Coaches trying to discuss the strike zone during plate meeting: Thoughts on how to answer?

[MarsOmega]

Hey all,

This has come up a couple of times this season and I honsetly have no idea how to reply to this question. Any ideas are welcome

My 15u game last night was cancelled due to air quality up here in the northeast. So my assignor asked if I could help out a youth umpire with a 10u game. I had just gotten my F3 shinguards and had not gotten a chance to try them out so I agreed.

At the plate meeting, both coaches asked me to clarify the strike zone. I replied that my strike zone would be a 10u little league strike zone. They kept pressuring me to give them landmarks on the players. I said that it was going to be a 10u strike zone. Eventually we shut it down and the game was played without issue.

I had no idea how to reply. I was pretty sure that I shouldn't give them any landmarks as it might lead to a argument about the strike zone later in the game.

Any ideas on a scripted response to this question?

[beerguy55]

Coach, the strike zone is defined in the rule book.  I don't have a personal strike zone.

Beyond that, at this level, you might ask if they'd rather their players learn to hit or learn to walk.

There are very few things I hate more than a coach at this level that encourages their kids to look for the walk. 

 

Edit: on a personal note, when my kid was this age and younger a parent would have to volunteer ump in the rec levels/league...that landed on me several games a year...my message to the coaches was simple...be ready to hit.

[scrounge]

"I don't know coach, it's my first game - let's find out together!"

Ok, maybe not that - but it would be tempting :). Like beerguy55 said, just say a standard book zone. Like you mentioned, it's a dumb question. They'll figure it out soon enough.

[Mad Mike]

Tell the coaches you are going to talk to their batters with something like this: “You better be swinging. You're standing in the strike zone.”

But seriously, know the zone for the level you are playing at. As others noted, refer them to the rule book. But practically, call more strikes and your game will go better. 

Coaches don't need to know if you are gonna call pitches strikes that are in the channel (the area between the edge of the plate to the start of the batters box). They will find out soon enough!

 

[MarsOmega]

2 minutes ago, Mad Mike said:

Tell the coaches you are going to talk to their batters with something like this: “You better be swinging. You're standing in the strike zone.”

But seriously, know the zone for the level you are playing at. As others noted, refer them to the rule book. But practically, call more strikes and your game will go better. 

Coaches don't need to know if you are gonna call pitches strikes that are in the channel (the area between the edge of the plate to the start of the batters box). They will find out soon enough!

 

Yeah, I get that, but I think my issue was that they were attempting to get me to draw lines on their batters. In the past, clarifying my strike zone with landmarks has only resulted in confrontations. If I go with the "chins to shins" approach, and I call a strike just above the chin, the coach may decide to come out and argue given that I had told them at the plate meeting that anything below the chin was a strike and anything above was a ball.

[Velho]

1 minute ago, MarsOmega said:

Yeah, I get that, but I think my issue was that they were attempting to get me to draw lines on their batters. In the past, clarifying my strike zone with landmarks has only resulted in confrontations. If I go with the "chins to shins" approach, and I call a strike just above the chin, the coach may decide to come out and argue given that I had told them at the plate meeting that anything below the chin was a strike and anything above was a ball.

You're right on with this. The advice from others above is spot on.

"The zone is by the book coach. All right, let's play ball." That's all that needs to be said.

The only thing I'd ever consider adding is "swing the bats" if you feel like it. The sarcasm / smarty responses are tempting 😈 but best left alone.

To (horror) defend the coaches, this is often asked out of naivety/inexperience and because (At that level) they've had wildly inconsistent zones (game to game to even in-game. I know that's the case for the batter when, on a pitch over their head, they whip around to look at me to see if I'm calling that a strike. It means someone has in the past ).

If it's asked to try and game you... well, rats are going to rat and you just got an early calibration of what you're dealing with.

[The Man in Blue]

With community rec ball, especially at 10u, I don't think the question is necessarily out of line.  They have probably seen inconsistent zones from several different umpires all year.

There is really only one question your hitter needs to ask himself, coach.  "Can I hit that ball?"

If the answer is yes, he should be hitting the ball.  If he does that, it doesn't matter where the strike zone is.

I'll say it again, "Not all strikes are meant to be hit and not all balls are meant to be watched."

[ArchAngel72]

10 U reg season.

 

I tell the coaches at the meeting "Guys my zone is gonna be big, its shoulders to bottom of the knees and its going to off the plate to the batters box line on the outside side.  Tell them swing, If they can hot it I will call it"

 

The main reason is most of these kids are so small their stike zone is the size of a size 7 womens shoe box.  

 

No one wants a walkathon...  get those kids to get the bat off their shoulders.

I also follow this up with.  "There will be no discussion of strikes balls outs or safes"

Never had any issues with it since I started that.  Yeah parents get chippy but the coaches and kids 99% of the time do not

 

 

[Velho]

5 minutes ago, ArchAngel72 said:

I tell the coaches at the meeting "Guys my zone is gonna be big, its shoulders to bottom of the knees and its going to off the plate to the batters box line on the outside side.  Tell them swing, If they can hot it I will call it"

👍

(and, besides, if you are referring the outer edge of the ball, that's within 1" of the textbook LL zone).

[ArchAngel72]

Just now, Velho said:

👍

(and, besides, if you are referring the outer edge of the ball, that's within 1" of the textbook LL zone).

Yep makes one hell of an easy outside edge of the zone definition

Early in the game when the lines are there and bright its easy as hell to see and my zone is VERY VERY consistent out there.

[Vegas_Ump]

At a District tournament, I was finishing the plate conference, and the VT manager asked me, "Blue, what's your strike zone?"  

