from Waldeboro, then 00:18:48.140 --> 00:18:53.680 some other teams in the tournament came to the 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:56.539 tournament director and expressed their concerns 00:18:56.539 --> 00:19:01.259 about Gorham's eligibility. And at that point, 00:19:01.339 --> 00:19:10.859 they asked Walderboro to file the protest with 00:19:10.859 --> 00:19:16.799 Little League International. Now, like I said 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:21.759 before, all this is a little fuzzy, because some 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:25.839 people are saying that everything I just said 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:30.000 is true, but when Machias... Asked Waldeboro 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:36.839 to file the protest. Waldeboro said no. So then 00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:40.000 Machias. Filed the protest. But Machias says 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.740 Waldeboro filed it. So who knows. All I do know 00:19:44.740 --> 00:19:47.819 is. A protest was filed with. With International. 00:19:49.579 --> 00:19:57.559 At some. Point. I'm going to assume. That it 00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:01.980 was on. Monday, when all of this started to take 00:20:01.980 --> 00:20:08.900 place, Gorham filed for a waiver from International. 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:15.920 And basically what that waiver was asking was 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:22.440 for International to allow Gorham's city championship 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:28.329 tournament, allow those games to count. towards 00:20:28.329 --> 00:20:35.369 the player's regular season game total. And that 00:20:35.369 --> 00:20:40.730 waiver request was denied. More on that in a 00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:46.369 minute. So the waiver request was denied by International. 00:20:47.130 --> 00:20:51.250 And at that point, International essentially 00:20:51.250 --> 00:20:54.750 kicked Gorham out of the state tournament. They 00:20:54.750 --> 00:20:59.039 already had one loss. So they were in the elimination 00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:04.180 half of the bracket. They then, on Sunday, the 00:21:04.180 --> 00:21:07.819 day before all of this started to unravel, they 00:21:07.819 --> 00:21:15.740 ended up beating Old Town, or essentially pounding 00:21:15.740 --> 00:21:20.599 Old Town. I think the score was 16 -4. So that 00:21:20.599 --> 00:21:22.839 was Old Town's second loss, so they were eliminated 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:29.170 from the tournament by Gorham. So on Tuesday, 00:21:29.529 --> 00:21:37.470 July 22nd, word came down from Little League 00:21:37.470 --> 00:21:43.230 International, only a half hour prior to Gorham 00:21:43.230 --> 00:21:47.190 taking the field to play the team from York, 00:21:47.430 --> 00:21:55.529 word came down that Gorham's win against Old 00:21:55.529 --> 00:22:03.119 Town Was now a Gorham forfeit. And with that 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:07.039 forfeit. That brings Old Town back into the tournament. 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:10.079 Because they didn't lose that game technically. 00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:16.599 And Gorham. Now has their second loss. So they're 00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:29.349 out. And that's it. That's pretty much what happened. 00:22:30.069 --> 00:22:38.410 Now, facts aside, here's where I stand on this. 00:22:38.750 --> 00:22:44.150 Now, I just need to throw this out there. All 00:22:44.150 --> 00:22:46.930 of the thoughts and opinions on this podcast 00:22:46.930 --> 00:22:50.670 are my own. I do not speak nor represent Little 00:22:50.670 --> 00:22:53.890 League International, any of its leagues, members, 00:22:54.190 --> 00:23:01.109 or players. So, my thoughts on this deal are, 00:23:01.410 --> 00:23:09.410 obviously, Gorham screwed up. And it's not like 00:23:09.410 --> 00:23:12.309 they can say, oh, well, we didn't know. It's 00:23:12.309 --> 00:23:15.069 not like they were fact -checked. And then, oh, 00:23:15.089 --> 00:23:17.190 well, we didn't know that we didn't have enough 00:23:17.190 --> 00:23:20.250 games. One of your coaches was talking to another 00:23:20.250 --> 00:23:24.589 coach about it. So, yes, you knew you didn't 00:23:24.589 --> 00:23:26.880 have enough games in. Or at least some of your 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:33.819 players didn't. And honestly, that's a problem. 