Invisibility

[Shmuelg]

No, this has nothing to do with the famous ficitional British wizard, but everything to do with umpiring.

We are taught that a good blue is an invisible blue.

How far do you go to do that? I'm curious.

I'm asking this specifically, because there is an umpire here (Israel) whose calls I really like (his name is Yaniv). His "ball" and "strike" and "foul" and "time" all sound somewhat similar - he kind of grunts it and melts the word together, and you understand him because the word is a bit intelligible, and he uses hand signals. The advantage, I think, is that his personality is not imprinted on the game. Almost immediately, we ignore him, and pay attention to the ball, the runners, the players, in short, the game itself.

I, on the other hand, have been making very very clear calls. That is, "foul ball" sounds like "foul ball", "strike" like "strike", "ball" I rarely call at all (only ball four), but the point is that you can hear my voice, and right away you recognize that it is *me* making the call.

What do you guys think?


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ShmuelG
Israel