Holy cow! I have not read this much malarkey in years!
The depths of hypocrisy here is astounding!
There is NOT ONE OF YOU who haven't done this very thing. There are two types of umpires in this world: Those who have called a "safe" out because of a blowout; and those that lie and say they haven't!
Time to put away the soap boxes men. Seriously, most of these posts reflect badly upon you, and are plain ridiculous. Save your arms for strikes, instead of patting your own backs for your "integrity".
I agree with the posts comparing "opening the zone" to "calling a close safe an out". It is all "cheating", and ALL of you have done it. Get real!
I am not a fan of calling things differently because of the score. The truth is though that the "close ones" ARE going to go for the benefit of getting the game done when it is a blow out. MANY MANAGERS AND COACHES WANT THIS!!! What I was taught is that this has to go both ways though! You open the zone for one team, you open it for both. Hell, the CCA manual even covers this! The NCAA standard for plate work has a section "knows when and how to expand the zone for a blow out". Nope, it doesn't cover the "banger" at 1st.
I KNOW that every single one of you will and/or bias your close calls if a certain team/manager has been all over you. It is human nature. You may call them safe to keep them off your back, or out to "screw them". ALL of you have done it one way or another. To pass harsh judgement on the guy that just admitted to it the way many of you have is some of the worst displays of hypocricy I have ever seen!
On the other hand, with metal bats, anything less than 10 runs is "close" in my book. So, a 9-1 ball game IS still the time to be altruistic. A little common sense helps.
To the original poster. I am not going to say you were wrong to call it this way. I WOULD NOT EVER admit it to a coach. That is career suicide. I will give you points for at least being smart enough to realize that. But, some great points have been made about biasing calls like this. Don't write all of these guys off. I think the right intention is there.