Did the ball hit the mat or not?

[hey blue]

I called a tornament for a league that used a mat to determine if the pitch was a ball or strike. All I had to do was judge the height of the pitch to be legal or illegal. I think I had more complaints about balls and strikes that day than I have ever had when I judge the pitches myself. I knew this was going to be a bad idea from the first pitch. Has anyone else had the joy of doing a game like this? Did you have any success? I made it through but I was glad when I was done.

[Skahtboi]

Never experienced it personally, though I have heard numerous horror stories relating to the mat.

Scott

[greymule]

Some of the leagues around here have gone to the mat, in hopes of quelling arguments about balls and strikes and in an attempt to make all umpires' "strike zones" the same. To me, it's easy to ump with a mat, but it does have certain disadvantages (other than the fact that strikes with the mat may not be strikes through the "real" zone, and vice versa). What was all the trouble over, whether the ball actually hit the mat?

[bluezebra]

Here in So Cal, the mat is standard for most slowpitch leagues. The main gripe I heard over the years was with the height. "Hey blue, that was 12feet, 3inches". "Paint a line up there and I'll call it".

Bob

[Rick Vietti]

We have leagues that use mats and others that we call a regular strike zone. My personal preference is the use of mats for less arguments. In our area these are used for the lower leagues to help them.

My only gripe about using a mat is that you cannot help the pitcher out when they are struggling. It either hits it or it doesn't. With a strike zone you can usually ring up a strike to get them swinging even if the pitch is an inch out of the zone. With the mat no such luck!

[IRISHMAFIA]

Yes, I've worked Senior tournaments with the mat. However, the players argued about whether the ball hit the mat or not. I think it is one of the worse tools in the game.

The idea of the strike zone is to give each batter an equal opportunity to hit the ball, not to help the defense get by with inferior talent.

Nope, I will not work this in league play. If they want a piece of rubber to replace me behind the plate, they can find another piece of rubber to determine whether it is a legal pitch or not. I'm not interested in those games.

[greymule]

Because it treats every batter like a generic mannequin, the mat does detract from "real" softball. It had to be the brainchild of someone who believed that "deep" was determined by where the ball hit the ground. The apologists for the mat, besides claiming that it cuts down on arguments (actually, it does), say that with today's bats, the batters still have an overwhelming advantage.

All just more evidence of the decay and, if nothing changes, eventual death of a once-great game.

Speaking of things I will never do again: games with "drop dead" time limits top the list.

[SamNVa]

Heck guys (and gals), why bother with mats at all, we have the technology to do this balls and strikes thing up right.

All we have to do is adapt the system that they use for calling faults on tennis serves. You just set up a grid of "frickin laser beams" at the front of the plate and if a pitch breaks a horizontal beam and a vertical beam at the same time, then a big klaxon sounds off and everyone knows it's a strike, otherwise silence means the pitch was a ball.

Ahhh the joys of science, no more umpires capriciously calling pitches anything they feel like. I can hear the fans cheering now.

I'm going to start working on the patent application right now.

SamC

[greymule]

Good idea. Make sure you also set it so it buzzes or something if the pitch is over 12 feet or under 6. Get the price lower than the cost of plate umps, and you're the next Bill Gates.

Next--sensors for bases and fielders' gloves.

[dsimp8]

If our leagues that we call here tried to use these mats, we would not do the games. We draw up contracts with each league and no one has mentioned these mats ....yet. If they insist on using the mats then the league's board of directors can do the games themselves.

[hey blue]

The trouble I had with the mat was that I couldn't break my habit of calling the pitch where it came through the zone. I don't always watch the pitch hit the ground if the batter does not swing. I also had to rimind the catches that if the ball is caught before it hits the mat, I will not call it a strike. Thanks for your help.