Quote:
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Originally Posted by Rich Fronheiser
Ball 1, Ball 2, Ball 3.
The catcher is, no matter what the rulebook says, a part of what makes the pitch a strike.
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I don't agree with Rich very often; he's management, I was always labor. But....
Rich Garcia's comment describing the strike zone is one of umpiring's classic statements: "A strike is where I call it and they don't b!tch!" Paste that on the back of your catcher's helmet, follow it religiously, and watch your evaluations climb.
There is this romantic, some might say sophomoric, view that umpiring is an exact science, that a "strike is a strike is a strike," as if there is some magical box that determines the outcome of the pitch.
Not to put too fine a point on it, that's hogwash!
I am amazed when I hear a so-called "umpire" say something like: "Hey, if it's a strike, I don't care whether the catcher sticks it or where he catches it."
Fellows, it ain't a strike
until the catcher sticks it.
In south Texas, we play pretty good baseball. Hey, we ain't bad in soccer either: Brownsville Porter just won the state championship, 2-1, in double overtime. Down here, if I called a strike a strike
just because the pitch hit the published strike zone, at any level above 10u, I would work games only when no one else was available. From Bronco through MSBL, including Division 1, the pitch must
look as if it was a strike.
My candidate umpires always come back and rave about a principle I teach: "If the catcher's mitt touches the ground, the pitch ain't a strike."
Earlier this year, I called a 5A game between a sometime powerhouse and a periennial power. The coach of the once-in-a-while winner stopped by in the third inning to complain: "Hey, how come we're not getting that pitch at the knees?"
Said I: "Because Tony's catcher is a lot better than yours."
Said he: "Ain't that the truth." He gave me a pat on the butt and went on his way. Oh, he was the coach at Brownsville Porter. He won't win the state championship this year.
Most of us are working amateur ball. We know the limits of our pitchers and catchers. If we have had any meaningful experience at all, we
know what we can call without being killed by both sides. I can tell you this: The coach whose pitcher is getting strikes in the dirt simply because they
were strikes at some point during the pitch is nervous as hell and praying that you won't be consistent with that "zone" when his team comes to bat. In other words, he hopes you're an all-around bad ump.
I was pleased with this thread: Most of the posters recognized that there is no magical zone, that it takes two (a pitcher and a catcher) to create a strike. Ten years ago, Rich and I might have been alone.
We've come a long way, Baby.