Toughest call for me to make...
 

For me, it is when the batter requests TIME pretty close to the exact moment that the pitcher starts her motion and/or has started the pitch (separated her hands). It doesn't happen frequently enough, and it seems that I usually have my guard down when it happens, and usually grant TIME to the batter. Often, I can't even answer to myself whether the pitcher had separated her hands yet or not at the moment that the batter requested TIME.

I used to have a similar problem, and mentioned it to my mentor.

He told me that I have excellent timing on all other calls, waiting just a bit after a player is safe or out before actually saying safe or out; waiting just a bit after the pitch before saying ball or strike.

Then he told me to use the same timing on a time-out request by the batter. The problem went away after that.

That would solve the problem, wouldn't it. :cool:

Time is a condition of grace as granted by the umpire. I rarely grant time to batters in slow pitch, and only in fast pitch if the pitcher has not started their motion.