1. The pitcher gets the benefit of the doubt on a ball or strike.

Now everyone will tell you that calling strikes keeps the game moving, that calling strikes gets the batters swinging. True. But those are not intrinsic reasons for calling strikes. Those are reasons for the nonce, reasons to make the umpire's life easier. That's not why I call strikes. I have a philosophical reason. Umpires hate to influence games, but umpires are more human than they admit. You and I know that a natural tendency, one we must all fight, is to squeeze the strike zone as the game gets tighter. What was a strike in the first inning is not a strike in the sixth.

Here's what I recommend to young umpires. Somewhere in the fifth inning, deliberately blow a pitch. Call a strike on a ball that was five inches too high or six inches outside the plate. You may be surprised. The call may be greeted with nothing more than the usual razzing. If that happens, you've begun to squeeze the plate. That's unfair to the pitcher. Flip a coin? Call it a strike.

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