Where is the strike zone?

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Jun 6, 2016
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Chicago
"I am an odd umpire. I hate calling strikeouts. "Strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they're fascist.""

Get your emotions out of it. A strike is a strike and a ball is a ball. Your zone should be the same for each team. Score doesn't matter. My pet peeve is umps trying to make the game fair or even. Do not expanded the zone for the most likely losing team and squeeze the better team's pitcher. Its not your job to level the playing field. Its either a ball or a strike. Kinda like a robot. lol

I think you're assuming he's only expanding the zone for one side.

Also, I assume a lot of this zone expanding talk is for HS level or other untimed games. Those steeped in the travel world where games rarely go past 90 minutes just don't get what kind of a slog a 2 1/2 hour HS game (that goes 5 innings) can be.

I think TMIB's "expanded" zone is fine, mostly, but I don't like calling pitches in the batter's boxes. Some of those are quite literally unhittable.
 
May 13, 2021
643
93
So what I am hearing is that higher level ball umpires know that a ball thrown with the bottom of the ball at the sternum or armpits is a strike. They don’t call it because the fans don’t like it, or it seems it would be hard to hit. Really not sure why they just don’t call it like the book says. After all the batters are high level players also. What if we did all other calls that way. I know she was really safe but it was a hard play so I am going to give them the out. I do agree with expanding the zone a little at the lowest levels. Years ago I called quite a few 9-10 rec baseball games. At the coaches meeting I would tell both coaches, better tell your kids to be swinging, if they can get the bat on it I’m calling it a strike.
 
May 27, 2022
412
63
As an off season hitting coach and a regular season umpire, I personally subscribe to the NCAA definition. And the overall vast majority of umpires that I watch in HS and USSSA call the zone in that manner. And, as someone commented, the strike zone is what the ump says it is so I am right.

If the bottom of the ball is at the front armpit and you follow, what I consider to be, good hitting technique where your back shoulder is going to be lower than your front shoulder at contact, you are going to have the bat angled up which is not good. Additionally, if the hand should always be above the ball at contact, that so-called strike is untenable.

Sorry, I'm not sorry about that.

So, yes, I have a tight zone compared to a few. But if your pitcher can't adjust to throw the ball 2 inches lower than she 'wants' to, she might not be the right person for that position.

But, I will be consistent so that the batters know what to swing at and the pitchers know where to throw to. And if/when I struggle with that, I don't consider it a good day.
 
May 27, 2022
412
63
So what I am hearing is that higher level ball umpires know that a ball thrown with the bottom of the ball at the sternum or armpits is a strike. They don’t call it because the fans don’t like it, or it seems it would be hard to hit. Really not sure why they just don’t call it like the book says. After all the batters are high level players also. What if we did all other calls that way. I know she was really safe but it was a hard play so I am going to give them the out. I do agree with expanding the zone a little at the lowest levels. Years ago I called quite a few 9-10 rec baseball games. At the coaches meeting I would tell both coaches, better tell your kids to be swinging, if they can get the bat on it I’m calling it a strike.

L. O. L. Truly, there aren't many umps that I could watch and not see some part of the rules that they don't call to the letter of law.
- Batters that want to position themselves so that their feet are a little outside the batters box at the start of the at bat - I have never seen it called.
- Leave the base early - often ignored
- Pitchers getting signal from the dugout, then stepping on the rubber and not simulating taking a sign - it is ignored way more often than not
- girls erasing the lines of the batters box - ignored
- Batter not set within 10 seconds after pitcher is ready - ignored
- Pitchers who step out of the pitching lane - ignored
- Balls that hit batters in 'the river' - usually ignored
- Don't get me started on leaping - usually ignored
- Pitchers wrist farther away from the body than the elbow - ignored
 
May 13, 2021
643
93
As an off season hitting coach and a regular season umpire, I personally subscribe to the NCAA definition. And the overall vast majority of umpires that I watch in HS and USSSA call the zone in that manner. And, as someone commented, the strike zone is what the ump says it is so I am right.

If the bottom of the ball is at the front armpit and you follow, what I consider to be, good hitting technique where your back shoulder is going to be lower than your front shoulder at contact, you are going to have the bat angled up which is not good. Additionally, if the hand should always be above the ball at contact, that so-called strike is untenable.

Sorry, I'm not sorry about that.

