Davis Named Little League Consultant

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Gerry Davis, retired 40-year MLB umpire and founder of Gerry Davis Sports, has been named senior umpire consultant for Little League International.

His new role, which will include serving as the co-chairman to the Little League International Volunteer Umpire Advisory Committee, will focus on umpire education, training opportunities, selection of tournament umpires and umpire retention programs.

“Without question, there is a crisis at the amateur level of sports centered around abuse and shortages,” Davis told Referee “I commend Little League for stepping up to combat the issues at hand. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to give back at the grassroots level. I can sum up my involvement in a few words offered years ago by the late great Jackie Robinson, ‘A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.’”

While the consultant role was only recently formalized, the relationship between Davis and Little League International is nothing new. In 2017, Davis became a member of the Little League International Volunteer Umpire Advisory Committee and was the first umpire to call a Little League Baseball World Series game and an MLB World Series game in the same year. Gerry

Davis Sports serves as the official umpire uniform provider for the Little League World Series and Davis was recognized with the 2022 Little League Chairman’s Award for his service to the organization.

Pay Dispute

continued from p.12 to return to work under the terms of its previous contract with the MCPSS — $80 for a varsity game and $65 for junior varsity, freshman and middle school games.

“We didn’t want to see any more games get canceled,” said Tony Combs, president of SABUA. “We had a few. We just want to get back to playing baseball now.”

During his MLB umpiring career, Davis called more than 5,000 games. He worked 11 League Championship Series and six World Series. He retired from the field in 2021.

“On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of umpires that dedicate and volunteer their time to our program, as well as all of us at Little League International, we are thrilled to have Gerry on our team in this new capacity,” Senior Director of Operations and Education Nick Caringi said in a written statement. “Gerry’s knowledge of the game, understanding of the importance of umpires at every level, and commitment to improving both the umpire and player experience on and off the field makes him an incredible asset to the future of our program.” count. The tapping of the wrist signal emerged from the minor leagues, where pitch-timer rules were tested last year and umpires tried signal variations before arriving at the current iteration.

Body Cameras Deployed on Officials

English soccer referees in four regional adult leagues in Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Worcester and Essex will be allowed to wear video cameras under an initiative aimed at reducing the abuse of officials. The English Football Association will test the use of the cameras to determine if they should be deployed throughout grassroots soccer. Nearly 100 referees were expected to use the equipment during the threemonth trial. “We are excited to explore how bodycams can be used in grassroots refereeing so that we can better understand how they could

“The AHSAA are the ones that didn’t want to pay the money, not us,” said Johnny Hatcher, an MCPSS board member. “We believe in our umpires; we wanted to pay them more money.”

According to Combs, the AHSAA has “very well promised” to raise pay rates for officials in all sports for the 2023-24 school year.

SOURCES: ATASCADERONEWS.COM, FOX10TV.COM help affect the behavior of players and coaches towards them,” said Daniel Meeson, the association’s head of refereeing.

Broken Pressure Gauge Causes Issues

The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team faced stoppages during the first and second games of the 2023 SheBelieves Cup due to soccer balls that wouldn’t stay inflated. The stoppages to replace game balls occurred during matches against Canada on Feb. 16 in Orlando and three days later against Japan in Nashville. It turns out officials had been using a faulty gauge to measure the pressure of the game balls, according to a U.S. Soccer Federation representative. A second gauge was found to correctly inflate the balls for the second half of the match against Japan.

SOURCES: YAHOOSPORTS, SI.COM, ESPN, THE GUARDIAN