Gray Area Strikes

[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?

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Kevin Finnerty

This is the best I can do in 20 minutes:



SEE THE BALLS?

Is it just me, or do these balls seem a tad large?

[MajorDave]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

Is it just me, or do these balls seem a tad large?

That's what she said.

[Kevin Finnerty]

Originally Posted by SAump

Now put some more gray balls out there and I see gray area.
Then put a third ball out there and I see BALLS.
Now if you choose a half-a-ball "gray" area, your vision is better than mine?
But that zone? Love you man!

I reduced the size of the balls just for you.

Maybe I should medicate.

[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.

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

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.

Perhaps it has changed in the past couple of years (I thought you had retired?).

I know it has changed here and at the NCAA level -- call more "high" strikes

[Umpmazza]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

Perhaps it has changed in the past couple of years (I thought you had retired?).

I know it has changed here and at the NCAA level -- call more "high" strikes

I know that at the NCUS camp they talked to us about calling more high strikes. we had some Assigners from a few conferences, Pac-10, WCC, MWC, and a few back east and they all talked about calling higher strikes.

[MajorDave]

I am curious to see if they will cover or address the strike zone we call at the clinic. I might bring it up in one of the breakout sessions if not mentioned by any of the presenters.

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by bob jenkins

Perhaps it has changed in the past couple of years (I thought you had retired?).

Maybe it has. I am contemplating a comeback in 2010 on a part time basis if I land the job that I want after graduation in March of this year. Finally will have my bachelors degree (in a different major). I hope to be down to my goal weight by January of 2010. I am working out now, and eating very sensibly.

[btdt]

It appears that all but a few subscribe to the theory that too tight a zone is not as desirable as a zone that is a bit more liberal without going too far.

Too far also appears to depend on your geographical location and level of play.

Sounds resonable to me.

[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.)