The tight play at first, known in umpire argot as a banger or a whacker, is often the
most troublesome for umpires.
A common exercise at umpire clinics is to blindfold students and have them call close plays at first base. It’s not a frivolous thing. The idea is to teach the students to use their ears as an umpiring tool, to listen for the separate sounds of the foot on the bag and the ball in the glove — “a thud and a pop,” as the veteran major league umpire Mike Winters described them.
By BRUCE WEBER
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