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Originally Posted by gumpire
Most of my posts on here have been met with "Welcome to rec league" or "Welcome to slow-pitch" but I'm gonna try again and see what other, more experienced umps, have to tell me about this:
My nephew recently joined a slow-pitch league in the NE and he argued continuously with his dad regarding where the strike zone was located....he insisted it was defined by where the ball landed. My brother called me and asked me just to be sure of his knowledge and I repeated what was in rule 1.
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Your nephew is incorrect. I know that may be a shock to your nephew, but he will outgrow it.
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Out of curiosity tonight, I asked the coaches of all 3 of my games to define the strike zone for me. 2 of the 6 didn't have a clue how to describe it but ultimately agreed with the other 4 that it was defined as: hitting the ground behind the plate, between the inside lines of the batters box, but in front of the back lines of the batters box.
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Actually, at the higher levels, the expect a ball which lands between the BB lines to be called a strike if in the zone. Unlike many FP folks, they understand (and that is scary by itself) that if the ball is between those lines, some part of it probably crossed the plate.
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I was actually shocked to learn that they truly believed that was the correct answer. However, I was extremely relieved to know that I really haven't been that bad at strikes and balls for the last 2 seasons!!!
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Congrats! How were you before than?
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It a local parks and rec league and I'm not sure if I should just continue to call the REAL strike zone, or afdjust my calls and give-in to the players (and apparently many other local umps) and avoid some of the *****ing.
Thoughts?
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Work with the real strike zone. If you don't, you will become accustomed to using the faux zone and really get screwed up when working a real game.