Pat, thank you for this thoughtful and thorough post. It is good to know that great minds like yours...more
posted Monday, June 7, 2010 at 6:17pm PDT on Ain�t I a woman?
The Illegal Pitch Kerfuffle
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posted by Women's Sports Blog An irreverent look at the news, issues, and personalities of women's sports from a feminist perspective. |
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Something to watch for this softball season is an increase in the number of illegal pitches called. Apparently the NCAA was embarrassed by a rash of infraction diagnoses by the commentating team during last year's world series, and has instructed officials to crack down on pitchers who come out of the circle or utilize illegal motion (hops, etc). There are two problems with this change. One is that most softball umpires are currently terrible. They aren't consistent about making calls that happen every play, so leaving something controversial up to their discretion can be a recipe for disaster. The other is that coaches have protected their pitchers for years. Many of the most dominant strikeout pitchers of our era, from Osterman to Abbott, have been accused (too often by fans of other teams) of having illegal deliveries. Pitchers often nurture a motion from their youths and are encouraged in it by college coaches. It seems to me that softball faces some choices: a massive overhaul of the youth system to actually crack down on this problem, consistent enforcement of consistent rules by umpires based on what MLB did with the strike zone, or expanding the definition of legal pitches. I'd love to hear your thoughts on which is more fair or more practical.
View Original Post at ftlouie.typepad.com/womensports
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- Filed Under:
- Softball
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This post is related to an event on our Calendar:
- NCAA Women's Softball College World Series
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KeriMikulski2
Surprised at how involved the WCWS umpires are this year. Did you see the call against Washington at third on Saturday? Crazy.
Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 8:54am PDT