carpet behind home

[gsf23]

Just wanted to get some opinions on this issue. I played in a tourney in Plam Springs and at all their fields the have a piece of carpet behind home that the ball has to hit in order for it to be a strike.

Personally I hated it, and as an umpire I don't think I would ever work a field that had that. Yeah it cut down on the arguing, but the games took forever with all the walks. I also feel it takes all the discretion from the umpire. I know one of the things I will do with a struggling pitcher is maybe give him a strike or two that aren't really strikes, just to try to get him going and the game moving, with the carpet you can't do that. If it is a real windy day, I may expand the zone a little bit, can't do that there.

Just seems to me that it wouldn't be any fun to umpire and you could tell the umps there were bored out of their minds. I mean you don't even have to watch the pitch, just need to look down and see if it hit the mat.

[Rick Vietti]

I do slow pitch with both a mat and without a mat here in N.Nevada. I agree that they both have pros and cons. The pros are that the mat stops any arguments (except height) about balls and strikes. The cons are you cannot help the pitcher out if they are terrible. But one of the pros is that the mats are usually wider than the width of the plate and hitting home plate is a strike. This opens up the strike zone in many instances.

Here for the lower leagues and co-ed we use the mat and it works out good because the players in general are not high caliber and the pitchers are marginal. The games still have a time limit and walks for a mat and non-mat in my opinion are about the same. If you have upper caliber teams with a mat, walks are practically non-existent.

My standard line to a player with a 3-0 count is:
I guess you have been at work all day dreaming about taking 4 pitches in tonights game!

[gsf23]

Well, in the games I played in Plam Springs, the mats were the exact same width of the plate and the plate was still a ball.

Even without a mat you can expand the zone. That area between the edge of home and the line of the batters box is in the zone to me, especially on the outside corner.
If they complain all I say is that the whole ball doesn't have to cross the plate, just a piece of it.

[greymule]

Mat ball has been around at least 20 years, perhaps much longer. When I first saw it, I didn't like the one-size-fits-all-batters "strike zone." The pitcher could throw a strike that missed the mat/plate, or a ball that hit it. Today, however, many leagues use a mat, and it seems to work OK. The rocket balls and juiced bats more than make up for any advantage the pitcher might have. Haven't had a problem with pitchers unable to hit the mat, though. And I've never seen a "mat" tournament.

[oppool]

I have called Mat ball several times over the last few years and dont really have a problem with it when it is the choice of the organization or league that I have called it in. As a player or umpire I do not prefer it but at times it is useful. Mostly in Senior leagues it cuts out a lot of the arguing from guys that dont see quite as well as they use to and it always fun when they include HP as part of the strike zone and a 6' arc pitch hits right on the front of the plate. Anyway usally just call it for 4 or 5 tournaments a year and dont see it being a big problem one way or another as long as I still get paid at the end.


JMO

Don

[IRISHMAFIA]

Plate extension for the strike zone. Let me see, how do I feel about that? Oh yeah, if you have a mat, you don't need me. Good night.

[gsf23]

The biggest problem I would have with it as an umpire is that not all the balls that hit the mat are really strikes!!

A guy who is 6'6 doesn't have the same strike zone as a guy that is 5'6. Using the mat says that they do.

As an umpire that is my biggest pet peeve. I cannot stand umps that call pitches by where they land and not where they cross.

The biggest thing I hear is that it cuts out the arguing. Why don't we just mark the whole field. Anything here is a double, anything here is an out, anything here is a triple. Then we would really cut down on the arguing.

[bluezebra]

When using the "extender", there is no strike zone, per se. That's the reason for the extender. If I'm not mistaken, the extender is the "brainchild" of the Southern California Municipal Athletic Federation (SCMAF). I never saw the extender used until I moved to So Cal.

"As an umpire that is my biggest pet peeve. I cannot stand umps that call pitches by where they land and not where they cross." Sorry, dude, but that's the way the game is played. As long as the pitch meets height requirements, and hits the plate or extender, it's a strike. If you have a problem with that, as you profess to, don't work those leagues.

Bob

[Elaine "Lady Blue"]

Gee, and I thought that 'mat ball' was only for Senior League play. I'm glad we don't see it around the S.E.

[ronald]

On the military bases that used to be in Panama, Panama, if the pitched ball hit the plate you were out. Games moved very quickly. I had a few hit the plate cause they were unhittable for me. Well over 12 feet. Had to walk back to the dugout mad as heck.

The funny thing was, that pitchers hard the hardest time hitting that mat. They all tried to throw pitches around the plate to get batters to swing at ugly offerings. Did not matter to me, since I did not go to the game to walk. I love hitting to much. Generally, if I got nothing on 3 pitches, I was definitely swinging if it was close on the fourth one. Rarely, do I take a 3-0 count where it is hittable. I'm not into walking and I did not come to the game for it.

[Bill Baker]

I just started my third season doing Senior games here in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The league is composed of Winter Texans who come here for 3-5 months of warm(er) weather with a minimum playing age of 55. I was the first 'real' umpire show up to call games. No pay, but a free ticket to end of season banquet. Although the competition angle is downplayed in favor of fun, the old juices still flow heavy at the words "Play Ball".

The mat was used until this year. I didn't care for it twenty years ago and had long refused to call games that used the rug. The wind can blow pretty strongly in the Valley and ball action can be lively. Sometimes the mat can be a pretty small target. Batters would wait for ball four, as in "a-walk-is-the-same-as-a-hit".

I was able to convince the league to toss the mat this year since batters wouldn't be able to determine if they should swing based on where they thought the ball would land. I have and still do consider slow pitch a game of hit-the-ball-and-run. It isn't a game of power pitchers.

Since abandoning the old piece of carpet, the games have become more lively, have went faster, have had fewer walks, and more fun for the players. Especially for the less skilled hitters who have had more opportunities to hit. No one is yelling for them to "wait for the good one".