Differences in strike signal

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by bniu

how bout u admit that softball and baseball are essentially the same sport. Softball and baseball are about as close as Arena, 6-man, and 11-man football.

Did you really need to go there? How many times do I have to show the differences and that the game pirated more resembles slow pitch softball than any of the other games out there?

btw, i do use softball signals/mechanics when I work softball and baseball stuff when I work baseball. I was just being scarcastic about how baseball doesn't really care too much about how umps signal strikes.

someone here did make an excellent point about the pace of pitches and I guess it's something i haven't noticed too much but now that I think of it, the hammer does have a point (no pun intended) in softball.

The "hammer" isn't even that great as opposed to the "official" signal for some which involves rasing the hand above the head (where people can see it which is THE purpose of the signal) and then dropping to the hammer. IOW, the "hammer" seems to have developed out of the completion of the call.

So, for the point to be effective, the umpire pretty much needs to do something to bring attention to himself which is something umpires are told to avoid. I believe the best at doing this was Dutch Rennert when on the dish. Good umpire, just a bit too demonstrative for me.