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Guys,
I would never encourage/teach someone to call pitches like I do. I do a lot of things different now than I did when I came out of umpire school 5 years ago. In fact, I instruct at a small camp here in Michigan and when I teach cage mechanics, I stress the same things that I learned at the Academy - proper slot position, head height, tracking with eyes only, etc.
I guess over time, I've steered away from the "robot" like mechanics you first learn at umpire school. Sometimes I even stray too far and have to go back to the basics if I'm not seeing the ball very well.
I asked a fellow umpire a few years back how my mechanics looked behind the plate and his "veteran" response was, "I don't care if you stand on your head and call balls & strikes back there... just get em' right. As time goes by, I've sort of adapted my own style and it seems to work for me. Obviously, what works for one may not work for others.
[Edited by Sal Giaco on Aug 24th, 2004 at 05:44 PM]
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