Preventative Umpiring

[aceholleran]

"Batter, watch your feet."

"There's your oustide corner, catch."

"Bring that pitch up an inch."

"The fewer warmup pitches you take, the more strikes I'll call [wink]."

I've only used this a couple of times: the first was on a "mini-balk," where F1 had a little hitch I hadn't seen yet. Offensive coach said, not obnoxiously, "What was THAT?"

I simply tapped my right index finger to the corner of my right eye, as if I were wearing glasses.

F1 did not repeat the hinky move. After the game, same coach came over to my car and thanked me: "That little tap let me know that you saw it, and you were looking too."

This isn't something I would normally espouse, but the violation, if any, was miniscule.

Ace