- May 29, 2015
- 3,849
- 113
So one bad game where a position pitcher was pitching and we need to throw it out. I've been to 100 games in the last 2 years and maybe 5 pitches that I thought were wrong called. Just yesterday the ump in the game I did missed at least 30 pitches. Even on these pitches most of them were truly balls unless you think it's OK to change the strike zone based on the score.
One bad call and you are ready to hang the guy behind the plate. One bad game and he is being threatened all the way to his car and harassed on line. So yeah, don't tell me the system is "perfect" when it isn't. Don't pee on my leg and tell me it is raining. Then again, I do not believe people want the game called correctly, they want it called in their favor.
Call "it" (insert whatever "it" you want there) against a person's team and it is the most gawd awful traveshamockery in the history of the world -- maybe even worse than genocide -- and you are just trying to make about you UmpShow!
Take the exact same "it" on an other day ... Don't call the same "it" against the other team and you are horrible blowing a call worse than a humpback whale and Louis Armstrong in a trumpeting contest and you should be ashamed of yourself.
I don't just believe it is OK to change the strike zone based on the score (and other factors), but that is is NECESSARY. At the levels that most members here play, watch, and coach ... the strike zone needs to change based on the score ... and other factors. The purpose isn't to make the game unfair, but to get to the end when it is already over with. The belief that the strike zone should be some immutable force of nature from 8u to pros is ludicrous.
I had another atrocious middle school softball game today ... 17-11 score clocked in at 2 hours and 15 minutes for a full 7 innings. I called six strikes. Four of them would not have been called had I maintained a rulebook strike zone. (For fun, my partner counted and I was hit by pitches or foul balls 23 times. Almost four times the number of called strikes.)
For those keeping score at home, I have now worked four games in this MS season: two baseball and two softball. The total time for the two baseball games has been 3 hours and 10 minutes. The total time for the two softball games has been just under 5 hours. Yes, the strike zone has to change based on the ability of the players.