Need help with strike zone

[His High Holiness]

Originally posted by Mike M
Here is my two cents from a third year with only about 50 or so games behind the plate.

1.) When you work the bases, try to call every pitch. Notice how the batters/pitchers/coaches react to called pitches. Notice how different each PU's strike zone can be.
Notice how easy to call pitches when you do not have the "pressure" to be right.

I have trained or evaluated hundreds of umpires. It took me five or six years to discover the above secret. It is one of the most important things that I learned in becoming a better plate man. To expand a little bit on Mike's advice:

Watch what the catcher, batter, and umpire did on each pitch that the coaches/benches reacted negatively too. You want to develop a series of "tells" that will clue you in on when to call a ball or a strike. The catcher, especially, is giving you clues. If the bench reacts negatively to a strike call of the PU, study where that pitch was and how the catcher handled it. Make a note to yourself to call those pitches balls when you get behind the plate. Study the ball calls that produce negative results. Try to make those pitches strikes, when you get behind the plate. (Of course, if you are at a Little League game where they react negatively to everything that goes against them, this won't work.) )

In addition, you can go to games and watch from many different angles. Pretty soon you will have so many clues that you could call the game with your eyes only on the batter and catcher. You would never have to see the ball at all. I have not recommending that, only pointing out that there are so many other things to study when determining whether a pitch is a ball or a strike.

Mike has put his finger on another truism. It is easier to track the flight of an object moving away from you, than towards you. Besides being relaxed, it is another reason that the base umpire (from B or C) can more accurately call pitches than the plate man.

Peter