Strike Zone

A high school coach told all of his players and their parents in the parent meeting that NCHSAA has instructed the plate umpires that the strike zone should be two ball widths off the black of the plate to help speed up games.
I have been to a couple of scrimmages and it appears some umpires are doing this. There was one ump who appeared to be giving two soccer balls on outside pitches to leftys, no way for the players to get the bat on the ball which frustrated players and parents alike.

 

WOW

You won't see me calling that.

 

In other words, what we're saying here is that we're taking a game generally dominated by pitching, and making it a lot harder to hit. Makes sense...

 

I was hoping that someone in the know will say that the coach was misinformed.
Changing the strike zone is not fair for the players and not true to the game of baseball. The size of the plate is one of the thinks that doesn't change due to the age of the player. We have been coaching kids the correct strike zone and all of the sudden it changes to speed up the game. This is only going to teach batters to swing at bad pitches, it will detrimentally affect them when they play showcase, travel or college ball, come on give us a break.
They didn't change the strike zone in college to speed up the game. They put in place a rule for a time limit between innings and pitches. This could be controlled at the high school level by having the catcher and pitcher ready before the last out of an inning, not letting the pitcher take 30 sec. or longer between pitches and having the batter stay in the box and not take a stroll between pitches. This can and should be controlled by the umpires if it is indeed a problem.
If the NCHSAA did tell umpires this THEY ARE WRONG.
I would hope that the umpires love the game enough and have enough integrity to call the game the way it is meant to be called and not be bullied by some well meaning but baseball ignorant suit in an office.

 

We were certainly not told that at our rules meeting. The zone remains the same as listed in the NFHS rule book. The Coach is misinformed.

 

I totally agree, I think the coach was misinformed.

 

Whew....

 

STRIKE ZONE IS UP TO BLUE??

file:///strike%20zone.webarchive

Apparently, the major league strike zone changed dramatically between the 2000 and 2001 seasons. The umpires had decided they would call what they wanted and got reined in before the 2001 season. That sounds like what might have been rumored here and now??
I also did not know that the upper limit of the official strike zone is "midway between the belt and shoulders". So, the strike zone is partially defined by where a batter positions his belt??? Blue DOES have a tough job (and a lot of leeway.
Any clarifications to this would be helpful and instructive to me.

nr

 

I spoke with Mark Dreibelbis an Assistant Commissioner and Supervisor of Officials @ NCHSAA (and owe them an apology for letting the coach lead me to think they were behind any rule change) and he informed me that his office emphasizes following the NFHS Rule Book. The meeting the coach may have been talking about could have been the conference AD and Coaches.

 

Or the coach just lied to the players to get them to swing at that pitch. Most umps give pitchers at least one baseball off the plate anyways. Two if its belt high. The strike zone is actually a pentagon. Go figure.