Never Heard This One Before

[harmbu]

We have all heard the debate about whether a ball that is not caught by the catcher should be called a strike or not but this discussion was new to me. My team's offensive inning ended when the opponent's catcher went to his knees as if to block a pitch and then somehow caught the ball in flight. A very delayed strike three was called. As I was returning to the dugout after coaching third base, the conversation (started by PU) went like this:

PU: Sorry it took so long to call that. I was waiting for a clean catch.
Me: So did the pitch go through the strike zone?
PU: Yes it did.
Me: So, what does a clean catch have to do with it?
PU: We'll, if he didn't catch it, I might not have called it a strike.
Me: If passing through the strike zone didn't make it a strike, what would have determined whether you called it a strike or not?
PU: If the ball gets out of the dirt area, it will be a ball. If it stays in the dirt area, I will call it a strike.
Me (walking away): Wow. I have never seen that in the rule book.
PU: It's in there Coach.

After a discussion like this I decided that it would be in my best interest to not talk to this guy for the rest of the game and hope that he didn't decide to make up any more rules as we went along.