[CecilOne]

I agree with most everything said above. On the field, I'm not thinking about league/school politics, who is the better team, which coach likes me, etc. I try to call exactly what I see without regard to any of that. Note I said try. However, I have sometimes ignored an illegal pitch and then realized I did it because of peer pressure. Somewhere, last spring I think, I wrote a longer commentary on this with a list of reasons why this happens to many of us, not just me. I know I have lost assignments and received lower peer evaluations because I will make unpopular calls, IP included. I also know that if everyone on this forum took a blood oath to call every IP they see, it would only make a small dent in the game with the other thousands of "umpires".