geowardjr
Member
This past spring/summer I thought it was interesting to hear one of the college head coaches state "Once we learned the umpire's strike zone, we were forced to be more aggressive at the plate".
From the 10u days on, how often have you became aggravated with the strike zone? It seems that everyone eventually accepts a strike zone so long as the umpire is consistent with it.
This past weekend, I sat in an area directly behind and above the plate umpire. He was consistently calling a strike on an outside pitch (never hitting the plate or the river but actually on the white part of the outside batters box). The plate ump was this particular pitcher's dream ump because she was throwing a pitch that was being called a strike and almost impossible to hit unless the batter was prepared to go after it. I think I may have moaned after seeing the first pitch called a strike but then relayed the information to our coaches since he was calling every similar outside pitch a strike ... our batters adjusted and hit the ball.
Late in the game (was also late in the tournament) one of the umpires from another field sat next to me then ultimately asked how the tournament was going. One of the dads sitting next to me said that the umpires did a great job this weekend. The umpire said that this particular group were also NCAA umpires and had asked if there was a noticeable difference from what we were used to. I had mentioned that one of the umpires was consistently calling an outside pitch a strike ... he says "consistently bad", I said "No, not bad just that his outside pitch was consistently called a strike when it was obviously a ball". He proceeded to say that he understands exactly what I was saying because he, as an umpire, had the same concerns when he was being trained. He stated that they are trained to stay in the "slot" behind the catcher. (behind catcher between catcher and batter). He said that he would try to slide over to catch the outside pitch but the instructors stated that they are to stay in the slot and make the call on the outside of the plate from the slot. He said "Any close outside pitch is simply a guess by the umpire". I had mentioned that I had always heard that an umpire will give you one corner or the other but rarely both ... he said "yes, me too, but that's not the case with how we were trained.... some umps see the outside better than others, it's a guess on the corner."
From the 10u days on, how often have you became aggravated with the strike zone? It seems that everyone eventually accepts a strike zone so long as the umpire is consistent with it.
This past weekend, I sat in an area directly behind and above the plate umpire. He was consistently calling a strike on an outside pitch (never hitting the plate or the river but actually on the white part of the outside batters box). The plate ump was this particular pitcher's dream ump because she was throwing a pitch that was being called a strike and almost impossible to hit unless the batter was prepared to go after it. I think I may have moaned after seeing the first pitch called a strike but then relayed the information to our coaches since he was calling every similar outside pitch a strike ... our batters adjusted and hit the ball.
Late in the game (was also late in the tournament) one of the umpires from another field sat next to me then ultimately asked how the tournament was going. One of the dads sitting next to me said that the umpires did a great job this weekend. The umpire said that this particular group were also NCAA umpires and had asked if there was a noticeable difference from what we were used to. I had mentioned that one of the umpires was consistently calling an outside pitch a strike ... he says "consistently bad", I said "No, not bad just that his outside pitch was consistently called a strike when it was obviously a ball". He proceeded to say that he understands exactly what I was saying because he, as an umpire, had the same concerns when he was being trained. He stated that they are trained to stay in the "slot" behind the catcher. (behind catcher between catcher and batter). He said that he would try to slide over to catch the outside pitch but the instructors stated that they are to stay in the slot and make the call on the outside of the plate from the slot. He said "Any close outside pitch is simply a guess by the umpire". I had mentioned that I had always heard that an umpire will give you one corner or the other but rarely both ... he said "yes, me too, but that's not the case with how we were trained.... some umps see the outside better than others, it's a guess on the corner."