[GarthB]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

I must have read Jon Bible's column in Referee Magazine too when I first started out, because that has always been my philosophy. It isn't a bias or a predisposition to calling it one way or the other. I would still always track the pitch into the glove, and then make my determination based on the final outcome. I endeavored never to ever judge a pitch early. But I learned that the baseball comes in on a railroad track, and that track is a "strike." If anything derails the ball off the track, it then is considered a "ball." But it is definitely a strike leaving the pitcher's hand. But as we all know, that can change rather quickly. . .

With all respect to Jon, I prefer the old adage: the pitch is nothing until I call it. I have no bias towards ball or strike until it hits the golve.