Who Says You Can't
BUY A STRIKE ZONE!

by Brent McLaren

The later hours that night were spent soul searching, thinking about my personal zone. Was it too big? Was I squeezing the outside corner off? Was I really calling them as low as some of the coaches had said? Heck, they always complain regardless of who was making the calls after all, "Benchsight is 20/20!"

The next morning I hatched my plan. Armed with a tape measure, two light-duty 6' bungee cords, some strong kite string, nylon rope and some 1/2 oz. fishing weights I set out to build me a strike zone. Two poles long ago left by a real estate agent would work perfectly. I took our home plate and carefully measured out 3 feet, plus 2 inches (for tension!) from the center of the plate and drove the stakes into the ground.

The bungee cords stretched between the poles perfectly. They had just enough tension on them to keep them level. I braced them back with the nylon rope in a triangle style. For a minute it looked like a very small badminton game was about to take place.

Now for the measurements: "Come here son. Taking your normal batting stance. To the top of the knee - 19 inches, to under the armpits - 41 inches." Now lets make adjustments for 1) the width of the ball and 2) nobody really ever calls under the armpits plus the height of the ball really do they? The bottom bungee cord would be level to the ground at a height of 16 1/4 inch. The top bungee was adjusted to (and left at) a level 41 inches.

Let's also take the 17" width of the plate and add the width of the ball to each side.. Some umpires tell me they call the "black," heck, some call both dugouts, I'll stick with learning the area over the plate. The strings were suspended from the top bungle cord, falling. perfectly 2+3/4 inches wider than the plate to the fishing weights that pulled the kite string perfectly straight.

This is a simple representation of what we ended up with. Nothing fancy, easy to assemble, easy to take apart. The cords and string marked the outer limits of a regulation strike zone for my 11 year old son. Yes, you may not be able to "buy a strike zone!" but you sure can "make one!"

Shock number one was that the strike zone did not look at all like the long rectangle in the pictures in my rule books. In fact, it was almost a perfect square: 24.25 inches high by 22.5 inches wide! Virtually four square feet hanging in front of me. A window to pass the ball through.

On went my catcher's equipment, including my protective cup, "Come here son, I want you to pitch." Now for my key instruction, "If the ball touches a string it is a ball. If it passes cleanly through it is a strike.." And throw he did.

If the ball touched any of the cords or strings it simply deflected a little. Nothing really to worry about. Only a few times did it not end up in the glove, no more than a regular catching session. I was careful not to have a lot of tension on the bungee cords so as to avoid a spring reaction whenever possible. A ball hitting the cord usually moved the cord and came through with only a minor deflection. If the cords were tight this could become a major deflection and a potentially dangerous situation. Occasionally there would be as short pause to untangle one of the strings. This was important. If tangled the strings did not give and the ball could take drastic turns.

From my position as a catcher I was amazed at how many pitches sailed cleanly through the zone. I was unprepared for the amount of movement I would be making with the glove and the pitch still be a strike. As I set up inside, on the left, a three-quarters delivery pitch would take off across the plate, a strike, but it took a mighty move to stop the ball from getting by. As an umpire I probably would have called that pitch a ball. Who would ever believe a pitch the catcher dove at would be over the plate? Next came the breakers and changeups. I was hauling them out of the dirt but they spun their way merrily over the lower cord. Balls that were a mile high and outside broke, did their dance, a passed through for a strike.

Let's get a batter in here. Back I went to my slot position. Look at the size of the box, particularly that upper outside corner. The batter, standing back in the batter's box watched pitches slide cleanly over the lower cord that barely scraped higher than his ankles by the time they arrived at his "back-of-the-box" position. Balls that cleared the top cord were at a perfect hittable position. Go to the other side. A whole new world. I even tried the old American League, down the center, just for a change of perspective.

This is probably not an original idea. Someone certainly somewhere has tried it. For me it was a learning experience. Now when I am behind the plate I can see those strings magically appear in the air, marking the strike zone.

I would highly recommend you try this particularly as a training aid. You don't even need to have someone pitching. The experience of actually seeing the box floating in the air can be quite revealing. You can also make adjustments as needed to accommodate league and age differences. Something that was assembled from stuff lying around in my basement and garage made a positive change in how I work the plate. Perhaps it will do the same for you.

Good Luck!

.... written on January 4, 1997