Word.ws English Dictionary

calls balls and strikes

calls balls and strikes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of call balls and strikes.

Meaning of call balls and strikes

Verb

call balls and strikes (third-person singular simple present calls balls and strikes, present participle calling balls and strikes, simple past and past participle called balls and strikes)

  1. (US) To act as a home plate umpire.
    • The San Rafael Pacifics and Vallejo Admirals, two independent (not major league-affiliated) minor league teams, recently played two games using a computer system, rather than the home plate umpire, to call balls and strikes.2015 August 10, Alex Shultz, “Rise of the machines? Baseball weighs use of automated strike zone”, in LA Times
  2. (US, broadly) To act impartially.
    • Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she wants and expects Inspector General Joe Ferguson to “call balls and strikes” during her administration and sees no reason their friendship would conflict with his role as a city watchdog.2019 May 13, Fran Spielman, “Watchdog should stay, call ‘balls and strikes’ despite our friendship: Lightfoot”, in Chicago Sun-Times

Questions about calls balls and strikes

What is calls balls and strikes the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Calls balls and strikes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of call balls and strikes.

Words near calls balls and strikes in the dictionary

  1. calls ahead
  2. calls an audible
  3. calls around
  4. calls away
  5. calls back
  6. calls balls and strikes
  7. calls collect
  8. calls down
  9. calls for
  10. calls forth
  11. calls in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: calls balls and strikes (page history and authors); call balls and strikes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “calls balls and strikes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/calls_balls_and_strikes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.