So, yes, I have a tight zone compared to a few. But if your pitcher can't adjust to throw the ball 2 inches lower than she 'wants' to, she might not be the right person for that position.

But, I will be consistent so that the batters know what to swing at and the pitchers know where to throw to. And if/when I struggle with that, I don't consider it a good day.
I guess the question would be are you umpiring NCAA games, if not you are using the wrong set on rules. Just because that ball at the top of the strike zone is hard to hit, don’t mean it should be a ball.
 
May 13, 2021
643
93
L. O. L. Truly, there aren't many umps that I could watch and not see some part of the rules that they don't call to the letter of law.
- Batters that want to position themselves so that their feet are a little outside the batters box at the start of the at bat - I have never seen it called.
- Leave the base early - often ignored
- Pitchers getting signal from the dugout, then stepping on the rubber and not simulating taking a sign - it is ignored way more often than not
- girls erasing the lines of the batters box - ignored
- Batter not set within 10 seconds after pitcher is ready - ignored
- Pitchers who step out of the pitching lane - ignored
- Balls that hit batters in 'the river' - usually ignored
- Don't get me started on leaping - usually ignored
- Pitchers wrist farther away from the body than the elbow - ignored
So when you are umpire games you see all those things you referred to, but you don’t call them. Yet you call a ball in the top of the strike zone a ball because it is hard for the batter to hit and maintain proper form.
 
May 27, 2022
412
63
So when you are umpire games you see all those things you referred to, but you don’t call them. Yet you call a ball in the top of the strike zone a ball because it is hard for the batter to hit and maintain proper form.

I see all those things and I do call them when many/most won't - even when they are asked about it. Many times coaches tell me that 'no one has called that before'.

If you want my total honesty about my zone - yes. Chalk it up to ego -or- hubris -or- my belief in what hitters should realistically should be expected to be able to hit -or- what I have experienced through the entirety of my daughters careers (the view from the dugout is great for seeing the height of the ball) -or my mind just won't let my mouth say 'strike', but yes, that is the way I call it. AND, I come that that opinion from seeing how the vast majority (dare I say all) of the umpires that I've watched call it of the course of my daughters careers.

Now, if I get dinged on it from an evaluation, I will re-evaluate. But unless that happens, it is what it is.
 
Last edited:
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
Im going to be the butthead that says the strike zone is whatever the ump calls a strike.

That's what I tell my pitcher DD. "Lily, my dear, it doesn't matter if you thought it was a strike". She's just 13, and she needs to work on identifying the umpire's strike zone early, and then communicating it to the coaches.

We played this weekend and I got to sit behind the plate with a great view. I quickly noticed that he was giving inside/outside pitches 2-3 inches more than most umps, but the top of his strike zone was at the belly button. My daughter was throwing "normal" strikes up in the zone and getting zero calls. Then she told me that the coach was calling rise balls, and with the girls not swinging they were all balls.

It was a good learning moment.

... and she won the games she pitched, but had more walks than ever before and was frustrated. Again, a good learning experience.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
"I am an odd umpire. I hate calling strikeouts. "Strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they're fascist.""

Get your emotions out of it. A strike is a strike and a ball is a ball. Your zone should be the same for each team. Score doesn't matter. My pet peeve is umps trying to make the game fair or even. Do not expanded the zone for the most likely losing team and squeeze the better team's pitcher. Its not your job to level the playing field. Its either a ball or a strike. Kinda like a robot. lol

I'm not sure if you made the assumption @CoachJD mentioned, but this has nothing to do with emotions or leveling the playing field. It has everything to do with giving kids a chance to play a game where the rules were not written for a level of play that they are not at.

This has long been one of my criticisms of many of our national "youth" sports organizations. NFHS writes rules for high school (and middle school) athletes. NCAA writes rules for college athletes. Those are fine. However, USA and USSSA write rule sets that are expected to be used for small children, beer league adults, and elite athletes alike. That doesn't work. This is part of the reason I wrote this article. The strike zone should NOT be a persistent concept. It has to be adapted to the level of play.

Baseball is the worst. If I called an OBR strike zone at a youth game where they are using "MLB rules" ... it would NEVER end.

Official Rules of Baseball (2021 edition)
The STRIKE ZONE is that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball. (For diagram of STRIKE ZONE, see Appendix 5.)

Strike_Zone.0.0.jpg




One of my personal favorite lines to use during a game: "Not every strike is meant to be hit and not every ball is meant to be watched."
 

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