Randy Marsh will call 'em as he sees 'em. So he can't intentionally call a ball a strike.

        That's why the major-league umpire from Edgewood, Ky., is glad for the resolution of the called-strike controversy. The umpires union dropped its grievance Wednesday after commissioner Bud Selig's office agreed not to use pitch counts to measure umpires' performance.

        “It's ingrained in your mind to get every pitch you can right,” Marsh said. "I remember working minor-league games (and) winter instructional league games. The score would be 22-3, and people would say, "Just call everything strikes.' It was so hard to do that.”

        The union said it got a memo from Sandy Alderson, executive vice president for baseball operations, directing them to “hunt for strikes” and lower the average pitch count of a game (287.3 this year, through Sunday) to 270.

        “We were kind of dumbfounded,” Marsh said.

        The pitch-count dispute arose from baseball's offseason initiative to have umpires follow the rulebook definition of the strike zone, particularly by calling higher strikes. This season, 62.5 percent of all pitches have been called strikes, compared to 61 percent last year.

        Marsh, in his 20th year of major-league service, said umpires and players have adjusted well to the “new” strike zone.

        “We still have a ways to go,” he said. “Baseball has got to realize we're trying to do what they want. Give us a chance.”

        Among all 84 umpires, the percentage of called strikes ranges only from 65.4 percent (John Hirschbeck) to 59 percent (Charlie Williams). Marsh called the highest percentage of strikes (67.8 percent) last year, and his 60.2 percent is second-lowest this year.

        “I have no idea why that is,” he said. “Evidently I had some better pitching last year.”

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