IN MY SHOES: What It’s Like To Be A Little League Umpire
The Washington Post describes how litigiousness has ruined Little League by forcing a code of omertà on everything from the official rules to details on how candidates are selected for the All-Star Team:
Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty of Alexandria got a glimpse of secrecy where he least expected it - not at the Pentagon but on a baseball diamond where his 8-year-old son, Sam, played Little League.
A ball struck third base and rolled wide, and Hilferty, as acting umpire, was unsure what call to make. He declared it foul, then reversed himself when challenged by another dad. That's when he decided he'd better get a copy of the official Little League rule book.
That evening he turned to the league's Web site. … the rules were not to be found there [and] … no longer made available to bookstores or sporting-goods stores.
So the dogged lieutenant colonel contacted the league's regional office and asked for a copy of the rules. But a league official informed him that due to past litigation the league no longer makes the rules available to just anyone. …
Little League told him that its rules were not secret, just restricted to those authorized to see them … So only two copies of the rule book go out to each sanctioned team and others are provided upon a showing of genuine affiliation and need.
An irritated Hilferty wrote a league official, "I am an Army officer stationed at the Pentagon and the Army has some secrets, but our 'rules' are published for the world to see."
An equally exasperated league official fired back: "What we could use are better judges, juries and a less litigious society."
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