[greymule]

Whatever they demonstrated at that school, around here, players and umpires do not recognize excessive speed unless the ball is thrown practically at modified speed. That includes tournaments in which teams from eight or nine states participate, so it's not just us. Nobody expects excessive speed to be called if the pitch is simply "flat." The rule about ejection was to penalize a pitcher who was being unsportsmanlike, not who threw a second pitch at 5 feet 11 inches. Bad suggestion!

As for allowing the ball to hit the plate—or disregarding the existence of the plate in determining strikes—I think it's quite common for a pitch to enter the strike zone and then hit the plate. It would allow more strikes to be called, but I'm still against it. Why not just go to mat ball?

Most leagues in this area, even the big tournaments, start with a 1-1 count and allow the batter one foul after two strikes.

Years ago, an ump kept calling excessive speed on our pitcher, who then argued that he was throwing a proper arc. The ump told him that his arc was OK, but within that arc, his pitches were traveling too fast!