Gray Area Strikes

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by SAump

Why don't you knock out your strike zone. Nice round numbers! What was it 2 7/8 to 3 inches on either side for the "ball" and 4/8 to 5/8 of an inch for the pitcher? That was both inside and outside gray areas you were discussing in an earlier post. I guess we agree on the size of an NCAA ball 'acrosse. Tell me, does your post include those raised seams your spinnin' above.

No, the ball, which is 2 7/8 to 3 inches in diameter, and the inside line of the batter's box, which is 6 inches from the plate. These aren't fuzzy math suggestions, but just statements of facts. Like Joe Friday always said, "just the facts."

[Umpmazza]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

No, the ball, which is 2 7/8 to 3 inches in diameter, and the inside line of the batter's box, which is 6 inches from the plate. These aren't fuzzy math suggestions, but just statements of facts. Like Joe Friday always said, "just the facts."

its 2.5" in diameter.

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by Umpmazza

its 2.5" in diameter.

Not according to Major League Baseball.

[dash_riprock]

The rule says the ball must be 9-9.25 inches in circumference. 9-9.25/π = a diameter of approximately 2.86-2.94 inches.

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by dash_riprock

The rule says the ball must be 9-9.25 inches in circumference. 9-9.25/π = a diameter of approximately 2.86-2.94 inches.

Period!

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by MrUmpire

Not according to Major League Baseball.

And not according to any sources that feature such statistics. Dash Riprock's measurements are precise, mine were the standard rounded off estimates.

[Umpmazza]

Originally Posted by SAump

I know you have a copy of the rulebook. I wanted you to work the around the gray area. Educate us on any part of gray area strike zone. TV commentators kept showing the IR strike zone, asking where the heel was that one. It became so popular MLB adopted it. I think one even had his hand on the phone to a NY tellustraightor. Don't use your wide TV background. Tell us how it works from the SDBUM. Let me start you off. The first batter enters the box and completely wipes off the 6 in line with his size 14 foot. Do you immediately eject or call time? Give me some verbal citations. I can't find the rool and I don't read the numbers very well. Is this caseplay covered in one of your book of facts?

Dont talk about the MLB strike Zone when they have camera from every angle possible. There strike has to be on the money... We as amateur umpire/ College/HS can get away with calling a ball off the edge of the plate both inside and outside. With the K zone everyone can see the pitches being called and it will get back to managers, which will get on the umps.

[tballump]

Even if someone could draw a "picture", and everyone on this post finally came to an agreement on what the strike zone should be by definition, when the actual pitch crosses the plate, there would still be a difference as to what one umpire perceives as a ball hitting that strike zone, and what another umpire perceives as a ball hitting that strike zone.

Unfortunately, no matter how the strike zone is objectively defined and interpreted, it is still subjectively applied by each individual umpires own judgment.

Umpires that are perceived to have a good consistent strike zone, whether it is a just a "little to tight" or a "little to liberal" will be the ones advancing to the highest levels possible on the umpiring ladder, while others will not progress as far.

I believe one umpire said the players and coaches will verbally let you know what the strike zone should be at a particular level. Once you know those parameters, it is how "consistent" you remain throughout the "entire" game that matters.

It has also been said, that no one "walks" to the big leagues.

[Umpmazza]

Ok here is a good view... you can see the older called strike zone, and what the zone should be called by definition in the blue shady part.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Umpmazza

Ok here is a good view... you can see the older called strike zone, and what the zone should be called by definition in the blue shady part.

YMMV, but if I had ever called a strike at the top of the "new" zone at the varsity level, I would have been run out of town on a rail! I've never seen an umpire intentionally give a high strike in any of the games I worked.

[ozzy6900]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

YMMV, but if I had ever called a strike at the top of the "new" zone at the varsity level, I would have been run out of town on a rail! I've never seen an umpire intentionally give a high strike in any of the games I worked.

I've done it several times (called the high strike). One in particular that I remember was the Home Coach (HS) came to us before the game complaining about an associates strike zone being "on friggen wheels". He said that he was sick of these "interpreted strike zones" and "why can't umpires just call the strike zone as the book says!". I stated that we will be happy to oblige his request and he "harumphed" his way back to the field.

I called letter high pitches as strikes from the 1st inning to the 7th inning. In the bottom of the 1st, the Home Coach started complaining and I stepped back from the plate with my hand up and said in his direction, "By the book, Coach! Just as you asked for in the parking lot!". Not another word was spoken and amazingly enough, the batters were actually swinging at them and hitting them! The opposing blasted 3 homers on letter high pitches!

[Kevin Finnerty]

This is the best I can do in 20 minutes:



SEE THE BALLS?

[Umpmazza]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

YMMV, but if I had ever called a strike at the top of the "new" zone at the varsity level, I would have been run out of town on a rail! I've never seen an umpire intentionally give a high strike in any of the games I worked.

So you never call a high strike or almost at the top of the zone...Dude your really missing alot of pitches...and who cares if the batters hit them out... its not our job to worry about where the batters hit them. We should call the zone.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Umpmazza

So you never call a high strike or almost at the top of the zone...Dude your really missing alot of pitches...and who cares if the batters hit them out... its not our job to worry about where the batters hit them. We should call the zone.

Sorry, I'm old school. I don't care about the hitters either. In fact, I don't like rats, period. Plus, as I said, you get your a$s handed to you here for calling them too high. "Get it down, Blue!" is a common phrase in the highly competitive atmosphere here. Nobody likes the high zone, nobody wants it called, from the commissioner's office on down. It's not how we roll. At least not through the 2005 season, which is the latest I can comment about. The old "belly button to the bottom of the knee with a wide corner" is still the preferred zone around these parts. Call high strikes and wind up scratched by the top schools.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

YMMV, but if I had ever called a strike at the top of the "new" zone at the varsity level, I would have been run out of town on a rail! I've never seen an umpire intentionally give a high strike in any of the games I worked.

Those days are over in my neck of the woods.

I call the high strike. Now, I'm just a little D3 umpire, but the 3 conferences I work in I just tell the coaches who chirp (and there isn't much chirping on high fastballs) "the NCAA wants it that way."

Once I started working to get it up there in college games, I took it right to the HS field. What I noticed was that nobody said anything as long as it was there the whole game. Where I see more kvetching is when an umpire is very, very tight.

Of course I live in Wisconsin, and the HS ball here pales to anything I used to see in the south, but even there I heard more complaining from coaches when partners were small on the zone.

(And I'm a former college umpire now as I decided that 10 hours away for 2 9-inning games for $185 with no travel money on 2-4 hour drives on Saturdays and Sundays wasn't worth putting up with the Earl Weaver wannabes I'd have to eject at least once every other week.)