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He could have worn the same color shirt as his partner.

Aside: lose the FED notation. R1 is always starts at 1B, R2 at 2B, and R3 at 3B.

I hate to revive an old thread but this thread is full of great information on the strike zone. My question is this: is it it appropriate when using the eyes at the top of the zone setup to have your head height on smaller batters still at the top of the zone even though it may be lower than the catchers head?

Not the grade I was after, but not terrible. I'll continue studying the rules though, even as I hammer the mechanics manual. Thanks to all who helped by answering my questions. Stay tuned, there's more to come!

I had a bad evening behind the plate a number of years ago, and as I was leaving the field an assistant coach said "Kyle, you really sucked tonight". Now, he was right, and if it was between him and myself, I would have heartily agreed. But, it was within earshot of his players and the fans. Ba-bye.

That's not the point of the discussion.

Get a better, less bombastic, soundtrack?

Chest to the ball! But then the dumba$$ drills you in the forehead....

Platejob29. Serious question, what if he said "The zone sucks tonight"? Would you eject for that, and do you consider that statement personal?

He could have ordered a salad once in awhile.

I can't believe I'm doing this...I completely agree with Rolo. I use to attend the training run by the state regularly. Then I went to one of Evans' clinics and it was like the whole world changed. The game had slowed down some and I was seeing things better. What kinds of things did the clinic do that the state training lacked? In my experience most State C!inics is just High School big wigs telling war stories. A real clinic (cost money and is usually a couple of days) have Minor League or a MLB guys teaching

No, it's not. It's arguing balls and strikes. I, for the life of me, cannot figure out from where people are pulling this personal bullSH*#. Let me throw something out there. College game, DC says to me in the guise of a conversation, "you need to call strikes." Should I have tossed him? No, it's not the exact same thing. My zone is not me. "you need to call strikes" isn't the same thing as "your zone sucks". When he tells you "you need to call strikes" he's telling you how to do your job which is a whole different situation. When he says "your zone sucks" he's attacking your zone. And to say that your zone is not you you're contradicting yourself. If it's not your zone it's yours than who's is it?

I can't resist. Warren, that wasn't you in your rookie season was it? (LMAO-Just kidding) Glad he was/you were okay.

I can't believe I'm doing this...I completely agree with Rolo. I use to attend the training run by the state regularly. Then I went to one of Evans' clinics and it was like the whole world changed. The game had slowed down some and I was seeing things better.

I would say game management is the most anxiety personally. You can't learn it from a book or a clinic. You can get pointers and ideas, but it only comes from getting on the field and being in those situations. That's just my opinion though.

You're right to point out that the game "slowing down" is a crucial part of "feeling comfortable" behind the plate (or on the bases, which sometimes takes longer for umpires who are used to working solo). It's not hard to explain, but the explanation requires a bit of brain science. The human brain is a pattern recognition engine, but it has to be trained up on the pattern. When we start umpiring, there's so much going on that our brains get overwhelmed trying to identify what is "pattern" or relevant and so worth our attention. As it comes to recognize pattern, it starts to treat everything else as "noise" or irrelevant and so to ignore it. The other part is our limited processing power. We can process about 100–110 bits of information per second. This limit explains a common experience: since the average conversation includes about 60–80 bits per second, we can almost, but not quite, listen to 2 conversations at the same time. The game slows down when we have trained up our brains sufficiently so that we filter out (ignore) enough noise that the remaining patterns are below our processing limit. You heard it here first: better umpiring through neuroscience!

@JimKirk, I'm on the same boat as @acpar72. When you bring the18.5" Force3 shin guards send me a pair so I can make a review of it. You must have read our minds. We just got these in and up on the site and definitely in need of a review. https://www.ump-atti...ire-Shin-Guards I'm not sure if after adding inventory for 50 new products this season, we have enough money to send out free shin guards. I might have to ask for a donation instead. Just go to the website, find the product you want to review, click add to cart, then checkout with your credit card. If you still like them after submitting your review, you can even keep them if you want. Jim: I just submitted a review of the UE shins. Don't worry about sending me free shins. I'll be buying my 2nd pair from Ump-Attire.

READ the interpretation!! It's a foul ball. Plain and simple. As it should be in my opinion. Since we're too lazy to look it up, I will enable the masses and post the interpretation here! Geez. SITUATION 16: The batter legally contacts the pitch with his bat and his lead foot then lands on the ground outside of the batter’s box. The batted ball contacts the ground in front of home plate and spins back, contacting the batter’s leg that is outside the batter’s box. RULING: This is a foul ball. With one foot still in the batter’s box, the batter is considered to be in the batter’s box at the time he was contacted by the batted ball. (2-16-1g) You're welcome.

@aiber You definitely need to "get the player/coach out of you." If you don't eject for offenses like the ones illustrated here ("that's two blue!" And drawing lines with bats, among others-emotional moments or not) that we all/majority see as no doubt ejections then you are making it difficult for every umpire who works that team or player/coach after you. You are also making it harder on yourself. Any player or coach above rookie youth league level knows or should know that some things are automatically ejectable acts. If not, they need to learn and its YOUR job to teach them. If they get away with it once they WILL continue to do it and probably get worse in their behavior as well as more frequently display inappropriate behaviors toward you and other umpires. I understand that lots of ejections are had to be there moments and sometimes it's hard to be quick or think quickly in the heat of the moment. It will come with experience. When? No idea. Working 200 or more games a year with guys more experienced than me helped me get it together. I'm not saying be quick to eject but some things have to be non-negotiable and essentially automatic ejections. Profanity, Personal and Prolonged are my guides. I also do not get emotional when I eject. No huge displays of my power. No post ejection arguments. Quick EJ motion with right hand, a word to player and/or coach notifying them are ejected (and suspended if applicable in college games) then walk away and write notes (name or number, inning, offense notes) while partner plays rodeo clown and gets them off the field/out of dugout. I don't enjoy it but it is part of the game. You have to do this for your umpiring brethren or get out of umpiring and go coach or play. Sorry but it's that simple.

Get an out on this once or twice and you give the coach a hint of what his baserunners can practice next time his team gets together.

Concur:  Drawing a line is not a warning, its immediate, no questions ask