1989 men's FP game from NZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpa5Qkt2qGU&spfreload=10

A few notes:

#1. Pete Meredith was the hardest thrower in the game by nearly everyone's account. Again, computers and TV don't show the speed like real life but, he was INCREDIBLE. Duel citizen of USA and NZ, it was a toss up who my idols were as a young pitcher: Meredith or Mike White (Oregon coach, also duel citizen). I had the HONOR and PRIVILEGE to pitch on the same team with them (USA National team at World Championship in South Africa in 2000). FWIW, Meredith is the pitching coach at BYU now.

#2. The commentators are obviously a little off with some of their commentating. Color man, Mike Walsh was the NZ head coach for many years.

#3. Meredith's opponent, Steve Jackson had some of the best junk I've ever seen. And he is one of the funniest human beings alive.

#4. PK lead off hitter Craig Estrada is American, he married a girl from NZ (as did I in 1998, although there's a story behind that and the marriage was short lived!). Craig also spent a cpl years playing for King and his Court, I am fairly certain it was before he got into true competitive softball, not the WWE softball show that was the King/Court.

#5. It was mentioned early in the broadcast that Meredith had just pitched for Team USA (1988 World). He was not selected for NZ because he did not return to NZ during their season and remained in the USA. I remember watching the selection show on TV1 in NZ when they named the World Championship team for NZ to compete in the 1988 ISF in Saskatoon Canada. 2 of NZ's best pitchers, married to Americans and did not return to NZ that season (Meredith and Steve Schultz) were left off NZ out of spite. Both Meredith and Schultz, duel citizens, pitched for USA and Meredith, in his career prime, stuffed it up NZ's a$$ in Saskatoon leading USA to the gold medal. 4 years later, when the NZ team was selected for the ISF Worlds in Manila, New Zealand changed their policy and selected Meredith to avoid the Americans getting him. USA finished 3rd or 4th (I don't recall) but NZ lost the final to Canada with an inexplicable move of not throwing Meredith in the final and losing on a massive home run by Canadian Jody Hennigar (who gives pitching/hitting instruction in the Tampa area). Coincidence or not, having not been used in the final (when he wants the ball the most) Meredith did not pitch for NZ again. Mike White would bounce back and forth between pitching for NZ at World Championships and USA for Pan Am games. ASA/USA finally locked him down to commit full time to USA and he went on to be my teammate in South Africa with Meredith, and Missouri's Doug Middleton as our other pitcher.

#6. The ballpark this game is played on in Mangere Auckland, and the finals of the National championship was sponsored by Lion Red... a beer that supported softball in New Zealand for a very long time until new laws prohibited alcohol and tobacco from sponsoring athletic events. Having lived and played in NZ for 10 years, Lion Red is 'mother's milk' to me and my favorite beer in the world. If anyone is going to NZ in the near future for work or fun, I will do ANYTHING for you to bring me back a 6, 12, or 24 pack of Lion Red.

#7 finally, you will see the pitchers do not pitch off a normal ground. They pitch off what is called a pitcher's mat. These mats are used throughout NZ and Australia and provide advantages and disadvantages. The reason they are used is, during my tenure of playing in NZ (and Aussie) there was approx 6 softball fields in the entire country of NZ that had dirt infields. Many games, especially youth level games and games not at the men's major level (called Premier division in NZ) are played on open fields used for multiple sports; cricket, soccer, rugby, etc. And these mats are put down to prevent pitchers from digging large holes from the push off and landing. Not to mention the need to constantly put in and remove pitching rubbers. Bases were always the old fashioned kind that were not embedded in the ground. So there was limited wear and tear to the fields used for the other sports. The advantage of using these mats from a pitcher's standpoint was never having to deal with holes dug by other pitchers. There was no ground maintenance for it. The mat would simply be moved up and down to change between women's and men's distances. The negatives of the mats were: 1. rain could make them slippery. Pitchers still used metal cleats on them and the cleats would dig into the hard rubber and stick but rain would make the rubber slick. #2. The mat sizes varied. Some fields had large mats (8's wide x 12' long) so there was no fear of landing off the mat or on it's edge and rolling an ankle. #3. While the mat was there, a thin strip was nailed onto the mat to represent the pitching rubber. The strip was official size of a pitching rubber but because it was on the mat, there was no way to create or use a hole to push out of. But, both feet had to be in contact with this strip, which is one reason you see a great number of international pitchers putting their heel in front of the rubber and back toe barely touching the back. This gave maximum distance between heel and toe which gave maximum leverage. It always amazes me how many girls are taught to pitch with both feet directly on top of the rubber giving themselves no transfer-ability and momentum.

