[greymule]

Hmmm... I have my doubts. If you were really a math teacher, you would know that the approximate value of pi is 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 10582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706 79821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081 28481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381 96442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190 91456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412 73724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364 36789259036001133053054882046652138414695194151160 94330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 48074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011949

A math professor at Princeton knows pi out to 1,000 places. So does his wife, who is also a math professor. In a strange coincidence, their son is gifted at math and got the highest scores in the country on the standardized tests his school administered.

I will now open myself up to criticism and admit that my zone is somewhat subjective and varies according to the level of play and even the situation. For example, last night a 14u player took a pitch a little high, fouled a pitch in the zone, took another pitch high, lined foul a pitch in the zone, and then checked her swing on a curve a few inches outside. Ball 3.

But I admit that if she had stood with the bat on her shoulder and watched strike 1 and strike 2 down the middle and then that curve a few inches outside, it would have been strike 3.

MLB, pitcher up. Stands like a statue with his bat on his shoulder for three pitches, two right down the pipe, the third one waist high and two inches outside. Is there an umpire who would not call that pitch strike 3?

Ted Williams up. Lines two balls foul and then shrugs off a waist-high pitch two inches outside. Is there an umpire who would call that pitch strike 3?

OK. Have at me.