why is the hammer strike taking over?

[jkumpire]

UNIFORMITY

Across everything else in our society, people in authority want uniformity. They want everyone to be a clone, to do everything the same way, so that we will always make the same call the same way.

Since the SB people have been sold a bill of goods, that there is a perfect mechanic and this is how you do it, it won't be too long until the baseball people try to do the same thing.

When I went to pro school many years ago, they taught us the hammer too, but then they taught us all kinds of things that nobody in their right mind would want to see in a game. They were teaching to the lowest common denominator because there were experienced umpires and raw rookies in the class, and they wanted to impress certain ideas in mechanics as right.

Then when the hired people went to UDP camp, they were told to dump a lot of the extra stuff they were taught at Harry's, and the idea was "get it right", and get in the right position to get it right. they did not care what your strike call was, just get it right.


Now it seems that we all have to do everything the same way, as the CCA manual instructs. Do it our way or else. I am very low on the college totem pole, so if they want things done a certain way I will do them with a smile and a yessir, since I want to umpire lots of college baseball. But that does not mean I agree with the mechanics used. For example, I worked with a great guy the other day, and he told me that I had a strange way of starting play after a dead ball: I said "play" and pointed with my left hand, not my right. We were also taught at school to point with the RH for a LH batter when he swings on a check, and the LH when a righty does it. I guess now since the back of the CCA manual has it the other way, I am now wrong instead of different. I hope an evaluator does not grade me down if he sees me with my out of date/out of fashion mechanics. It bothers me.

It is not a good situation, as far as I am concerned.