borderline pitches

[EsqUmp]

Originally Posted by xtremeump

I am very impressed with everyone on here as there ability to post. As a Coach when I took my team to the Eastern ASA Nationals 14U (A) we played over 60 games that summer. I taught my team that every Umpire is going to be different. I know nobody here will believe that but it is 100% True. My Hitting coach loved the Book Rule K-Zone, my Pitching coach loved the outside K-Zone. Now as an Umpire Call the same for both teams all of the time. We get paid for Strikes and Outs. Be consistent and you will have good Game Management.

I got what you're saying. Far too many times I have observed umpires at games and heard, "Where was that pitch?" asked within the defensive dugout among the coaching staff. No, I'm not talking about actually questioning balls & strikes to the umpire. If you hear, "Where was that," "Right at the knees" etc. more often than, "Take that one to right field" or "Go the other way with it" then you might want to re-evaluate your view of the strike zone.

Likewise, if you're calling more bang-bang plays safe than out, you may want to reconsider whether you truly "stop-set-focus-hold and make the call." Too many umpires see the runner about to hit the base and forget that the ball is traveling at least 5x faster than the runner in most cases. A decently thrown ball that is 15 feet from the base will likely beat a runner who is 3 feet from the base.

No one wants to hear, "Leave it up there Mary" or "Nine iron" and I don't advocate umpiring in a way that will bring that on. But pitchers pay too much money to perfect their pitching to have umpires calling the "money pitch" a ball.