Good God, man ... how big do you think a softball is?!?!?! 6 inches? You've purchased your softballs from an incompetent manufacturer.

16 inch? :D

Hmmmm.....16" ball in a FP game? That could be interesting.

Wouldn't need no stinkin' bat testing! :D

OK its an exageration. I get it. I was trying to make the point that its a lot of room on either side. No its not 2 feet.

Strike zone
 

Irish, here's what I understand about the strike zone. Any part of the ball in the officially defined zone is a strike. So, an umpire is on reasonably solid ground calling a ball over the white (17") plus over the black border (1" on each side of the plate) plus the width of the ball (4" on both sides of the plate). This is a total of 27 inches. Why would you find it acceptable for an umpire to call strikes on pitches that are 1 to 2 widths of the ball outside this acceptable strike zone. Because that's what the first poster says he is calling.

Because that is how we are instructed to call the strike zone, just as I have posted numerous times on here and eteamz. The strike zone is only defined the way it is because the armpits and knees are the physical focal points. However, a ball at the arm pits or knees on the inside corner and the high outside corner are difficult pitches that many players cannot hit.

This is understood in the softball world, even by the better coaches. Unfortunately, there are no other physical attributes on a batter that can be used to adjust the strike zone to hitable pitches, so it is handled through instruction and interpretation. Umpires are instructed to bring it down a little, up a little, and to allow the same "square area" for the pitcher, out a little. An inside or outside pitch, even a ball's width, is much more hitable just above the knees and below the armpits than an inside pitch across the plate at the armpits/knees. The adjustment gives the batter more hitable pitches while maintaining the same "square area" for the pitcher to hit for a strike.

This is not a secret. This instruction and interpretation is given and referred to openly as demonstrated in this thread.

Actually, the inside line of each batter's box is supposed to be 6" from the plate (white), and the lines are supposed to be 2" wide. A universally acceptable strike zone in the highest levels of softball (NCAA Div I, Women's Major, 18U Gold, Men's Masters, all of which I have called) is for the ball to called a strike up to and including the width of the batter's box inside line. If the ball extends past the line inside the box, that is a ball.

That makes the strike zone 8" beyond the white on each side, or 33" wide. Actually, only one ball on each side what Eddie stated.

I never knew that was an official teaching before, in spite of having heard it, knowing it was acceptable and partly using it. I have always preferred visualizing the strike zone as pear-shaped, full height but wider in the lower part and not quite as wide at the absolute bottom.

The approximated value of pi = 3.14159265358979...

But, yes, it is constant. (Maybe we should change it to the ratio of a pear's perimeter to its diameter!)

(BTW, I am a math teacher)

Cecil - check your ASA or NFHS umpire's manual - Plate Mechanics, Set Position. "Widen it, and flatten it!" How far, or what shape it doesn't say. That is an individual's personalized strike zone. Simply because someone with an opinion teaches his version at a clinic somewhere does not make that an official strike zone for everyone to adapt to at all levels.

Here is my opinion; what I try to call; and what I teach. (Does anyone follow it? I don't know, but at least I have given them ammunition to think about their own strike zone.)

I like a horizontal oval shape, generally from below the breast line to above the knees. Maybe an inch inside (plus 4" ball width = 5" strike zone expansion inside); generally 2" - 3" outside (6" - 7" expansion outside).

As AtlUmpSteve noted, I will go those full limits and probably more outside for 18U or college ball. Still I do not like to go that far inside. You start calling strikes on pitches that far inside and you are teaching the pitcher to throw there. Maybe at the highest level those girls can turn on the far inside pitch, but I think that it is dangerous for H.S. and below.

The reason for the oval shape is to take away the high inside/high outside, and the low inside/low outside pitches. As Irish noted above, those are not hittable pitches.

That is my opinion, do with it as you wish.

WMB

Yeah, I know that's in umpire manuals, just not in rules or clinics.

I will go that far inside, the same distance I will go outside. My reason is that if you don't call the same inside corner, batters will start to crowd the plate and lean over, making my life tougher in the slot. I want my slot back, and that's how I get it; by calling an aggressive inside corner.

I also take away the high inside and high outside pitches for the same reasons. Because I take away ALL low pitches (I am very serious about TOP of the knee), I will leave the corners at the top of the knee. Those are "pitcher's pitches", and if they hit those spots consistently, we will have a great game.

It is not possible to put it in the rules. If you are attending clinics that don't cover this, you need to find other clinics

Hmmm... I have my doubts. If you were really a math teacher, you would know that the approximate value of pi is 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 10582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706 79821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081 28481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381 96442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190 91456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412 73724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364 36789259036001133053054882046652138414695194151160 94330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 48074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011949

Unless, of course, you lived in Indiana in the late 1800's.