Grunting against the rules?

just kidding…first thing that popped into my head. Fwiw, one of my sons pitching coaches encouraged it…said it does help velocity. My son always referred to this quote

I agree with Scherzer. And “tool” is putting it mildly.

So pitchers grunting is turning into tennis now, eh? 

The irony to me about the OP is the dugout behavior not in the accordance with the spirit of play *IS* against the rules [3-3-1(f)(4)] ... although I have had pitchers tell me it actually pumps them up to have the dugout doing stupid stuff.

Not sure if it is happening everywhere but, at the high school games this season the umpires have been pushing back at the talk from the dugouts. I have seen a number of warnings given out to other teams. Umpires have been instructing teams that they can only cheer on their own players and nothing derogatory should be said to the other team.

@TxballDad posted:

Not sure if it is happening everywhere but, at the high school games this season the umpires have been pushing back at the talk from the dugouts. I have seen a number of warnings given out to other teams. Umpires have been instructing teams that they can only cheer on their own players and nothing derogatory should be said to the other team.

The umpires in TX this year seem to be focused on everything except the game itself. I have never seen so many umpires worried about what is going on in a dugout, where a player is standing, if a pitcher's foot is pointed 20 degrees as opposed to 45 degrees, and on and on. I have seen so many strikes called in the other batters box this year. One umpire even told our catcher he was calling white batters box line to white batters box line because "that is what they do in college".

@ARCEKU21 posted:

The umpires in TX this year seem to be focused on everything except the game itself. I have never seen so many umpires worried about what is going on in a dugout, where a player is standing, if a pitcher's foot is pointed 20 degrees as opposed to 45 degrees, and on and on. I have seen so many strikes called in the other batters box this year. One umpire even told our catcher he was calling white batters box line to white batters box line because "that is what they do in college".

I have seen the same. More HS umpires need to focus on what’s going on between the white lines as opposed to outside of them. Tuesday night I saw a young home plate umpire calling the tightest strike zone I have ever seen in a HS baseball game. Wouldn’t give the knees or the corners. Pretty frustrating when you teach kids to locate there and it’s not called a strike. Pretty much ruined the game for all involved but he damn sure made sure no player had a foot outside of the dugout. I was proud of my guy (a kid I instruct) for keeping his composure and working thru it.

@TxballDad posted:

Not sure if it is happening everywhere but, at the high school games this season the umpires have been pushing back at the talk from the dugouts. I have seen a number of warnings given out to other teams. Umpires have been instructing teams that they can only cheer on their own players and nothing derogatory should be said to the other team.

Annually there are points of emphasis published by NFHS and State associations.   Dugout actions are appearing on the list more frequently.  If you have any desire to be assigned to post season play, those enforcement actions go a long way in the eyes of state assignors.

@ARCEKU21 posted:

"that is what they do in college".

I think that umpire needs to go watch a college game.  My experience so far with watching DIII umpires is that the strike zone is small but mostly accurate. as compared to High School.  It seems to be pretty accurate over the plate, the occasional missed ball or two off the plate outside that gets called a strike, but up and down is tight.  a ball below belly button to a ball above knees is pretty common. They still seem to have the same issue with good breaking balls though.

I've seen quite a few college freshman pitchers perplexed by not getting that call off the corner or the low/high strike.  It's' an adjustment.  They are learning they have to actually have good stuff that plays in the strike zone and have to be able to hit that corner, not just be near it.

Glad on the crackdown of dugout behavior and chirping,  I won't go into all that, I've made my opinion of it pretty clear in the past.

And yes, don't grunt if you don't throw heat, you could get the same benefits of the grunt with a silent "grunt".  Usually, for the guy that did it originally, it was an involuntary thing, not a teach or thing to copy.  And I'm pretty sure the jury is still out on the actual effectiveness beyond if/then logic.  Ryan threw hard, he grunts, if I grunt, then I'll throw hard.  I believe if the grunt isn't natural, and you are purposefully doing it, you are probably also muscling up and that's counter-productive to throwing hard.  Throw easy hard.

"Sportsmanship" has always been something that is a point of emphasis, but this year it's being pushed harder. In particular, bench jockeying and fan/parental behavior - there's a #BenchBadBehavior campaign.

IMO - there's lines that shouldn't be crossed. I have a higher tolerance than some others mainly because my kids played and I understand some amount of "stuff" is 'patrolled' by those involved in the game. I'd rather only focus between the lines, but it's hard when out of the blue from the dugout someone screams something (sometimes obscene) while the pitcher is in his windup or just delivering.  If you're a coach and cannot control that, then you force me to divert my attention from my job in order to do your job. Is that right?  What if I don't say something and the next pitch hits some kid in the ear hole. Was it on purpose? Who knows? What if said child has a lawyer in the family that wants to allege I should have done something to stop the dugout chatter because it crossed the line as decided upon by the point of emphasis we're given. You don't think it would happen?  Today? Really?  You wonder why there are less (good) officials around?  (there's another campaign for that btw).

As for the parents/fans, there's supposed to be a game administrator on site for every game that can address "line crossers". Again, if I have to stop what I'm supposed to be doing in order to find that person, then it's "on me" for being some sort of hard ass become some jack* parent is telling some 17 year old kid he sucks. Parents don't police other parents (some too fearful to get involved)... Most just move away and let that individual "stand out". I had a coach the other night who admonished some students near the fence who were "antagonizing" a player who just got injured on a play (diving attempt at ball ripped down the line and player had jammed his thumb awkwardly against the ground). He says to me after (cleaned-up of course) - I'm trying to coach my team, I don't have the time to pay attention to that...  Yep, I hear you loud and clear coach and agree 110%!

So umpire at last nights game answered the question for this post -

Pitched another game, still had an audible grunt, other team picked up on it, started doing it when he was going into his windup.  Umpire stopped game, told both sides that it was a violation of the KSHSAA rules, in that it was targeting a certain player, and it needed to stop, and that was the end of it.  I really dont even think they were doing it to be mean, its just a matter of it is something different.  Does he really need to grunt when he is pitching? I dont know, but he was smiling and having fun, so its all good.

@adbono posted:

I have seen the same. More HS umpires need to focus on what’s going on between the white lines as opposed to outside of them. Tuesday night I saw a young home plate umpire calling the tightest strike zone I have ever seen in a HS baseball game. Wouldn’t give the knees or the corners. Pretty frustrating when you teach kids to locate there and it’s not called a strike. Pretty much ruined the game for all involved but he damn sure made sure no player had a foot outside of the dugout. I was proud of my guy (a kid I instruct) for keeping his composure and working thru it.

Same story with D1 ball this year