Calling the low pitch

This may help:

http://www.amateurumpire.com/others/misc/porter02.htm

Look at #8.

Think of the plate as 3 dimensional. The strike is called at the front of the plate. My son has thrown a strike which hit the batters back foot. UMP calls it a strike and then awards the batter a base. Happened a few times.

quote:

My son has thrown a strike which hit the batters back foot. UMP calls it a strike and then awards the batter a base.

Are you serious?

I hope you are not calling me a liar.

LHP against a RHB deep in the box. The ball jerked and dove hitting the batter's back foot in the toe. The ump signled strike and then gave him a base. I can remember 3 times that happened in 19U Elite BB.

That was a terrible call - if a batter is struck by a pitch which is in the strike zone - it is a strike, he is NOT entitled to first base. Rule 6.08 B

08

As far as calling the low strike, if the ball is hitting the ground the only way it is getting called a strike is in 60 bases because the kids are so small. With older kids I can't see anyone calling that a strike. If you have curve balls hitting the groung that should be strikes then your catcher is too far back. If he is up where he is supposed to be there is no way this happens.
In the case where it hits the batter's foot the ump is not doing something right. On a pitch that hits a batter no matter if in the zone or not he shoul;dn't be signalling the pitch, but instead he should call time and either award the base or call the strike. Either way the time call should be first because the batter was hit. If he had his body in the zone then it's a strike. In the OP it hit his foot so the ump should call time and award first.

quote:

I hope you are not calling me a liar.

LHP against a RHB deep in the box. The ball jerked and dove hitting the batter's back foot in the toe. The ump signled strike and then gave him a base. I can remember 3 times that happened in 19U Elite BB.

No, I wasn't calling you a liar. I meant: Are you serious that the ump called a strike and then sent the batter to first base?

This may have occurred in 19U elite baseball as you stated but is sure isn't elite officiating. If the call is strike and the batter is hit he goes nowhere. He's either still at bat or out if it's the third strike.

Pilsner we were behind home plate and the UMP raised his right arm and called strike. He then called time and awarded the base.

Micheal T there are lots of called strikes that hit the ground at 4-5" behind the plate. I see that often.

I beg to differ. I am 6'0" tall and the hollow of my knee is 18" from the ground. There is no way a pitch can break enough to drop from 18" to the ground 5" behind the plate. Investigate the trajectory needed to do that and see if you don't agree.
The only way a pitch is going to go through the zone and hit the ground before the catcher is for the catcher to be too far back.

quote:

Pilsner we were behind home plate and the UMP raised his right arm and called strike. He then called time and awarded the base.

Just curious. How did the defensive coach react to this ruling?

No one put up a fuss about the call. I saw it hit the foot and am no expert on the rules. There were 20 + people sitting around me and they all questioned how it could be called a strike and then be awarded a base.
MT I watched my son pitch a week ago and he had at least 5 called strikes in a game against Brown that hit the ground inches behind the plate. One pitch jerked so violently the catcher didn't have time to react. It hit between his feet.

I agree, hbp can be a strike, hbp can result in a batter being awarded 1st, but never can it be both.


Any mathmaticians out there?

59'1" to the front of the plate, the beginning of the SZ. 60'6"-17"

6'2"ish pitcher releases a FB at about 58" above the plate. After a 60" stride down the sloped mound the ball will travel about 52.5' to the front of the SZ.

Top of SZ is 18" at the front of the plate. At the hollow of the knee per OBR. Call it 19" for others.

Thats a 40" drop in 52.5'..Some one find the slope, then project that about 2.5' to the glove. I have my math major son in law working on it, he'll probably have it graphed and charted in the morning ;')

Now throw a 6 footish Barry Zito or Jamie Moyer out there, throwing that lazy hook of theirs, hitting the front of the zone at 18" high and still breaking down. Well, like I said, you do the math cause I just gave my self a head ache.

I always come back to the "expected call theory" on the low strike, especially the big bender. Which I cringe to think of "the expected call" if that's what a call is, then just give everyone at the ball park a voting button. You know like on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"..

If the catcher catches the ball with his glove on the dirt, and it's called a strike, your tearing some ones body organs out, with no anesthetic, at least it sounds like it. But, let a batter swing and miss that pitch and listen to the ooh's and aaah's of "great pitch". So swing and miss no problem, call it, hang on..

Tough when one breaks it down that fine. I just try and call it at the plate in proportion to the knee, and keep it consistent.

quote:

Micheal T there are lots of called strikes that hit the ground at 4-5" behind the plate. I see that often.

You would not see that if I were behind the plate.


Of course, I wouldn't be giving First base to a HBP, either.

From the original post:

quote:

Our pitcher didn't get a strike on any of these. A couple of our more eager dads were on the ump pretty hard and both got run.

You will not get many borderline calls in your favor with dads like that.

I tried explaining that to them, to no avail. The event I described in the original post came up in the top of the 7th in a tie game 8-8. After a number of walks I guess these guys were over the edge and just let blue have it. We lost 14-8.

The other coach was pretty smart. After 6 consecutive walks, the dad's in question blew up and were tossed. The other team didn't swing at much of anything after that, knowing blue certainly wasn't going to help us at that point. A couple misplayed grounders and a few more walks and it's 14-8. Long night.