[kcg NC2Ablu]

Originally Posted by wadeintothem

Certain mechanics do need to be uniform and certain mechanics do not. Certain mechanics can be "personality" Others can be preference which allow the umpire to perform at his best because of genetics, god or McDonalds. You may have a preference because it looks good. I personnally think the umpire at this Tenn game was the BEST looking umpire mechanics wise I've seen working NCAA ball. He beat em all. It was refreshing to see good mechanics behind the plate of a softball game.

The misnomer sold to the softball masses is that if a PU used different stances than the allocated stance or a different strike 1&2 call... chaos would reign and and no one would know what is going on.

"Oh goodness," the softball umpire cries "how could I ever work with a partner from anywhere if he used a different stance!" Softball umpires, even in this thread, contend EVERYTHING must be uniform or they may not know what is going on. They need that uniformity to be able to work with anyone!

Are you kidding me?

I'm certainly not advocating people running around doing a double fist pump or inventing their own dead ball calls or what not.. but people would be just fine if certain areas were relaxed.

If an umpire, say, worked a Gerry Davis stance or used the dreaded "point" strike, and you as BU "lost" it and couldnt tell what is going on.. well then thats sad.

If I were president, we would have a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage..

Umpires could use any reasonable strike call, and would be evaluated on performance, not whether they did the robotics perfectly.

Umpires could use any reasonable stance and would be evaluated on performance, not whether they the specified stance.

Umpires, base or plate, could use any reasonable out call, and would be evaluated on performance, not whether they did the robotics perfectly.

Irishmike's contention that umpires can do so now is absurd. At least not in any place I've ever worked... maybe in Delaware they can.

That guy behind the plate had horrible timing. As a softball umpire we are supposed to see the pitch and call it in the set posistion "pop" up and give it the hammer (how ever you do the hammer is up to you as long as people can see it and know what it is.) That guy also looked like a bum. His shirt was looking like he got it four sizes too big and he looked like he was ready to walk down into downtown atlanta or some other urban area.... not ready to umpire a softball game. The height of his zone was OK at best and we cant really tell the width because of the camera being offset in Centerfield. The bottom line is there are times to let your personality out in softball... like the sell out and the sell safe ... sure there are guides in the manual on how to do one but they are just GUIDES an overhand is an overhand as long as its clear and everyone knows what you have. I said nothing about his stance. He looked heal toe and he wasnt to hunched over... so that seems ok to me as long as he was close enough to the catcher and remained in the slot (which I think he pretty much did). What about the guy in the world series whose out looked like a windshield wiper..... thats his personality.... he worked the WCWS and World cup if im not mistaken.