For the sake of argument:

[ThompsonUSSSA]

Hey, easy on us Ohio gang OK? lol

We're not all so bad~~~!!!!

 

[starsnuffer]

Regarding your comment on "walk to win." So, iyo, you don't want your dd to know the strikezone and make the pitcher throw strikes. You'd rather have her strike out than walk. At the collegiate level, your dd is going to come home early if she can't hit and/or get on base. If she is striking out, and you certainly don't want the pitcher to have to throw the ball over the plate, your dd will lose that scholarship after that first year. IMO, it is the difference between a pitcher and hitter mentality. The pitcher has enough advantages make them throw the ball per the rule book. I don't think that is asking too much.

I expect my daughter, and the kids I coach and teach, to ask their CATCHER, "where is his/her strike zone?", and then have said catcher explain what pitches are getting called for what, so the whole team is informed.

Look, I'm not disagreeing with you. In a perfect world of course I want the game called by the book, and to have a perfectly rectangular strike zone that never varies. But we don't live in a perfect world. We are what we do, not what we think, and not what we say. I don't feel that I have any control over who gets to be an umpire or how good they are, but I do have control over what the kids that play for me learn, and I can (and do) teach them to adapt. Pitchers have to learn how to adjust to every umpires strike zone, and batters have to learn as well. If they don't learn this, it's as bad as throwing them meatballs down the middle and calling it batting practice. . . when they will never get a pitch down the middle in a real game. Teach them to hit the balls that come in on their hands and teach them to hit the balls 4 inches off the plate, and when they do get a pitch over the black, it'll look like a sweet pitch to hit.

I disagree that it is a pitchers game. It hasn't been ever since the era of composite bats, poly-core balls, and lowering the strike zone to kill the rise. Look at the scores in NCAA ball this year and tell me its a pitchers game. Compare that to Japanese professional softball scores or even NPF play, where it is still a pitchers game, and that will become very clear.

-W

 

[Sweet Lou]

Hey, easy on us Ohio gang OK? lol

We're not all so bad~~~!!!!

First state with 4 teams in the sweet 16.

 

[MTR]

Hey, easy on us Ohio gang OK? lol

We're not all so bad~~~!!!!

You are absolutley right. Most folks I know from Ohio are great people which is why this guy stood out like a sore thumb.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

..............

 

[MTR]

MTR, here are some other questions/statements:

Have your decisions as an umpire ever altered the outcome of a game?

Every decision "alters" the outcome of a game.

Would your disagreement with me change how you would umpire a game my team participated in?

Absolutely not. Each and every game is a unit of itself. Umpires have enough to do on the field without looking up to see the color of the uniform before making a call.

Per your contracts this year, what is the highest number of times you umpire at any one school?

No idea, assignments are made a week or two in advance. HS ball isn't the same everywhere. Pretty recreational around here.

Do "Homer" exist?

I assume you are not referring to the Simpsons. Not in my area, but we are small and everyone know everyone else. I will say that there are those who routinely use that as an excuse. Once had a coach file a complaint that a friend of mine was a "homer" because he "took the corners off the plate." She actually wrote that on the evaluation. She had to be reminded that the umpire had a daughter and a couple nieces in the school and one on the JV team. She didn't get the irony.

In small areas, umpires cannot help from becoming familiar with some teams which may give the illusion of a bias toward one team or another, but I don't believe there are as many, what you would call a "homer" as people think there may be. And those that I have seen are more GAGA than umpire.