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Have I been calling the wrong strike zone?


Jimurray
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This is from a LL newsletter. The bolding is mine.

 

"Let’s talk about the ball first. A strike shall be called whenever any part of the ball, not necessarily the whole ball, travels through the majority of the strike zone. A ball that travels along the side of the plate and any part of that ball travels inside the vertical plane of the side of the plate for more than 50 percent of the plate is a strike. Fifty percent of the plate, from front to back, is the point where the sides of the plate begin to taper back to the back point of the plate."

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"Joe, where was that?"

 

"It was inside, Coach"

 

"It wasn't on the corner?"

 

"It was, Coach, but only for 47% of the plate"

 

Seriously, no human, not even the best MLB umpire, has that kind of accuracy or ability to discern that. This is overanalytical nonsense.

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First off, no one seems to have noticed - or at least mentioned on here - that the first sentence (I'm not counting "Let's talk about the ball first.") doesn't mean the same thing as the rest of that text. I mean if they're going to get picky about 50% of the depth of the zone, let's get picky about their wording. It is virtually impossible for even all of a ball that is pitched to travel through the majority of the zone. Think about it: the zone is a three dimensional space, with two of its dimensions (width and depth) fixed, the third (depth) dependent on the hitter's physical characteristics. Even reducing the zone to its smallest possible size, a zone that has the same height as that of a sheet of paper (we're talking theoretically here, because I doubt anyone can hit a ball let alone expect to have any chance of running to first with their knees level with their chest), and allowing for the largest allowable ball under the rules, the width and depth of the zone is more than 5 1/2 times the diameter of the ball. A pitch would have to break by almost 180 degrees several times just to cover a majority of the theoretical flat zone, let alone a realistic zone with a height several multiples of the ball's diameter.

 

I did hear a few years ago, an umpire trying to convince others that for a pitch to be a called strike, it had to be a strike for the whole depth of the zone. You know how a pitcher might throw at a cutout with a whole for the zone? Well he seemed to say that for a strike, it would have to pass through two of those imaginary cutouts, one at the front edge of the plate and one at the back. I was new to umpiring at this point - so new that I had not actually umpired a game yet - but it didn't seem right to me. That he contradicted himself several times when I questioned him on it, and when asked about a hypothetical pitch to confirm my understanding of what he was saying he pretty much said what @scrounge did "No one can could determine that accurately the path of the ball", led me to believe he was at best mistaken. Assuming the pitch crossed the front edge, and stayed over the plate until it crossed one of the angled back edges, it would have to be through more than half the depth of the zone. Perhaps this same thought about a my guy's tunnel strike zone is where the idea of what the newsletter is talking about came from?

 

Still seems whacky to me!

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50% of the majority of the strike zone is over the plate. But, let's talk about the ball first.  60% of it has to be thrown towards the plate while the other 40% is on the first or third base side of the original line it was thrown from.  But, the pitcher's foot must me 70% going towards the plate while the other 30% of it is going toward the batter's box.

 

If any of these guidelines are violated, the pitch is a ball and any explanation to the coach should simply be "I don't know where the he!! that pitch was.  I had my good eye closed and the other one isn't good with math."  But, he cannot be EJ unless 20% of his right foot is on the foul line and 50% of his left foot is in the batter's box.  Otherwise, poll the audience to get a majority vote of 50% of the audience to decide if he should be EJ or not.

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50% of the majority of the strike zone is over the plate. But, let's talk about the ball first.  60% of it has to be thrown towards the plate while the other 40% is on the first or third base side of the original line it was thrown from.  But, the pitcher's foot must me 70% going towards the plate while the other 30% of it is going toward the batter's box.

 

If any of these guidelines are violated, the pitch is a ball and any explanation to the coach should simply be "I don't know where the he!! that pitch was.  I had my good eye closed and the other one isn't good with math."  But, he cannot be EJ unless 20% of his right foot is on the foul line and 50% of his left foot is in the batter's box.  Otherwise, poll the audience to get a majority vote of 50% of the audience to decide if he should be EJ or not.

 

You forgot that in the poll of the audience, the votes of your crew count for 33.3333333333333% of the poll result, assuming they are unanimous. If not, then the crew votes only count for 16.66666666666666667%

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GAH! You're trying to teach volunteers! Don't overcomplicate something as simple as the strike zone with 15 paragraphs of analytical gibberish!!
At Strike zone simple? Ha!

 

 

I can turn his 15-paragraph essay into two lines.

 

"The strike zone is the area in which a pitched ball is a strike. It is a rectangular cube that extends from the armpits to the top of the knees vertically (LL) and across the plane of home plate horizontally. A ball need only have the tiniest bit (one stitch) enter this cube to be adjudged a strike." 

 

Now, what makes more sense and is more practical to a volunteer dad or 16 year old rookie, his essay or my two lines? Comparatively, mine looks pretty damn simple. :D 

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I can turn his 15-paragraph essay into two lines.

 

"The strike zone is the area in which a pitched ball is a strike. It is a rectangular cube that extends from the armpits to the top of the knees vertically (LL) and across the plane of home plate horizontally. A ball need only have the tiniest bit (one stitch) enter this cube to be adjudged a strike." 

 

Now, what makes more sense and is more practical to a volunteer dad or 16 year old rookie, his essay or my two lines? Comparatively, mine looks pretty damn simple. :D

Not to mention, yours is correct and his is not.

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GAH! You're trying to teach volunteers! Don't overcomplicate something as simple as the strike zone with 15 paragraphs of analytical gibberish!!

At Strike zone simple? Ha!

I can turn his 15-paragraph essay into two lines.

"The strike zone is the area in which a pitched ball is a strike. It is a rectangular cube that extends from the armpits to the top of the knees vertically (LL) and across the plane of home plate horizontally. A ball need only have the tiniest bit (one stitch) enter this cube to be adjudged a strike."

Now, what makes more sense and is more practical to a volunteer dad or 16 year old rookie, his essay or my two lines? Comparatively, mine looks pretty damn simple. :D

GAH! You're trying to teach volunteers! Don't overcomplicate something as simple as the strike zone with 15 paragraphs of analytical gibberish!!

At Strike zone simple? Ha!

I can turn his 15-paragraph essay into two lines.

Does entering the cube (not really a cube) but going out the side qualify as going "through" the cube? Maybe the author has incorrectly parsed the definition of strike and the definition of "through" incorrectly.

"The strike zone is the area in which a pitched ball is a strike. It is a rectangular cube that extends from the armpits to the top of the knees vertically (LL) and across the plane of home plate horizontally. A ball need only have the tiniest bit (one stitch) enter this cube to be adjudged a strike."

Now, what makes more sense and is more practical to a volunteer dad or 16 year old rookie, his essay or my two lines? Comparatively, mine looks pretty damn simple. :D

The only thing I can think of is the author is without practical experience and in parsing the definition of strike thinks "through" means through the whole strike zone above the plate.

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