[greymule]

But in the real world . . .

I did 25 college softball games this spring, including a district tournament. I use the GD stance/system, make strike calls simultaneous with the raising of the right arm, and would quit if I had to mimic those umps on TV.

At preseason meetings, they talk about proper uniform, arriving early, staying in communication with the assigner, etc., but not how to make calls. Our assigner attended several of my games and never said anything about my mechanics. No coach or player has ever complained that I don't look like the TV umps. (Frankly, if they did, I'd be pleased.) In fact, of the umps I work with, none resemble those TV umps.

When I traveled out of state to do the tournament at the end of the season, I was somewhat fearful that the other umps would expect me to be Mr. Robot. They were very serious about their 3-man mechanics, which I'm not used to, and they were top-notch officials, but they didn't look anything like the TV umps.

But to be "one of us" and do the World Series, that's another story.

PS. In an interesting irony, a few years ago I attended a clinic (not NCAA), and the main instructor was teaching the robot mechanics. We all practiced saying, "Strike," waiting a second, and then standing up and giving the robot arm signal. I could have thrown up. Anyway, a few months later I went to see Princeton play Dartmouth in a double-header, and this guy is working the games. So he used the mechanics he taught, right? Wrong. He made his calls quite conventionally, and boy, could he sell them. Three straight runners safe at 1B on close plays, and he sold the outs so well that nobody even peeped. And a very good ball-strike guy—with good old baseball technique behind the plate.