I guess to me, the "hitting the plate" mechanic being described is pretty pointless. It is a case where the umpire, usually unsure of himself, feels the need to tell everyone where the pitch was, like verbally calling "inside" or "low" or "high" or "outside." One of my favorites I heard one of these directions givers use was "at the knees," but we won't go into the problems inherent with that. I don't see why the umpire just doesn't call "off the plate," or something of that nature, rather than using the "fist indicator."
