[Rich]

Originally Posted by BoomerSooner

Just wondering how often you guys have batters ask you if a pitch they swung at was a strike? Also how do you respond? Does it depend on age/level of play? What about the attitude of the player? Actual pitch location (close vs. way off the plate)? Are there any other factors?

I ask this because it seems that more batters are asking this question this year than in years past. It typically only comes up on strike out pitches. At the lower levels I'm pretty okay with letting the batter know as it is part of the learning process. As players advance though, I feel they should have a good idea of the strike zone and that by answering it could be seen as "coaching". Also if there has been alot of disgust at my strike zone and players start making the "I'm sure that would have been a strike comments" in the process of asking me, then I'm not giving much of a response at all except to eject if it goes to far. For the most part, however, I do try to be cordial with the players when they are looking for this type of info, but I don't think its my place to be putting on a strike zone clinic for every batter that strikes out.

"As soon as you swung, I stopped caring where the pitch was."