This episode is a little different as Jim does a Monday Solution which was previously called a Monday Rant. In this episode, Jim discussed how the Umpires in youth games have unreasonable strike zones.

Jim discusses how frustrated he is with the Umpire’s very large strike zones. Jim believes the umps only do it because they don’t think the kids will throw consistent strikes. So they make the strike zone larger to make the game fairer.

Jim believes that if the strike zone is bigger, in the long run it will not make the kids any better. Jim believes that a larger strike zone will let kids believe they are throwing strikes but are really six inches off the plate.

If a kid throws a strike what will he try to do? He will try to stay at the same spot where he threw the first strike. But if the first strike is three inches off the plate, then the kid will continue to throw three to six inches off the plate, and it will eventually become habitual.

Also, Jim believes that if umpires are calling pitches too far outside, there is no way that they are calling the same strike or ball consistently: if the ball is so far outside the strike zone, then the umpire wouldn’t be able to tell if the ball is the same strike that he just called or the same ball that he just called.

Youth Baseball Talk can be found at www.youthbaseballtalk.com .