00:23:35.779 --> 00:23:40.480 You should have filed for the waiver then. Because 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:44.819 if you think about it, you have your city championship 00:23:44.819 --> 00:23:49.619 tournament. And then you start your district 00:23:49.619 --> 00:23:54.819 all -star tournament, which took at least a week. 00:23:56.140 --> 00:23:59.640 And now you're on the States. I mean, at the 00:23:59.640 --> 00:24:03.339 end of the regular season to now, you've had 00:24:03.339 --> 00:24:10.619 at least a month to file for this waiver. And 00:24:10.619 --> 00:24:17.619 trying to put myself in, you know, how Little 00:24:17.619 --> 00:24:20.859 League thinks, and obviously I don't know how 00:24:20.859 --> 00:24:24.299 the tournament committee in Williamsport, you 00:24:24.299 --> 00:24:30.150 know. came up with this solution but you know 00:24:30.150 --> 00:24:33.769 if it was me i would look at this this waiver 00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:38.730 request that they submitted when they realized 00:24:38.730 --> 00:24:44.150 that you know they had a problem at states i 00:24:44.150 --> 00:24:46.430 i probably would have looked at that and said 00:24:46.430 --> 00:24:50.170 well you know what you've had at least a month 00:24:54.910 --> 00:24:57.410 You're in danger of being thrown out of the state 00:24:57.410 --> 00:25:00.990 tournament. Is that the only reason why you sent 00:25:00.990 --> 00:25:05.549 this waiver in? Yeah. Maybe if you had sent the 00:25:05.549 --> 00:25:07.609 waiver in at the end of your regular season, 00:25:07.769 --> 00:25:12.990 we would have approved it. But now, no. You're 00:25:12.990 --> 00:25:17.630 just trying to cover your own rear end. That's 00:25:17.630 --> 00:25:26.049 how I see that going with the waiver. I don't 00:25:26.049 --> 00:25:28.089 know for certain. I don't know how Little League 00:25:28.089 --> 00:25:33.269 thinks. But that's kind of my thought on it. 00:25:36.750 --> 00:25:39.289 So obviously there are a lot of people upset 00:25:39.289 --> 00:25:45.190 with Machias. And I think there are a lot of 00:25:45.190 --> 00:25:50.329 people who think that Machias saw Gorham as a 00:25:50.329 --> 00:25:54.220 threat. And that's why they filed this protest. 00:25:56.380 --> 00:26:05.380 I don't know. I'm not sure how I feel about that 00:26:05.380 --> 00:26:10.579 thought process. Is it possible? Yeah. I mean, 00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:13.180 I wouldn't put it outside the realm of possibility. 00:26:13.339 --> 00:26:18.359 That's for certain. I mean, we are talking about 00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:20.380 Little League Baseball here, so anything can 00:26:20.380 --> 00:26:24.880 happen at any time. But I don't really necessarily 00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:30.980 think that Machias saw Gorham as a threat to 00:26:30.980 --> 00:26:36.420 winning the state championship. What I do find 00:26:36.420 --> 00:26:42.180 interesting is, and I could be completely off 00:26:42.180 --> 00:26:45.400 on my rocker here, but what I find interesting 00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:52.799 is, That Machias was the host city. And Machias 00:26:52.799 --> 00:27:01.220 went. Undefeated. In the state tournament. And 00:27:01.220 --> 00:27:13.460 won it. Hmm. Interesting. Is it not? I don't 00:27:13.460 --> 00:27:17.410 know. I don't know. Just. Just a bad situation 00:27:17.410 --> 00:27:21.289 all the way around. One of the things that the 00:27:21.289 --> 00:27:25.329 Gorham coach said when talking to the local media 00:27:25.329 --> 00:27:29.930 about this was that Little League should not 00:27:29.930 --> 00:27:35.349 be punishing the kids. If they want to punish 00:27:35.349 --> 00:27:38.829 the manager and the