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Originally Posted by Fritz
I am all for locking in with a consistent strike zone, but how do you guys handle it when you are bouncing among age groups? I did everything from high school ball down to low division 12U this past summer and if I called a high school strike on the young guys, we'd set a record for walks!
In fact, I had one triple-header day where I had the plate for a high school division first, then switched to the bases, then finished up with a plate at a low 13U game and I have to tell you, it took me a couple of innings to adjust my zone back out for the younger guys.
Any secrets one can share to help me when that happens again (and it will, the local league supers know that I love doing the games and will fill in at whatever level they need!)?
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I think the best thing to do is to start with your HS zone then see what the kids can do. If necessary, expand it a bit. When I work HS and LL, the top and bottom of my zone is pretty much the same, about 4" above the belt, the hollow beneath the knee.
If you need to expand in and out for the kiddies, that's not too hard to do. You may have some strikes in the 3rd that were balls in the 1st, but there are only 2 people in the park who won't like that... the batter and the batter's mother.
Around here, the new guys do most of the LL stuff. They tent to not to call as many strikes. It's so unusual for an umpire to actually call strikes on the little guys that by the second at bat they're swinging anyway.