[BSUmp16]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

Look, you asked for an honest answer, and I gave you one. I call my strike zone the same way I have for 26 years now, and it hasn't changed a smidgen, despite all the high strike crap that has been pushed down our throats. Sure, it gets slightly expanded a little for 18A or 18 Rookie type leagues, where most of the players haven't picked up a bat since Little League. But at the higher levels, with former big league and college players all over the place, my zone is polished and precisely where I want it called, not where anyone else dictates, assignors included. I have never had any assignor ignorant enough to try to tell me how to call ball. When I quit playing ball in 1985, and started umpiring, it all came very naturally to me, and didn't need outside help.

I very rarely receive any complaints about the zone I call, so it must be okay. I do get occasional complaints about the pitch call, but that is because I missed it, based on MY zone that people get used to in the first inning. If a catcher is trying to fool me into calling a inside pitch by pulling his mitt back to the corner, but forgets to actually catch the ball, no friggin way is he getting a strike. But if the pitch actually nips MY corner, it matters not at all to me if he catches the ball or not. A strike is a strike. If the 12-6 curve (and I've called Zito's back when it was better, and Silva and Harang had pretty good ones back then as well IIRC) doesn't pass through the bottom of MY zone, then it isn't a strike. If the curve is pretty enough, nobody will complain on strike calls just because the catcher doesn't catch them properly. A 12-6 curve that hits the dirt is the catcher's fault. It's his job to make his pitcher look good, not mine.

Fair enough