Handling situations: Dealing with catchers
 

In an effort to start a thread that is about baseball I wanted to ask how different guys are dealing with catchers when ...

1) You ball a borderline pitch and they signal the dugout that it was a stirke.

2) Your partner balls a borderline pitch and the catcher signals the dugout that it was a strike and your partner doesn't see it.

I would be interested to see what your approach to this is.

What level?

HS, NJCAA, NCAA, Pro

F2's going to have a very short day if he pulls this $hit & I find out about it!

Sitch 1 - sometimes depends on if I know the catcher (of course then they won't do it becuase they know better) but

"you do that again and its gonna be a long afternoon"

Sitch 2 - none of my business, but I'll remember it for further reference.

Thansk
David

Situation 1 - Under my breath, tell the catcher not to be questioning the strike zone or they will have a short game

Situation 2 - Don't say anything immediately, but may mention it at the next half inning to my partner. Then its up to him what he wants to do about it.

IMO, it boils down to frequency, meaning if F2 did this 1 maybe 2 times I could care less, however, if he makes a habit out of it, then something has to be done about it.

To me this is silimar to a coach saying

"where was that one blue"

I will answer the coach 1 maybe 2 times but if the coach is constantly asking me where the pitch was, we will have a little chat, something along the lines of

"skip we are not doing this all game long"

Pete Booth

1. First few times, nothing.

If he continues, "If you're going to call ball or strike, then I want to call curve or fastball."

If he keeps it up, "Seriously, we only need one umpire back here."

2. Nothing.

After a couple of time of this, I'll respond, "Out of the strike zone."

Sitch 1: I call time, swing around to "dust" off the plate and say something along the lines of , "knock that s*%@ off"..

Sitch 2: Nothing, file it away.

Thats how I handle the situation. We have a lot of catchers that do this here in Houston (5a baseball) . I tell them one time and thats all it takes. :cool:

Sitch 1 - similar to Jim. Ignore once or twice - then a friendly reminder, then a not as friendly reminder to knock it off.

Sitch 2 - ignore.

This is a "conversation" I had with 18 year old select team catcher a couple of years ago when I called time after he indicated to his bench that a breaking ball I called a ball, was a strike.

"Son, we're like family back here. You and I are the only ones dumb enough to wear the tools of ignorance and stand here and let people throw baseballs at us. Like family, we keep our disagreements between us. If you feel the need to take our disagreements outside the family, there's likely to be a divorce and one of us will have to leave. Do you understand what I'm suggesting?"

Not a peep the rest of the game.

One of the best posts I've read in a long time. Thank you for making my day...that is awesome..

I've posted this story before. Minor Leagues, first game of a DH. My partner was on the plate. Dumb kid straight out of high school (1st year as a pro) catching.

Every so often, the manager would yell, "where's that at?" About the middle of the game, my partner realized that if the catcher hit his mask with his throwing hand, that was a signal to the dugout that he thought my partner had missed the pitch. When the catcher hit his mask, the manager would yell something else. When he didn't hit the maske, there would be no follow-up from the manager.

So, of course, my partner said something in passing along the lines of: "you're not telling your manager when you think I missed a pitch by hitting your mask, are you." My partner did not show him up (in fact I didn't know about it until after the game in the locker room). Of course the kid responds with, "no sir."

We finish the game with no problem. Between games the catcher went and cried to his manager that they had been caught.

At the plate meeting for the second game the manager started going off on us. "Do you really think we do that..." and on-and-on. Finally (as the plate umpire) I said "o.k. skip we've heard you. That game is over; its time to get this one started."

He responded with, "who asked you? You're F'n Horsesh!t, and you've been so all season."

He got tossed. He kicked dirt on me on three different occassions before leaving the field. He then came out and sat in the bullpen (in street clothes) in the fourth inning and I chased him out of there. It was a long, long ejection report.

But you know what? I didn't hear sh!t about balls and strikes all game long!