TX & d400 - It's quite obvious that you are either are a parent or a coach or both, but you are not an umpire. As far as I myself, I do not have rabbit ears, I am thick skinned and have actually been told by many that I am way to tolerent of coaches, parents and players, but that is not the point.
As an ump my goal to to enter the field and leave the field and hope nobody knows I was there. That doesn't mean I get every call correct or I did't make a mistake. It means I was consistent and had good game management.
Now, let's talk about the borderline pitch. This pitch is the one that is established that day between the umpire; catcher, pitcher and batter. This is the pitch that has a tolerance of about an inch either way, the human factor. This is the same pitch that the spectator or coach will always moan about. Yet the only two people that have the best view is the ump and the catcher. Yet everyone else at the field can see the pitch better than me. (I think this is the catagory were TX and d400 fall into.)
Back to the mental part of pitching. There are 3 situations that can happen.
1) The pitcher, the catcher and myself are all in a sync. The pitcher is hitting his spot and I'm calling strikes. Does a pitch that is a little further outside get called a strike, probably. I'm I changing the strike zone, no. The pitcher has consistently been throwing strikes in the same area all day, and yes, maybe I blew the call and gave him a strike. Usually the response from the offensive coach will be; "He's been calling it there all day, swing the bat".
2) The pitcher can't hit the broadside of the barn. The cather set's up ouside, he throws inside, the catcher, sets up inside he throws out side, etc. Then the catcher sets up outside and low and behold the pitcher hits his spot. The probablility in this situation is it's a ball. The pitcher has not earned the outside pitch. Am I changing the strike zone, no. The strike zone has not been established between the pitcher, catcher, batter and the ump. Therefore it's a ball. If the pitcher "flips out" then it will probablly still be a ball. Why? Because he has not earned the pitch.
3) This one will really get you teed off. (But one thing you have to remember, is the two favorite words for an ump is strike and out. They move the game along. Ball and safe pro-long the game.)Take situation 1, at the begining of a game. The pitcher is hitting that borderline area, and the ump is balling it. (Again, I'm refering to that 1 inch differece. Think about that for a minute. Look at ruler and compare a ball to 1 inch. BORDERLINE CALL.) I will gaureentee you that any umpire who is worth his weight will realize that the pitcher can hit his spot, and that borderline pitch can be called a strike. However, if the pitcher starts to "flip out" it will be a ball all day.
I'm sure you TX and d400 have been around the field a long time. I could say as an umpire that I only call it by the book. Ask any experienced umpire and he will tell you exactly the same thing i just did.