Illegal pitching, acceptable !?!

This weekend my daughter played in a showcase tournament. One of the teams played against had a pitcher who not only crow hopped but also picked up the plant foot and taking a step, losing contact with the rubber. With the extra step, she ended up slightly outside the circle. The ump responded with, "yeah, we know…all of the other teams coaches had informed them already." Yet they still didn't tell the pitcher…How is that helping her? She was actually a pretty good pitcher with a potential to play college ball.

Crystal Brown said:

This weekend my daughter played in a showcase tournament. One of the teams played against had a pitcher who not only crow hopped but also picked up the plant foot and taking a step, losing contact with the rubber. With the extra step, she ended up slightly outside the circle. The ump responded with, "yeah, we know…all of the other teams coaches had informed them already." Yet they still didn't tell the pitcher…How is that helping her? She was actually a pretty good pitcher with a potential to play college ball.

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Welcome to the weird and wacky world of showcases.

No one does anything that supposedly takes away from players at these events. I am sure the pitcher already knows she leaps and steps and so do her coaches, parents and pitching coach. They are just on the side of "it is OK because they don't call it". And when you watch the CSWS on TV you can understand this thinking - even if it isn't right.

Not sure why umpires continue to ignore it allowing pitchers to continue pitching illegally instead of fixing the problem....

I dont know much about showcases but, I know this... if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying!!!!! ha ha I tell all my girls, "win if you can, lose if you have to but, always, always cheat!!!". ha ha. Of course I'm not being serious. But threads like this always make me wonder.. did you see if any runner's left early? Were slapper's out of the box? Did the base coaches stay in their coach box to avoid picking the pitcher? Things like that. It's always the pitcher labeled as cheating.

One would like to think if a girl is illegal coaches would move on from her immediately. But, a college coach has a harder time than a HS coach. Lets face it, HS coaches get delivered who they get for pitching and it's entirely dependent on the local feeder system or a girl moving to your school district. A college coach has to prognosticate how good someone will be in 2 years, how much she will mature, etc. That's hard to do without a crystal ball.

Bill

I am really impressed she got out of the circle.

Good post Crystal and I am going to try and help you deal with this differently than I have over the years. First, I think Bill makes a great point as always and always excited to see him post here. Thanks Bill!

Second, and I am going to go on record (not that anyone gives a c***) but I am now excited when I see pitchers cheating. I think for the last several years I have blown a gasket when I see pitchers cheat to what I have believed is an unfair advantage. I have posted many times on this. With that said, I am now very much okay with it as I believe they are not living up to their potential. Okay, I said it now and it is off my chest.

The Barnhill thread really started my thinking on this and I truly think she is amazing but completely illegal at times. Now, I take Keilani Ricketts and she threw faster but was legal. Of course, and I admit, Ricketts is a bigger stronger girl and not the best representation. However, I have yet to see any (or at least not many) girls that pitch illegally AND throw faster, harder, or better than those who play by the rules. Point being, the best of the best that truly encompass model pitcher tags do throw legally and have figured out (or were taught) how to do it legally. The illegal ones didn't learn or are completely against changing but it will catch up to them. If the illegal pitchers were throwing mid 70's to 80's on every pitch then I would think much differently. But while they can throw 70 they aren't throwing any faster than the best legal pitchers out there.

So, I can feel good to say that learn it the right way and make the most out of it. Sure, you will see others doing it illegally but the legal mechanics still have the opportunity to produce the biggest bang for the buck. Illegal mechanics will catch up with you somewhere. You can definitely get to the top of YOUR game doing it the right way.

I sleep better at night now and I am glad I finally came to this realization. Perhaps I am wrong but after years of looking at this I feel fairly confident I am correct. Hope it helps!

Hillhouse said:

I dont know much about showcases but, I know this... if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying!!!!! ha ha I tell all my girls, "win if you can, lose if you have to but, always, always cheat!!!". ha ha. Of course I'm not being serious. But threads like this always make me wonder.. did you see if any runner's left early? Were slapper's out of the box? Did the base coaches stay in their coach box to avoid picking the pitcher? Things like that. It's always the pitcher labeled as cheating.

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Well since the pitcher is right out there in the middle every pitch and we are looking directly at that and IP's are a fixable technique thing... yeah it is going to be on the pitcher more than any other thing... Especially if one pitcher is allowed to do it while the other is pitching legally. Lets call a game 100 pitches each. That is 100 IPs and whatever advantage they are gaining (speed, distance at release, better chance to crow hop, whatever) versus 0 IP's.

A base runner may try to time the pitcher and go early - and hey sometimes the envelpe gets pushed or mayebe they are intentionally going early, and if they go early and get called out (not the easiest call with 2 umps), then it gets called. That is on the umpires if they see it and frankly it gets called more often than IP's.

Seeing the out of the box call more as well - if they see it, then they call it.

But IP's - yep, we are just ignoring those. And those things don't happen every pitch.

The fact is that umpires are just watching it when it is obvious and letting it go (because they are often been told to do so), which leads to coaches, PC, parents and players not fixing it, which leads to somehow it being OK for some. Why are we spending time making sure my DD pitches legally and put my DD at a disadvantage to someone who is not? If pitching illegally is worth the equivalent of 3mph that is a HUGE deal.

That the alphabet orgs continue to punt on this year after year and pretend it isn't an issue is garbage. I know my problem calling it is an umpire is that the penalty is not inline with the violation - the runners advancing seems to have come across from the balk rule and leading off bases in baseball and it is inappropriate. It may be as simple as making an IP a 'ball' for it to be called. But doing nothing..... that is annoying. If you 'leap' and it is just a ball and the runner on third doesn't get a free base no matter what that makes it a call that makes sense.

I like Bill's point. Last showcase I was videoing my dd play 3rd, playing it back yesterday. I noticed the 1st base runner leave as soon as the pitcher drove off the mound. Thats Super early! I think i even remember coach saying something about it, during game, but their was never a call.

They best us. should I coach my kids leave early until it called? ....I don't think I can do that. Idk

I have not seen a runner get called yet for leaving early, in a showcase. I have seen it in NSA level twice and Ive seen it in HS (mostly intentional)

Ive have never seen an illegal pitch called in showcase.

I have seen it at HS level and occasionally at nsa.

I
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It's always amazing to me how many illegal pitchers I see in any given tournament. We actually had one called on it this weekend but that hardly ever happens. I just wonder what they're paying their pitching coaches for.

STRIKE3 said:

However, I have yet to see any (or at least not many) girls that pitch illegally AND throw faster, harder, or better than those who play by the rules.

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Yes,....and the world IS flat too..... (an equally valid statement)

But back on topic => In a world that idolizes gangsters and ignores criminals in our countries leadership it is completely understandable that this continues to be allowed.