Illegal pitchs-Florida/UCLA

[dpett]

I'm sorry - why exactly does this rule exist in the first place?

I'm not buying the 'oh, it causes injuries!' argument, especially absent any real evidence to support that claim.

Why do a lot of rules exist? How about dropped 3rd strike? Talk about arbitrary. Don't like the rules then change em. Until then enforce them.

 

[Bishop]

So that means they haven't been enforcing the rule constantly during the season?

To quote a great man. Correctamundo.

The rules regarding pitching, most notably regarding leaping and crow hopping have been ignored across the board, for YEARS. I guess that's not inconsistent since the consistently ignored the rules and wasn't this season, but it does lay out the foundation this situation rests upon.

Take a look at Tara Oltman. During the Month of march up until the second letter on the 24th she couldn't complete an inning of play before being pulled by her coach for putting the game in trouble due to constant IP's being called. The March 24th memo came out and suddenly she's pitching complete games again. Coincidence? I think not. Actually after getting to see her pitch on TV during the MVC championship game she was still grossly illegal with her leaping, crowhopping, back flip with a full twist delivery that was getting her benched in March. She just wasn't getting called for it anymore.

Long story short (too late, I know).
The rules were enforced inconsistently this year. That is a HUGE improvement over previous years when the rules were not enforced at all.

 

[SoftSocDad]

Why do a lot of rules exist? How about dropped 3rd strike? Talk about arbitrary. Don't like the rules then change em. Until then enforce them.

I agree that you have to play within the parameters that exist at any given time, but you didn't answer the question.

 

[sluggers]

Are you talking about the "drag" rule? If there wasn't a drag rule, pitchers would be able to jump farther toward the plate.

Physics says that to maximize the distance an object travels, the launch angle should be 45 degrees. Because the right foot has to drag, the launch angle for a softball pitcher is limited to about 15 degrees. If pitchers didn't have to drag, and they worked on the leap to maximize flight, they could probably get three to four feet closer to the plate than now.

I suspect that pitchers started jumping out of the circle, so the rules people started coming up with ways to keep them within the circle.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

It exists (I think), so that we can't walk through the pitch. Remember, these rules were made (by men) when it was believed that women would develop vapors if we exerted ourselves. In 1938, softball was imagined to be a back yard game where we where expected to take 1 step and lob the ball. No one could imagine throwing the ball 50 mph, let alone 70.

I do think that the pitcher gets an advantage or they wouldn't do it.

Fowler's pitches dropped up to 5mph, when she tried to correct it.

Yes, it was felt, by some, that KF had always leaped. Let's remember that she was Gatorade athlete of the year and was just named to the 1st team collegiate softball players (I don't know the name of the award.) So, I don't know what to say after all of that and 3 HS State Championships.

 

[halskinner]

On a serious note, lets hope that the aptly described display of professionalism, backbone, guts and integrity inspires some of the umps that have been letting IP's slide in youth ball in our area for the last couple years. As frustrating as it might be in this years WCWS to see this many calls, it is with out a doubt, the ONLY thing that is going to fix the problem. Clearly the situation of the moment shows that 'if' they aren't getting called on it. They aren't going to fix it.

Keep calling it in the NCAA. Start calling it at all levels of youth. Let's not raise another generation of players that are incapable of playing by the rules.

Again, we cannot blame the umpires at the lower levels of competition either. The tournament or league directors dictate what rules they will enforce and what they will not. The umpires are stuck in the middle of all this, they do what they are told as best they can.

 

[halskinner]

I'm sorry - why exactly does this rule exist in the first place?

I'm not buying the 'oh, it causes injuries!' argument, especially absent any real evidence to support that claim.

Socal, you will have to buy it because it's true. Just like the rule that says the arm circle must stay in the up and down plane of the body, same thing there. To bring the arm circle on a different axis is very stressful to the shoulder complex and WILL cause an injury. Unsafe mechanics.

Bringing the force equal to 3X your body weight against the stride leg ankle, the higher you come down on it, the harder the landing and the more chance of the eventuual ankle injury. Unsafe mechanics again.

 

[Cannonball]

Is there any chance that these pitchers, their pitching coaches or the head coaches didn't know the rules? NOPE! So, then one has to ask whether they were willing to risk it all to allow a pitcher to continue to pitch outside the limits of the rules. The answer is YEP! So, now it is being called. To bad so sad! Hey, the rules ARE the level playing field. It really is that simple. Any deviation is to allow one to gain an advantage regardless of how big or small. Oh, before anyone wants to argue the advantage, if there is none, then go ahead and pitch legally. BTW, during my dd's pitching lesson yesterday, they stopped to watch all of the illegal stuff being called. It was a top notch lesson to be sure!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I wonder if the leaping has contributed to Fowler's arm injury? Shoulder's are weird things, I know.

 

[Bishop]

I agree that you have to play within the parameters that exist at any given time, but you didn't answer the question.

Amy and Ray answered pretty well. When don't they, right? I orignally avoided answering because it looks like the set up for a 'They should just get rid of that stupid rule!' argument that I have no interest in getting tied up in again.

Bear in mind, I wasn't on the rules commitee's that approved and penned these rules into the book, so do I speak from a position of authority? Newp. Feel free to disregard my opinion as such. I'm used to it. I've been married for 22 years.

Crow hopping - replanting the sole of the foot and pushing off a second time from a point closer to home plate that the pitching plate. Pretty self explanitory I think. Pushing a second time to lengthen the stride and release closer to the batter, thus reducing the batters reaction time.

Leaping - Ray covered that. I've also heard the leaping rule was added after the crow hop rule to help the umps call crow hopping. It's very difficult to crow hop while dragging the pivot foot. Not impossible mind you. I saw a 12yo this March that had a fantastic drag that was rolling her foot back under sole down and pushing again. 8 - 8.5 foot stride on a 12yo.

Striding outside the lane - Plant foot landing outside the width of the pitching plate. This is done to increase the angle of the pitch to the batter so that the batter percieves more movement in the pitch than would be there from a legal pitch.

I hope that helped.