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Originally Posted by mcrowder
Larry - assuming your signature is correct, and you really do call NCAA softball and LL Baseball, surely you recognize a significant difference in the games. Heck, I call them different sports. You (as I assume you know) really have to truly have a different mindset in each game.
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I don't do baseball - period. I have filled in on occasion but it's been several years. I agree, different sports. This has now become a softball thread and we should probably spare the guys in this forum, but hey, they are big boys and can handle it.
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Originally Posted by mcrowder
However ... all of that said - unless you're working youth ball or calling an eephus pitch, you are going to have trouble advancing if you consistently call a pitch that you perceive as skimming the bottom of the zone before bouncing into the catcher's glove a strike. Seriously. I work mostly upper level FED and ASA softball but have filled in at NCAA level - I can't remember calling a bounce-pitch a strike at that level. I also suspect that if you did, and then saw that pitch on tape, you'd realize it was actually low.
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If you call the levels you claim in softball and haven't seen a change-up that can cross the strike zone and be caught at the catcher's feet you aren't seeing good pitching. With dropballs and change up's coming from 43' it's very conceivable. I find it funny you talk about me having trouble advancing. I have not been at this as long as many people - I still am learning, trust me on that. I've only been an umpire for 6 years. I'm in 2 DII conferences and fill in for some DI. You are acting like it's something that I claim happens every inning or every game - but if the ball passes through the strike zone (in softball) it is a strike. How can you call it anything else? How do you explain that to the coach that says "it was in the strike zone" - do you say "Yep, but it bounced!" That might fly in baseball, but not in softball.
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Originally Posted by mcrowder
You can be forgiven when you call a hittable ball outside the zone a strike. You might get yelled at by the coach, but you're not going to damage your career. And if you are consistent with it, they will swing at it. But when you call an UNhittable ball outside the zone a strike, you're going to hear about it from every angle, and possibly hurt your career if you don't correct this error.
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Last time I checked, a ball that passes through the strike zone is a hittable ball. According to your theory, if a curve ball hits the corner and ends up 8 inches outside of the zone, it's a ball - right? I mean the same principle has to apply. I would guess, according the theory given here there are no corners to a strike zone.
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Originally Posted by mcrowder
And while you may defend your position that "if it goes through the zone, it's a strike", I would maintain that the physics of the situation dictate that if it bounced, it was almost definitely NOT actually in the zone.
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So now you are a physics teacher? Again, I say if you have never seen this happen, you aren't working high level softball. They are constantly wanting to scratch the outer limits of the zone and have the ball quickly run out of the zone. That's pitching.
I'll keep calling them my way and you keep calling them your way and if we ever meet, we'll argue it over a cold one!