I responded:  "It's from the nose to the toes, and it's as big as Cecil Fielder's butt!  So you better bring them up swinging!"

If a manager can't figure it out by the end of the first inning, they are not paying attention!  Cmon!  If they got into the Districts, how do they not know what a strike zone is?

Mike

Las Vegas

[ChrisUrbz]

Tell them to refer to the MLB rulebook for the strike zone

[beerguy55]

32 minutes ago, ChrisUrbz said:

Tell them to refer to the MLB rulebook for the strike zone

The coach's kid is on track for a MLB rookie contract offer in ten years anyway...they may as well get used to it.

[ChrisUrbz]

26 minutes ago, beerguy55 said:

The coach's kid is on track for a MLB rookie contract offer in ten years anyway...they may as well get used to it.

That is the official strike zone however like someone else said on this thread. Understand the age group you are doing and adjust to that. Never tell a coach what your strike zone is if they are asking that question to begin with they have no clue what they are doing.

[noumpere]

"I try to be fair to both teams with both the rule book and the level of play taken into cinsideration."

[Mudisfun]

For them, or for you?

[SeeingEyeDog]

Do not...under any circumstances...answer that question or continue that discussion...absolutely GD, never.

Could we also not..."Guys, when you have a question about a call, please ask for time, wait for time to be granted and then go to the umpire who made the initial call. If we need to get together to review the call we will. After our discussion, we will render you a final adjudication of the play..."?

No! No! We take the field with the confidence of knowing that all of our calls will be correct. We are not going to introduce the notion to the coaches what they need to do WHEN the umpires miss a call. It presumes we will be missing calls! No! It's their league's responsibility to learn them on how to talk to umpires. If they do it some other way, we will "correct" that at the time of the occurrence...

~Dawg

[ErichKeane]

One of the better umpires I worked with (for quite a few games!) had a few joke answers that he would use, followed by asking "any OTHER questions?".

So:
Coach: What is your strike zone?
Ump: Whatever it is, I'm sure you'll hate it!  Any OTHER questions?

-or-

Ump: Nose to toes, dugout to dugout.  Any OTHER questions?

 

He had 2 or 3 others (those are the two I remember), and that typically shut it down.  We had 1, 'no really, but seriously?'  And his response was "There is only one way to find out!  Lets play ball!".

When I am asked, it is always "appropriate for this play level", which seems to make them accept it, though it is mostly lower level Rec coaches who ask (tourney guys must know better now!), and they are hoping for 'bigger is better' so they can get home sooner

[BDad]

Tempting to tell the coach to go read LL Rule 2.00. Then when he comes out to argue just say the kid assumed a very unnatural stance for that pitch. 🙃

[Velho]

4 minutes ago, BDad said:

Tempting to tell the coach to go read LL Rule 2.00. Then when he comes out to argue just say the kid assumed a very unnatural stance for that pitch. 🙃

LOL. Remember too that LL is the one ruleset that uses the swinging stance and not the preparatory stance. Makes it even easier for coaches to complain since they don't have the right visual in mind.

[BigBlue4u]

Over the years I don't ever recall being asked what my strike zone is...that's from LL to D1.  However, if I were to be asked, I would simply tell them, "Coach I call it right by the book."  That's it.  No explanation necessary. Then, I would call the zone based on the level of play. However, I will say that some of the above answers are pretty amusing....pretty funny, actually.

[Vegas_Ump]

On 6/9/2023 at 1:18 PM, SeeingEyeDog said:

Do not...under any circumstances...answer that question or continue that discussion...absolutely GD, never.

Could we also not..."Guys, when you have a question about a call, please ask for time, wait for time to be granted and then go to the umpire who made the initial call. If we need to get together to review the call we will. After our discussion, we will render you a final adjudication of the play..."?

No! No! We take the field with the confidence of knowing that all of our calls will be correct. We are not going to introduce the notion to the coaches what they need to do WHEN the umpires miss a call. It presumes we will be missing calls! No! It's their league's responsibility to learn them on how to talk to umpires. If they do it some other way, we will "correct" that at the time of the occurrence...

~Dawg

Dawg, you know you are really right!  This could be construed as "baiting the umpire".  It's almost like when the manager goes to the field ump and asks about one of your calls!  Maybe not an automatic ejection there, but take the Bret Maverick approach:  Trust anybody but cut the cards!

Mike

Las Vegas

[HokieUmp]

On 6/9/2023 at 1:09 PM, MarsOmega said:

Yeah, I get that, but I think my issue was that they were attempting to get me to draw lines on their batters. In the past, clarifying my strike zone with landmarks has only resulted in confrontations. If I go with the "chins to shins" approach, and I call a strike just above the chin, the coach may decide to come out and argue given that I had told them at the plate meeting that anything below the chin was a strike and anything above was a ball.

And that's fine - let him.

Why?  Because when he comes out to argue ANYthing about the zone, you run him.  At that point, with the first monkey's head on a stick, the others MIGHT finally realize how dumb/pointless those plate meeting questions are.

[cjroman]

For lower age games, say 11/12u and below, my answer is "the strike zone will be age appropriate." 

 

[MadMax]

13 hours ago, cjroman said:

For lower age games, say 11/12u and below, my answer is "the strike zone will be age appropriate." 

 

I'm tempted to also add, "The following program will be edited in length to be performed in the allotted time". 

[Simply The Best]

Smile at the coaches. Briefly. Then move on and finish the HP meeting. Begin the game.

Look, coaches like this are working you. They want to define a box for you, one that they will happily throw in your face once you give them one. So don't allow for discussions that involve boxing.

At best, at the very last discussion, "Let's start the game and all your questions are answered." Blimey, I refuse to even allow them that. lol