Reader's question:  

Politicians can argue whether the best quality for a judge is empathy or an ability to call balls and strikes, but here's a different perspective.

Could you explain "call balls and strikes"?

My comments:

Balls and strikes are expressions borrowed from the game of baseball, which is arguably the No.1 sport in America.

Baseball basically involves a player throwing a rubber ball at another player, holding a club in hand ready to hit the ball being thrown at him.

Now, a judge, called an empire, stands (or squats, to be precise) behind the hitter to observe whether the thrower (pitcher) has thrown a legal shot, which must come within a space that is, say, higher than the knee and lower than the shoulder of the club holder. I'm not going into specifics but you get the picture. When the pitcher throws a legal shot and the hitter misses the hit (fails to hit the ball legally), it's a strike! That's good. Point to the pitcher.

If the pitcher fails to make a legal throw, on the other hand, it's called a ball. That's bad. Point to the hitter.

Three strikes and the pitcher wins – the hitter is out. Four balls and the pitcher lose, allowing the hitter to move on to the next base….

Hence the ability to "call balls and strikes" refers to the ability of a competent judge in the court of law to tell right from wrong.

Related stories:

With a grain of salt

Drive home

Out of nowhere

Shove it under the carpet

the sky is the limit

hit it off

get my rib in my heart

With bells on

No harm, no foul

Pick up the slack

length and breadth of

get up to speed on something

Borrowed time

On a shoestring

Shake a leg

Sing to a new tune

Truth lies somewhere in the middle

For all intents and purposes

Past praying for

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

Zhang Xin has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.