Quote:
Originally posted by Tim C
I now often hear on very close inside/outside pitches the umpire identify what the reason was for the ball call. "BALL, inside".
We know that decades ago in professional school umpires were taught to give a subtle body signal on each pitch to show how it missed. A quick glance on way or the other indicated inside outside . . . other activites showed up and down.
Somewhere in the late 70's and early 80's this process changed and at school you were taught to never identify a thing.
Now I am going to jump into the deep end of the pool with my answer to what has happened:
1) I believe, in my heart, that the arrogance of the umpire union management (make that Richie Phillips) lead to the change in identifying locations. I think this could possibly be confirmed by the lessen of legal tensions post 1999 and the reemergence of the umpire approachability.
2) I doubt if there is an organized effort to change the status quo. I think that umpires in this trendy, get it right, umpiring society believe that more information is better. And information can be an assistant in stopping discontent. And that is probably a good thing.
3) I know that personally I have gone to giving locations (inside and outside) on critical pitches and this has, in concert, lowered the questioning from the bench area.
Of course this is just all my opinion and will be ignored by certain other posters on this site.
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How timely your comments, Tee...............
Last night I worked with an ump I hadn't worked with in a few years. He's good buddies with one of the instructors for Evans. When I heard him calling ball and following with pitch locations I decided to question him between innings as to WHY the commentary. (I was taught to never give loud commentary audible to anyone other than the batter or catcher. Some even frown on quiet commentary to the batter and catcher).
Still, the response I received was that his instructor buddy said it's perfectly ok to give the loud commentary so the coach knows where you felt the pitch was off. In fact, he said not only had he spoken with the instructor yesterday, but he discussed this very issue because he was criticized for it by one of the HS chapter board members. I was somewhat amazed and said I'd see if Hensley would attempt to confirm this technique through Evans.............
So.......how 'bout it, Dave........
Can you find out if this is new era umpiring technique????
Freix