Drop 3rd strike mechanic

[IowaBlue]

Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve

There may be some items in my list that were not influenced by the coaches. And some of these are, I agree, helpful at times. I don't want to debate the legitimacy of each item, but if they were all "no-brainers", then all other versions of softball rules and mechanics would adopt them!!

This is not necessarily the case. From a brief perusal of the board, it appears that you are an ASA adherent, which is fine. I myself swore by them for years. I have recently come to the realization, after working my last few nationals and having conversations with some of my acquaintances on the national staff, state UIC, going to clinics, etc, that for some reason they are very scared and reluctant to change.

Their mechanics options, compared to what the NCAA now offers, are almost becoming a joke, to the point that this will be the first time in my 15 years as an umpire that I won't be registering with them and I fail to see why people put up with their restrictions in terms of what umpires can do on the field.

As has been noted in another post, virtually every mechanics change you pointed out that the NCAA has adopted is actually a good and beneficial change. The exception is this new "safe" declaration on a dropped 3rd strike. That seems like some serious overkill and I will be interested to view the online rules clinic video and see it discussed.

As to the original poster in this thread, don't over-think the situation. The most important, and really only information, that needs to be conveyed, is that the pitch was in fact "Strike 3." How you go about reporting that information is of little consequence. Don't worry about "tipping your hand." The players involved are responsible for recognizing the situation and acting accordingly. It is highly unlikely that any minor vocal inflections are going to be noticed by players in the heat of competition, especially if they didn't already realize that the situation dictated that the runner should run and the catcher should make a throw.