coaches because they screwed 00:27:38.829 --> 00:27:45.559 up, go ahead. Basically, he said punish the adults, 00:27:45.619 --> 00:27:50.960 don't punish the kids. I would like to know how 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:56.380 he plans on or how he would do that. Okay, if 00:27:56.380 --> 00:27:59.380 you're Little League International, how are you 00:27:59.380 --> 00:28:06.099 going to punish the coaches without punishing 00:28:06.099 --> 00:28:09.720 the kids? Because if you suspend the coaches, 00:28:09.779 --> 00:28:13.819 if you just... Take the coaches completely out 00:28:13.819 --> 00:28:16.039 of the equation. You are no longer the coach 00:28:16.039 --> 00:28:21.700 for this team. That is still indirectly going 00:28:21.700 --> 00:28:28.519 to mess with the kids because now they're in 00:28:28.519 --> 00:28:31.039 the middle of a state tournament. They've got 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:37.059 to get used to a new manager or, on the extreme 00:28:37.059 --> 00:28:40.960 end, a whole new coaching staff. In the middle 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:46.180 of a tournament. I mean. How. How does that not 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:53.480 mess with them? So. It's pretty much all over 00:28:53.480 --> 00:28:59.000 and done now. You know. Gorham. Gorham had the 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:04.539 long ride home. Wondering. What could have been. 00:29:06.799 --> 00:29:09.900 Old Town. Got brought back into the tournament. 00:29:09.980 --> 00:29:13.779 They ended up playing York. Obviously the Tuesday 00:29:13.779 --> 00:29:17.819 game between Gorham and York was canceled. So 00:29:17.819 --> 00:29:24.700 Old Town played York on Wednesday. And got re 00:29:24.700 --> 00:29:31.960 -eliminated. And Machias ended up winning the 00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:38.639 state title. And they're on to originals. So, 00:29:38.639 --> 00:29:41.259 let me know what you guys think on both of these 00:29:41.259 --> 00:29:47.900 little topics. If you are watching this on YouTube, 00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:50.579 leave a comment down in the comment section below. 00:29:50.740 --> 00:29:53.740 If you're listening to the podcast on your phone 00:29:53.740 --> 00:29:56.680 or wherever you listen to your podcast, send 00:29:56.680 --> 00:30:00.000 me an email, bluecrewdiaries at gmail .com. Let 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:01.740 me know what you think. Give me your opinions. 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:07.369 Yeah. Should be... Should be interesting to see 00:30:07.369 --> 00:30:11.230 where things go from here. With the New Jersey 00:30:11.230 --> 00:30:17.450 deal, I have seen some comments from umpires 00:30:17.450 --> 00:30:23.289 stating, now I'm kind of worried about umpiring 00:30:23.289 --> 00:30:34.210 a game. Because if I call a runner out when everybody 00:30:34.210 --> 00:30:36.740 else in... in the ballpark thought he was safe 00:30:36.740 --> 00:30:41.779 am i now going to get sued you know what what 00:30:41.779 --> 00:30:45.339 is what is going to happen here with this how 00:30:45.339 --> 00:30:52.559 far is this going to go and it does it does have 00:30:52.559 --> 00:30:58.980 some people on edge and that brings us to our 00:30:58.980 --> 00:31:04.230 question of the month Seeing it is tournament 00:31:04.230 --> 00:31:08.609 time, we'll go into the tournament rules and 00:31:08.609 --> 00:31:13.509 see what you know. So this month's question is 00:31:13.509 --> 00:31:20.069 as follows. At a tournament game, how is it decided 00:31:20.069 --> 00:31:24.690 which team is the home team and which team is 00:31:24.690 --> 00:31:40.400 the away team? And which team is away? Yeah, 00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:42.200 send me an email, drop a comment, let me know 00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:47.019 what you think. And we will go from there. So 00:31:47.019 --> 00:31:50.180 that is going to wrap up this episode of Lucre 00:31:50.180 --> 00:31:54.160 Diaries. As always, thank you all very much for 00:31:54.160 --> 00:31:57.259 listening. And I will see you on the diamond.