[terry]

You want to be entertained, watch the balls-and-strikes by live umpires relative to the dictionary definition of the strike zone administered by radar.  Now THAT's funny.  One study shows that 12.3% of strikes are actually called balls, and 15.0 % of balls are actually called strikes.  In this study of major league umpires, the best umpire was 12.3% wrong and the worst umpire was 16.9% wrong...that's every sixth pitch at worst and every eigth pitch at best.  Ugh.

Yep, balls and strikes routinely are called wrong. Umpires used to talk about "my strike zone" as though they get to define it however they want. Not sure whether they still talk that way, but they still call it that way.

[terry]

You want to be entertained, watch the balls-and-strikes by live umpires relative to the dictionary definition of the strike zone administered by radar.  Now THAT's funny.  One study shows that 12.3% of strikes are actually called balls, and 15.0 % of balls are actually called strikes.  In this study of major league umpires, the best umpire was 12.3% wrong and the worst umpire was 16.9% wrong...that's every sixth pitch at worst and every eigth pitch at best.  Ugh.

Yep, balls and strikes routinely are called wrong. Umpires used to talk about "my strike zone" as though they get to define it however they want. Not sure whether they still talk that way, but they still call it that way.