Frank Deford Quotes

Is my strike zone bigger than others? Yeah. It might be bigger than others, but I don't have a problem with it.

As all of us with any involvement in sports knows, no two umpires or no two referees have the same strike zone or call the same kind of a basketball game.

Football has end zones and goal posts; basketball has the hoop, and hockey the goal cage. Baseball is the only game with an imaginary box: the strike zone, which the umpire determines at his own discretion.

You can't applaud a referee.

If you're a photographer, they give you a camera. If you're a writer, they give you a typewriter. If you're an umpire, they give you an unseen object and they call it a strike zone, and nobody seems to agree with you no matter what you call.

If you talk to any pitcher, consistency is the most important thing.

I set out to be the best umpire of my time. But I don't know what it takes to be great.

The judge is not the knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness.

If I am going to trash others for their dumb predictions, I must at least hold myself to the same sort of accountability.

I think by laying it out for the viewer I'm avoiding the issue of bias.

Boys, I'm one of those umpires that misses 'em every once in a while so if it's close, you'd better hit it.

Your job is to umpire for the ball and not the player.

Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.

There's an excitement to officiating a well-played game. A lot of discretion, a lot of judgment comes into play.

I don't try to try to judge people on performance in one short period of time.

Officiating is trying to do your absolute best with what you've got.

I umpired for 25 years and can honestly say I never called one wrong in my heart.

Wrong is for other people.

No accurate thinker will judge another person by that which the other person's enemies say about him.

An index is a great leveller.

I'm a fair manager, put it that way. I like to be fair with the players, but there's a time for discipline.

I try very hard to handle things equally: ideas, materials, and images.

I don't get to live by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me.

There shall be one measure of wine through our kingdom, and one measure of ale, and onemeasure of corn … and one breadth of dyed cloth and of rufflets …. It shall be the same as with weights as measures …

May I never sit on a tribunal where my friends shall not find more favor from me than strangers.