Mark Wegner's Pitch Out
 

The catcher and pitcher got crossed up on a pitch out at the Dodgers games this afternoon and unfortunately, Wegner took the worst of it. While it looked legit, the catcher stepped aside for the pitch out but F1's pitch was literally a "cock shot" for Wegner - actually it hit him in the upper inner thigh. The great thing about the whole play was that Wegner stayed in his stance, took it like a man and best of all, CALLED IT A STRIKE! What's actually kinda of funny, I've seen Bruce Froemming flinch more on a normal pitch that the catcher actually catches. I guess those new McDavid hex pad under tights would have helped out but I bet it hurt like hell.

Saw it. It looked painful. Two observations:

1) I wear hex pad tights when doing the dish. I'll bet Wegner does too.

2)When Wegner has worked over 5,000 games in a 30+ year MLB career, we'll see how flinchy he is by then. Froemming has forgotten more about umpiring than Wegner knows.

The amazing thing about Froemming is despite twitching more than a person with Terets, he actually gets pitches right back there. I think his secret is he still keeps his eyes open as he ducks away from the pitch. Or he has seen so many pitches over his career, he basically just goes by sound :D

UES

I know you are partially kidding UES, but really, I bet when you work around 1500 plate games in the MLB, you could call strikes when the ball is half way to the plate, and still get them right more than the average amateur umpire.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, when you get to the Bigs, they don't care about your stance, they could give a sh!t about head height and they certainly don't watch if your tracking the ball with your eyes of your head... At the MLB level, they only care about one thing and that is ARE YOU GETTING THE PITCHES RIGHT? That is why amateurs umpires should not watch big league umps work the plate because they break more rules than they follow. But guess what, it doesn't matter because nobody cares what they look like - they just care about the end result.

So for all you guys that point out Froemming's flinches or Reiley's head movement or Joyce's multiple stances, the bottom line is they get things right back there and that's all that counts.

UES

Also, for fun, check Ed Montague's mechanics as first base umpire. Seriously, watch how friggin' close he gets to the plays.

Seriously, there was/is a huge Ed Montague appreciation society among pro umpires because they can't believe how he gets, like, every play right and that none seem to "explode" on him. He's a freak (in a good way).

The admiration is akin to that a daredevil gets (and for approximately the same reason).

That's become more apparent the last few years.

Which one is that a slam on?

Which is why amateur umps should be much less concerned about the same crap (head height, etc) and more about figgering out how they best get the calls right.

Right. Apply universally.

In the 1984 WS Lance Parrish called for a pitch out. I believe it was Aurelio Lopez on the mound. Parrish jumped out, Lopez threw it 90+ down the middle, batter swings and misses, sitting duck PU gets notched up to soprano.
:eek:
Mick, do you recall that?