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Strike zone a figment of imagination
I have been spending some time recently explaining the game of baseball to my 9-year-old friend, Alex. Central to all discussions is what we call "the imaginary box." You know, the strike zone. I tell him that the box is as wide as home plate and begins at the batter's knees and extends to the letters on the batter's jersey. Or maybe to his belt. Or, depending on the pitcher and the umpire, it is a little wider than home plate. Or... wow. I never thought I'd be having a conversation on such a cutting-edge topic with a 9-year-old. Isn't it strange that more than 100 years after Abner Doubleday did or didn't invent baseball -- another cutting-edge topic, as it turns out -- everybody is still a little shaky on what the strike zone really is? The pooh-bahs of baseball want the umpires to call a strike all the way up to the letters. The umpires want to stick to the belt buckle. The whole thing is being audited with pitch counts, a process vaguely resembling a study of voting patterns in Broward County, Fla. I say rules are rules and there is nothing wrong in asking the umpires to call a fastball at the letters a strike. Alex is concerned with another issue: he wants to know where the imaginary box goes when the game is finished. I say the umpires mostly take it home with them. In their heads. Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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