Went out to Washington last night, a JV doubleheader against Tuttle. This was my 6th or 7th game for a Tuttle team this season, and the coaches know me by sight now. It was a beautiful night (finally!!), and the games were good. To an umpire, "good" means "quick." Umpires prefer nothing more than quick games. Games can be actually quick, due to a short time limit like you might have in a tournament or a huge mismatch that leads to a 3-inning run rule. Games can also just feel quick, because they are tight and exciting, with bats on the balls, pitchers right around the strike zone, kids making plays, and lots of competitive tension.
High-quality baseball can occur at any level, and it's really great to see when two teams are at just about the same level, because it keeps the game close, makes it interesting, and makes it quick. We umpires are like anyone else, in that we want to see high-quality baseball, because you have a lot more fun calling those games than you do calling walkfests. Walkfests? That's where you have two pitchers who couldn't throw a strike to a 20-foot-tall batter standing next to a 10-foot-wide plate. Nothing drags as much as those games. Batters quit swinging, knowing that the pitchers aren't throwing strikes. No batters swinging means no hits, and no hits means
BOOOOOORRRRIIIIIIIINNNGGG!!!
Now, here's a little secret about umpires: we LOVE to call strikes and outs. Strikes lead to outs, and outs make the game go faster. In fact, on close plays, where it could go either way, we're much more likely to call an out because it moves the game along. This isn't true in all cases but is nearly universally the general guideline. Some umpires will say they don't call that way, that they can always tell on every play no matter how close if he's safe or out, and maybe they can. But if I watch the runner's foot hit the bag and hear the ball hit the first-baseman's glove, and those two things appear simultaneous to my perception, I'm going to call you out about 90% of the time. The same goes for strikes. If it's a borderline pitch, I'm probably going to call it a strike...because it moves the game along and reminds the hitter that he needs to think about hitting, not about walking. There are other factors involved, like if the ball was fielded cleanly, if the runner is hustling or not, the sorts of things that determine advantage/disadvantage (which is a very important concept in consistent officiating in any sport). But assuming everything is "normal", you're usually going to be out.
Baseball is for hitting, running, and scoring, not standing and walking. Everyone is a lot happier when the game is moving and things are happening.
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