basic premise to this Surprise series is that "Surprise is an umpire's worst enemy!" Lack of preparation, lack of anticipation, lack of disciplined reaction, lack of total rules' knowledge, lack of experience, consistency, and confidence, and an overdose of hubris: Any of those deficiencies can all lead any umpire into the clutches of surprise.

A couple of plays can do it, too!

Your subscription to officiating.com is guaranteed to keep your belt tight and will effectively prevent your pants from falling to your ankles!  You will participate in a national effort to prevent that dreaded disease of surprise from spreading.

Get 'em swinging

When I learned the "proper use of eyes" technique for my plate work, I started seeing and calling more and more corner and edge strikes. I started hearing coaches advising hitters to throw caution to the wind. "You'd better swing, because he's gonna call it!"

Continued...