As someone who only calls games when no "real" umpire can be had, I have enjoyed browsing this forum, and most of the posts, including in this thread.
I can understand some minor deviations from the "by the book" knees to armpits, edge to edge zone, as long as the strike zone is still pretty much a rectangle near the book definition. And I also understand subjective issues like the bat on the shoulder widening the strike zone.
But when I see umpires putting in writing that, as a matter of course, they have oval or octagonal strike zones because it's too hard to hit pitches in the corners, I get very confused
, and not a little frustrated
.
Do you think it's not hard to pitch into those same corners? How to you justify unilaterally changing the balance of the game like that?
Yeah, as you can probably guess... my daughter's a pitcher.
