I think there are a couple of guys who mentioned they either umpire or used to umpire so I wanted to get some feedback.
In the last month or so I’ve had the opportunity to talk to two different youth league umpires on two different occasions who do baseball and softball games. Youth league means ranging from little league to high school.
Anyway, both guys openly admitted (and defended) not calling strikes on pitches that were strikes. The first guy said he doesn’t call the high strike. If it’s above the belly button he just doesn’t call it. When I asked him why he said he feels it’s a tough pitch for younger hitters to hit and lay off of. He said he offsets that by usually calling pitches strikes that may be just below the knees.
The second guy said he doesn’t call the inside strike. To be more precise, he’ll call it but only if the entire ball crosses over the white portion of the plate. If a portion of the ball knicks the corner he won’t call it. His reasoning was that pitch is almost impossible to hit without jamming a kid up. He said, “these kids aren’t major leaguers. They can’t handle that pitch.”
I’ve always known umpires had different strike zones but I guess I always thought it was something they weren’t consciously aware of. These guys are openly admitting there are pitches they know are strikes but won’t call.
My daughter starts high school in the fall and will probably be her school’s number 1 pitcher. Through little league and middle school she was a pretty dominant pitcher against the relatively weak competition she faced. On a couple different occasions I’ve had umpires come up to me after games to compliment her on her pitching and add good naturedly “I was pinching her a little. They didn’t have a chance against her and calling the corners just seemed unfair.”
How standard is this among umps?
