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Old Sun Apr 11, 2004, 12:00pm
TexBlue TexBlue is offline
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Like Mike, I don't respond to coaches on strike zone questions. I do talk to the catchers, as long as they do it in a non-confrontational manner. If they just ask "Where was that Blue?" without turning her head, or dropping her glove or any other way to show her frustration, I'll tell her, inside , outside, low, whatever. If the ball is very close to a spot, ie, misses a strike by just an inch or so, I'll declare "Ball" and just loud enough for the batter and catcher to hear say "inside". That way, when the coach yells loud enough for the next ball field to hear "Where was that, Sally?", she can look at him and tell him. This kinda reinforces your call, to him and the crowd. A lot of times, if you and your catcher are working together well, they can be your best tool for crowd control concerning balls and strikes.

Like WestMichBlue said, have fun with it as long as you can. One night my brain decided to not register the outside corner as a strike for the whole game. I was hearing it from the coaches and crowd pretty good. Finally a dad sitting in a lawn chair about 30 feet the other side of 1st base yells at me that "that caught the corner, I could see it from here!" I had to call time, stand up and look at my partner who was already laughing and walking to the OF so the crowd couldn't see him doing it. I couldn't keep the grin off my face, but I did keep from bustin out laughing. The catcher was making a few insulting comments about the intelligence of the crowd. I asked her if that was her dad and she told me no way. I got myself back together and finished the game.

Have fun.
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