I’m an old guy, 66, and I used to think that the strike zone was the home plate. I know this has gone on for quite awhile now, but theses plate umps have been making up their own strike zone for a long time. Seems like all you have to do is get it somewhere near the plate for a strike. It just seems to me that they have changed the strike zone to be whatever they want it to be. I’m not saying it’s one sided, but man, some of these strike call are ridiculous.
I just hate losing, so I guess I’m kinda ranting right now. Nonetheless, the strike zone is certainly subjective.
It’s egregious. Hit the mit (if you’re at home) and it doesn’t matter if it’s close.
One of the pitches to Shaddy in the 9th was 6 inches off the plate in 2 directions. It happened all night. We struck out 12xs and they struck out 6.
One thing that sometimes goes unnoticed is that it doesn’t just affect called strikes. It makes batters expand their zone. That happened to Koch early.
They called a very high strike on him and the he popped out on a high pitch.
There was a reason DVH was fighting mad in the dugout. This was one of those games when the umps put their fingerprint on things.
I blame it on Greg Maddux. Ha-ha, just halfway kidding about that. But he always tested how far off the plate he could go. And he had such pinpoint accuracy that umps let him set his own zone. Since then, it seems umps give several inches off the plate at times. Not sure these umps are good enough to know they are giving inches off the plate, but the idea that each umpire has his own zone was established in MLB years ago and it seems to have carried over to all umps.
Maddux was good at that. Tom Glavine was even better. If the ump would give him the brown part of the plate outside, he’d stay out there all night.