Anyway, you will see multiple other men's fastpitch games and clips. The other day my father brought me a stack of videos of games I had collected over the years........... one of which was the 1993 Perth (Ontario) shootout final, featuring Seattle Seafirst vs. Toronto Gators. I pitched for Seattle. I had pitched the semi final that morning (4-0 win vs. Owen Sound Ontario) and came in relief in in the final (bottom of 5, we were trailing 3-2). The Gators were ranked #1 or 2 (depending on who you'd ask) that year and featured the world's best pitcher Darren Zack. $6,000 was first prize so, obviously that was quite an incentive to win. This game was broadcast on TV in Canada, not video'd through a fan in the stand's 1993 video recorder!!! The commentators were absolutely brutal but, it ended up being me (21 yrs of age) pitching against the world's best pitcher and world's best team. We won 7-3, winning the Perth Shootout, which at the time was the most prestigious tournament in North America. Toronto Gators went on to win the World Championship behind the AMAZING pitching of Zack. It was one of many times I pitched against Zack, both club ball and National team games. And, as tears well up as I write this, I'm including the 1995 World final when the Gators beat my team twice (championship and the "if" game) while Zack set his 76 2/3 consecutive innings streak without allowing a run. 76 2/3!!!! Earned or unearned. Gators did not pitch him in the opening round of the Worlds, and they lost 3-2. He went on to win 10 consecutive games via shutout and shattering records for scoreless innings and strikeouts. It still pierces my heart to think about being undefeated and losing twice but, I was also involved in the most awesome and historic pitching performance I have ever seen. By the way, my teammate that year for our runner up: Pete Meredith.

Wow! Slapping dates back to at least 1989. I did not know that.

It looks like the catcher is not wearing a chest protector, is that correct?

And I'm sticking my neck out here, but I could swear that in some of the angles in the video, Meredith's riseball hops.

Thanks for the video, I am enlightened.

Bill, you want to make some copies? I seen your dad & brother last night over at tryouts. You cant keep your dad away from the softball fields, can you. It great to she him. I enjoy talking to him.

Great stuff Bill. Brings back some great memories. Meredith's riseball was absolutely amazing. It was way better with him as a teammate vs an opponent as our Madison Farm team found out in 1989 a year after he had left for TransAire and beat us twice in the ASA finals....1-0 in 16 innings and 1-0 in 7 innings (that's what my old memory tells me). We had beaten him the day before in the winner bracket finals 1-0 in 22 innings. Both he and Mike Peitnik shattered the record for strikeouts in a game.....I certainly contributed my fair share to that record....

See red responses below.

SoAZDad said:

Wow! Slapping dates back to at least 1989. I did not know that.
First time I saw it was in 1986....was totally surprised by the speed factor it introduced into the game.

It looks like the catcher is not wearing a chest protector, is that correct?
Crazy, but lots of catchers back then did not wear a chest protector. One game our catcher who had a history of heart problems got hit directly in the chest by one of Merideth's riseballs....thought he was going to die. After about 5-6 minutes of gathering himself he got back behind the plate.

And I'm sticking my neck out here, but I could swear that in some of the angles in the video, Meredith's riseball hops.
That is why it is so hard for mens fastpitch players to think a riseball doesn't really rise......I used to be one of them.

Thanks for the video, I am enlightened.

Click to expand...

Rick Pauly said:

See red responses below.

Click to expand...

Rick, Thanks. Just add a bit more to stoke my interest further.

So it's likely that men introduced the modern slap to the game?

Not a question, but ... those catchers were nuts.

Last, and I'm a bit reluctant, but my DDs PC (old-timer men's FP pitcher) believes that a good riseball hops. I know this has been long debated on DFP. Whether it's and upward trajectory in a flat path with backspin that resists gravity, or an actual hop before getting to the plate. I pitched baseball, and I know my fastball hopped. Okay, you don't need to respond to that one, I'll take the hit.

In any case, thanks for the input. My dad (1920 - 1997) played FP and SP softball. I didn't respect the game until my DD started playing. I wish I did when he was alive.

Because of the slow death of men's fastpitch and the fact many reading this have never seen it, let alone a World class caliber team/game it's hard to understand how much men's FP built the sport you see on TV now for the women. Men's FP built the ASA. And now, after Title IX took the stage and put softball into (almost) every university in the country women's softball exploded. Prior to that, softball was not played in very many colleges by comparison. When the Olympics came calling in the early 1990's (I think the announcement that it was going to be in the 1996 games was in 1992), TONS of funding was poured into the women's game and USA women's softball became what it is now. Heck, in 1986 New Zealand won the World championship for women. Since then, they struggle to even qualify as other countries have poured money and resources into women's teams and Olympic programs (Australia, Japan, etc). ASA turned their back on the men's game at this point and it's been dying slowly ever since. I'm still baffled why ASA/USA and ISF didn't push for BOTH genders to be in the Olympics. Why only the women? It makes no sense. ISF is the governing body for softball worldwide, not just women's softball. I know, I know... men have baseball. Well, if you believe some of the reports, baseball is 1/2 the reason softball was eliminated from the Olympics: steroid scandals, non MLB players playing, countries required to build baseball fields where they don't play baseball (Greece for example). Men's and women's softball could be played on the same field!!!!!

Slapping and most of the things you see today were from the men's game. I cannot tell you when slapping started but, I can tell you that it was long before 1986. I'm sure whatever was in existence for the women's game experimented with it back then too.

Bill

The only history most of us know starts the year our oldest dd's started playing.

Keep it coming, the video was aweome, I have only watched a third of it so far.