I’m willing to bet most baseball fans have grown accustom to the MLB strike zone and can spot a borderline pitch when they see it. It only took an inning of watching the Little League World Series tonight to realize that the MLB strike zone sucks.
I was sitting with my roommate watching Saudi Arabia and Curacao. Not much talking, just watching the only sporting event on TV in mid-Missouri. Suddenly he says “no way!”
He was referring to a pitch up and out that had been called a strike.
“No way that’s a strike,” he said.
“Actually,” I said, “it is.”
I was right. The ball was letter-high and grazed the outside corner. By definition, that’s all it takes for a strike to be called. But my roommate, like myself and so many other fans, has watched Major League Baseball so much that he assumes that particular pitch should never be called a strike.
We watched the rest of the inning, and I counted four strike calls, all good calls, that would have no doubt been called balls in the bigs.
Somehow, some way, that has to change.
The MLB strike zone is getting smaller and smaller, and it feels like you have to throw a house key into its lock in order to get a strike call. No wonder runs are more common and pitchers don’t last as long.
If every umpire called strikes the way they should be called, hitters would have to start swinging. This would mean faster games, fewer walks, fewer runs, and less need for 12 or 13 bullpen pitchers. Hell, if umps started calling strikes, you could add instant replay and still have a shorter game.
Hitters shouldn’t be coming to the plate looking for a walk, but with the modern day strike zone, they have been trained not to swing at a pitch if they can’t read the watermark on the ball. I say let’s find out who really are the best hitters. I want to see who can turn on an inside pitch, who can take one the other way, who can elevate one at the letters and who can shoot a low one through the hole. No more of this meatball crap.
Walks slow the game down, increase pitch counts, force coaches and managers to make more mound visits, and simply make the game boring. A two strike pitch should be swung at if it is remotely close to the plate. If hitters expect anything close to be called a strike, then they won’t complain when it is called one.
My roommate said he watched a little league game earlier in the week that had three runs and four hits total. Be honest and tell me those types of games aren’t fun to watch. Certainly a lot better than 20-11 Yankees over Red Sox. These are professional hitters. They should be getting paid to hit.
