I’m sure you’ve seen some of the videos out there of umpires making bad ball & strike calls. We see this even more so now in the majors due to the virtual strike zone that is displayed throughout the game. You can’t argue this, or you’ll be tossed just like the Cardinals manager this past weekend at Wrigley after a bad call. People call for robot umps; people rip these umpires to shreds for being blind, like Angel Hernandez. Everybody is complaining because there was a called third strike that was one inch outside of the zone. You know what the answer is? Swing the bat.
This is a concept that I’m trying to get across to my son. My son’s about 4.5 feet right now; he’s got a pretty small strike zone. Yet this weekend, he was rang up a couple times. He was like “Dad, that pitch was way outside” or “Dad, that pitch was high”. I told him although I didn’t disagree with him, when you have 2 strikes, you have to swing at anything close; that’s how I was always taught. This concept should be taught to all baseball players today, who all know the strike zone down to the quarter-inch… Look, if there’s a pitch you don’t want to swing at, something that’s close, and you have 0 or 1 strike, fine; take the pitch. However, if there are 2 strikes, and there is a pitch, not your ideal pitch, but something that is in the vicinity of the strike zone, swing the bat. I think it’s going to take some time to get this across to my son.
He does have a pretty good eye; I don’t want him swinging at junk in general. Yet, if you give the umpire an opportunity to ring you up, on something close… that’s your fault. Take a hack at it. Much better to go down swinging then looking IMO. I ran another angle by him too: what about when you’re pitching? You like to get that “close” strike call right? Haha… Yeah, heck yeah you do. So because he pitches, he should be able to see this from both sides of things. Maybe this will help it sink in a little better.
Umps are going to make bad calls; they are human. Would the robot umps be perfect? How does that strike zone adjust for every player’s height? I don’t know about all the technology, and although I hate when a call goes against my team, I do like the human element. I understand mistakes will happen, as long as they’re truly mistakes, and not calls with a purpose, like the fix is in type shit, or you don’t like a team/player type stuff. You don’t want to punish players for a good eye, yet don’t we want to see guys swinging at pitches that are close? With two strikes, there is no other way.
So there’s my observation for the day, and my lesson of the day for my son. I’ve heard the same message being preached to his teammates as well; we’re on the right track I think. Now if these professional players getting paid a lot of money can grasp this and stop whining…
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