Need help with strike zone

[joemoore]

Originally posted by senior

Don't worry about your "borderline" calls, they were probably strikes anyway. If you start calling close pitches "balls", you will have all marginal hitters waiting for walks, rather than trying to put the ball in play.

I agree in principle, but then you still have to draw lines as an umpire. If you consider a pitch just off the black as a borderline pitch, what about 2 inches, what about 3 inches, and so on.

I've convinced myself that all borderline pitches are strikes, but that creates a new borderline about 3 inches outside and an inch inside. And I've decided that those "new-border-line" pitches should be half the time balls and half the time strikes using my best guess on each pitch it usually works out.

I've also decided that the strike zone is slightly oval, and that a pitch at the top of the strike zone and 3 inches outside is actually a ball. In other words, the pitch isn't too high and it isn't too far outside, but the combination looks ugly to everyone when they see the catcher reach up and out. No one wants me to call that a strike. The same goes for the other top and bottom corners.

At first, I felt like I was cheating when not strictly following the book, but then I realized that my job was to allow 2 teams to play their game, and call it the way the people involved want it called.