So, I went down to Citizens Bank Park the other night, Phillies were playing, crowd was buzzing like always. Usually, I’m just watching the hitters, the pitchers, the big plays. But this time, I told myself, I’m gonna watch the ump. Specifically, the home plate guy. We always give ’em grief, right? I wanted to see what it’s really like, or at least try to figure it out from my seat.
First off, let me tell you, it’s way different than seeing it on TV. The angle from the stands, even decent seats like I had behind the dugout, it’s tricky. That strike zone? It looks tiny from there. And fastballs, man, they just explode into the catcher’s mitt. Trying to judge the corners? Forget about it.
Trying to Call Pitches Myself
I started trying to make the call in my head before he did. Ball… strike… ball… Okay, I felt pretty good on the obvious ones way inside or way outside. But the borderline stuff? Wow. Here’s what I noticed:
- The vertical zone is super hard to judge from the side. Pitches at the knees or letters looked different almost every time depending on the batter’s stance.
- Curveballs dropping in looked like strikes one second, then balls the next. Very deceiving.
- The consistency is what gets you. I’d call one pitch a strike, then a nearly identical one a ball in my head. The ump, he was mostly calling them the same, even if I didn’t agree initially.
There was this one slider, bottom corner, looked like paint to me. The ump called it a ball. The pitcher wasn’t happy, some fans grumbled. From my angle, I thought it clipped the black. But then I thought, okay, his view is dead on. Mine is off to the side. Maybe it was just off. You gotta respect the viewpoint they have, it’s completely different.
And the pressure! Every single pitch, thousands of people ready to jump down your throat if they disagree. Plus the players chirping. It’s intense. You have to be so focused, block everything out. I tried focusing like that for just one inning and my head was spinning.
So, yeah. My little experiment. Did it make me agree with every call? Nope. Still yelled at a couple low strike calls later on, gotta be honest. But watching that Phillies ump closely for a few innings, trying to do his job from my seat? It gave me a bit more appreciation. It’s a tough gig. Way tougher than it looks on the broadcast when they draw the little box for you.
