Strike zone

[David B]

Originally Posted by Tim C

I think discussions of a strike zone begin to define umpiring.

Calling balls and strikes is a mixture between art and science.

It would be impossible for an umpire of quality to call the rule book strike zone. Curve balls that catch the front knee and then bounce short of the catcher cannot, in reality, be called strikes. It is not even an "unwritten rule" it is simple fact.

Umpires that advance to higher level baseball (as played by shaving aged players) learn to call balls and strikes that move a game along both quickly and fairly.

We know that how umpires call the plate defines you as an umpire at all levels. Those "great" base umpires have a good time HOWEVER great plate umpires advance up the chain.

As noted previously in this thread my strike zone is in the shape of an egg. That does not mean that it ends in a point it simply means that high inside/outside pitches and low inside/outside pitches are judged with a little stronger detail.

That is all it means.

This FED season my plate games average less than 1:30 -- while baeball is not played by the clock I think this shows that I move games along with good game managment skills and I call STRIKES.

I often intone the following:

"With the exception of Eric Gregg (see other thread) I have never seen an umpire get in trouble for calling too many strikes."

Umpires with conviction call strikes and outs --

While this thread is a wonderful experience in seeing the difference between rule book strikes and real world strikes there is one thing missing:

I don't care how you define a strike. Just make sure that you call each pitch consistently and there will seldom be any problems.

Regards,

This is a great post especially for a young umpire trying to move up the chain.

Strikes do make a difference in an umpire - and I'm not talking about the union etc.,

Thansk
David

[TussAgee11]

As a young umpire, I enjoyed your post Tim. Just a few thoughts:

I don't have much of a problem staying consistent WITHIN a game. But I do have problems from game to game, even if the same league and teams are playing. Doubleheaders, with me on the plate for both games, would make me nervous for this reason.

An example: I had a game yesterday, 15 year old REC league, both pitchers were extremely good. Threw hard, and accurate. I took away the top of the zone a little bit, and was strict on the corners. Now if those pitchers had no clue how to pitch, I would have gone the other way.

This is basic umpiring, but I have a hard time determining which way I need to go before the game starts. And once it starts, I feel like I'm locked into that zone. Its hard to gradually change it without anyone taking exception (including myself).

Thoughts?

[nickrego]

Originally Posted by TussAgee11

As a young umpire, I enjoyed your post Tim. Just a few thoughts:

I don't have much of a problem staying consistent WITHIN a game. But I do have problems from game to game, even if the same league and teams are playing.

Thoughts?

Game to game has nothing to do with it.

It's Pitcher to Pitcher, and even more importantly, Catcher to Catcher.

A Catcher that doesn't know what they are doing, can rob the best pitcher from getting the called strike.

When you feel like your having trouble with consistency, the first thing you do is check your own head. If nothing is in there but the game, no family or work issues, then look to the catcher. He/she is probably working in a way the makes it difficult to be consistent.

If the Catcher is doing a good job, once you have learned how a good Catcher looks, you probably have a Pitcher that is struggling. If they're not hitting there spots, throwing a lot of wild pitches, it is difficult.

The good news is, time will help you out with this.

[nickrego]

The Micky Mouse Zone !

A 3-D Rectangle over the plate, with a mouse ear on each of the 4 corners.

Great for getting a slow moving game over with !