[nickrego]

The younger the players are, the more the unexpected happens.

For players below the age of 13 on a 60' diamond, I would not completely turn my head. Try to keep your eye on the ball.

But more importantly…SLOW DOWN !

If you missed the dropped ball, you are calling your pitches too quickly. Especially on a 3rd strike, you have to wait until you are sure the ball was caught. Your supposed to be looking the ball all the way into the glove. If you missed the dropped ball, you did not wait for the ball to hit the glove ‘before’ you started your strike move. Otherwise, you would have seen it start to drop, and the catcher scramble for it, as you were coming up. (but even that is too fast)

For players 13 and up on a 90’ diamond, it’s OK to be a little showy with your calls. But for the younger kids, the last thing you want to do is send one running back to mommy crying because the umpire did an MLB strike three punch-out move, that made him feel stupid or embarrassed. At least that is what I was taught when I was working the younger players, and I never had a parent angry at me for showing up their kid.