Iowa made it past Washington to keep its Little League World Series run alive on Saturday despite ESPN doing a little fixing of the game.
At least, that’s what one Iowa player was heard saying to his pitcher on a hot mic.
During Saturday afternoon’s Little League World Series broadcast on ABC, Iowa was convinced they caught Washington’s batter looking at strike three to secure a 6-3 victory. Unfortunately, the umpire called ball four to prolong the game.
As Iowa’s manager walked toward the mound to regroup his team, one player came in and blamed the umpire’s call on ESPN. ESPN had the manager mic’d up, so viewers could hear him repeatedly tell his team to “shake it.”
“All Little League is for ESPN,” Iowa’s No. 10 ranted near an ESPN hot mic. “It’s for ESPN so they can come back. That’s because ESPN likes it, it’s all ESPN.”
That is a very major league accusation from the Little Leaguer that we are used to seeing from fans online.
Despite the best efforts of ESPN and an erratic umpire, Iowa ended up winning the game two pitches later.
