How to move to view pitch

[pdxblue]

Originally Posted by LMan

How do you reconcile (on that chart):

"Maintains the same strike zone throughout the game"

and

"Has a grasp of how the zone may be adjusted in a lopsided game"?

..in the same evaluation paragraph?

Well, if the game is not lopsided, and you maintain the same strike zone throughout the game, you have done well.

If the game is lopsided, and you adjusted your zone in a way that kept things moving along, you have done well.

Is this such a hard concept to understand? I don't get what part of that you don't understand. It seemed VERY obvious to me the first time I read it.

I don't know of ANY higher level (at least college level) umpires who DON'T adjust their zone to be a bit bigger in lopsided games. It is a perfectly acceptable practice, and is obviously endorsed by the NCAA.

I would be a fool to call a "rule book" strike zone in a game that is 20-3. I am expanding that zone to get out of their a bit quicker. Nobody is complaining!

[LMan]

I understand the concept perfectly well, I was more or less poking at the apparent contradiction on the form, two paragraphs apart. I take my humor where I can get it

Just shows again that you cannot effectively manage a game by going strictly by the rules and nothing but. There is accepted usage, tradition, etc to consider as well if you want to be more than a barely-adequate umpire.

[RPatrino]

PDX, I'll continue to use the GD. Most of the umpires I work with are now converting to it as well. That is not a coincidence that is irrelevant. I work with NCAA umpires, by the way, who are also seeing an increasing number of GD converts.

I use results to measure success or failure, and my personal results tell me that the GD has made a great improvement in my game.

[pdxblue]

Originally Posted by LMan

I understand the concept perfectly well, I was more or less poking at the apparent contradiction on the form, two paragraphs apart.

Maybe I am missing something, but there does not seem to be any contradiction. They want you to call a consistent zone innings 1-9. IF the game becomes lopsided, they want you to be able to "adjust" your zone.

Just because "consistent zone innings 1-9" comes first does not mean that is cast in stone.