Quote:
Originally posted by 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, its 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.
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Showy? I use the same third strike mechanic for all games. Being "showy" and demonstrative and out of control isn't good at any level. But being reserved on a called third isn't good either.
In this post, the problem was one of timing. It's a fouled pitch that has the potential for being a foul tip -- that requires a catch and means that the umpire has to verify a caught ball before signalling anything. Even so, it's a third strike swinging -- there's nothing to be demonstrative about here -- I give an out signal about head high on strike three looking straight ahead even though on most called strikes 1 & 2 I do turn to the right.