The CHECK SWING!

[GarthB]

Peter:

What we have experimented with in a three man system is always going to the man on the rail regardless of the "handedness" of the batter and not going to the man on the infeld grass at all.

An umpire in C or B has a worse view than the coach.

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by His High Holiness
... It turned out that the opposite side umpire was correct more often that the umpire that was assigned the call by tradition. Even though they had the proof, this mechanic was never adopted because they felt that there would be no way to sell the call to the coaches.

Baseball is very tradition bound. Even though it was obvious from the early part of this century that some check swings were being grossly missed by the PU, it took until 1976 for the a required appeal to be adopted into baseball rules. At that rate, it will be the end of the 21 century before U1 is calling the check swing on a lefty.

I don't doubt your assertions about that AAA survey, but what criteria did they use in their post-game deliberations? Looking at the check again in the dressing room, but continuing to use the old "plane-of-the-plate" or "bat-barrel-past-90-degrees" theories to determine the validity of the opposite umpire's call, might not prove it to be quite as useful an exercise. The other point is that umpires who work at that level are generally pretty sharp. Would the results be equally valid for the vast majority of umpires of amateur ball? Who knows, on either count, but it certainly is interesting to speculate.

BTW, wasn't there an "official" exercise in professional ball that evaluated the BU's ability to get it right on check swing appeals? I thought they used video evidence in that case too, and found that professional base umpires were right most of the time. The question I'd have to ask there was were they still using the "code" during that exercise, and how many times did the BU overrule the PU's call when the PU had already made the "Ball; no he didn't go" call. My impression was that the survey was in response to complaints about BU's failing to overrule their PU partner, but I might be WAY wrong about that. Just interested is all.

It certainly has been worth discussing. I'll probably continue to do it the "old fashioned" way. We all tend to follow the rules of the system we work WITHIN as much as the rules of the system we work UNDER. It works for us, but if and when we catch up with your guys, what I'm used to doing or what I believe about the value of that won't matter. I'm sure you'd agree.

Cheers

[insatty]

Warren: Your four guidelines in your earliest post are excellent. Practical recommendations that any umpire trying to improve his game can understand and implement are rare but welcomed indeed. Thank you.

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by insatty
Warren: Your four guidelines in your earliest post are excellent. Practical recommendations that any umpire trying to improve his game can understand and implement are rare but welcomed indeed. Thank you.

You are most welcome, insatty.

Cheers