Illegal pitchs-Florida/UCLA

[halskinner]

"But thats just footwork only . To me, Langenfeld seemed to not keep her hands together very long tonight in the UCLA-Hawaii game. Does NCAA not use the ASA 1 sec rule? Why didnt someone have a stopwatch on her! Cant let her get away with that. There are rules, they must be enforced.! Right?[/QUOTE]

Simulating bringing the hands together for one full second by touching the ball to the glove as it goes by, has been allowed for more years than I recall. Why? Because the umpires cannot tell what is one full second and what is 2/3 of a second. Anyway, it would be a judgement call.

Give someone that uses the softball submarine wind up a full second and the ball will already be 2/3 of the way to the strike zone. Unless you have umpires that still believe you MUST make a full windmill circle to be legal.

 

[sluggers]

At the CWS, they are using 3 umps. The 3rd base ump is focusing on the pitcher's feet on *every* pitch. It is a little strange.

 

[halskinner]

I saw the calls being made by both the 1st AND 3rd base umps in one game. They watch when they can, from both sides.

 

[SoftSocDad]

I'm willing to bet that very few college/university fields have holes at the pitcher's plate (unless the pitcher dug one during the game). That's what field crews are for.

At the start of yesterday's game, Arizona complained about the rather obvious hole in front of the rubber, but the umpires didn't see anything wrong there. The full story will have to be researched later, but it looked to me as if a tournament official actually had to come in and make the call to have the hole repaired.

Why would the umpires be opposed to starting the game with a level field?

 

[shockcoach]

...To me, Langenfeld seemed to not keep her hands together very long tonight in the UCLA-Hawaii game. Does NCAA not use the ASA 1 sec rule? Why didnt someone have a stopwatch on her! Cant let her get away with that. There are rules, they must be enforced.! Right?

Mudbug,

I thought the same thing until I looked up the NCAA rule which states they must come together no more than 5 sec. There is no minimum, only a maximum time.

10.2.3 After receiving the catcher’s signal, the pitcher’s hands must come
together in view of the plate umpire for not more than five seconds.
Note: The hands do not have to come to a complete stop and, therefore, may be
moving during the touch.

 

[FPump]

I see the vast majority of pitches by most pitchers are technically an illegal pitch the way the rules are written, the umps just decides what is excessive. They dont call it at all when the drag foot obviously leaves the ground for maybe 6" or so, even if no hole, but they might if its 12-18". Problem is that foot cant leave the ground for even 1/16" of distance under the written rule, unless parallel to the ground over the hole. It can be very judgemental as to when to call an IP and when it is not, that is why it isnt called unless its excessive.

To me, many pitches are still technically illegal, even after calling IPs, they are just usually "less" illegal, not so flagrant. That IS the reason for the call after all, to tone it down, not to eliminate it totally per the rules because they arent strictly enforceable without slow motion video on every pitch.

But my point was that if pitchers are going to push the envelope, being able to adjust when IPs are being called is no different from adjusting to a tighter strike zone or other game variable. Its not an ideal world, the calls on IP are not necessarily black and white any more than the strike zone is, nor can they be.

But thats just footwork only . To me, Langenfeld seemed to not keep her hands together very long tonight in the UCLA-Hawaii game. Does NCAA not use the ASA 1 sec rule? Why didnt someone have a stopwatch on her! Cant let her get away with that. There are rules, they must be enforced.! Right?

NCAA 10.2.3 After receiving the catcher's signal, the pitchers's hands must come together in view of the plate umpire for not more than five seconds.
Note: The hands do not have to come to a complete stop and, therefore, may be moving during the touch.

 

[FPump]

Beat me to it Shock.

 

[sluggers]

Hal: Yes, the 1B and 3B did make some calls. With three umpires, the 3rd base umpire has very little to do most of the time. He was really focusing in on the pitchers foot. He literally was staring at the pitcher's push off foot on about 99% of the pitches. When there was a runner at 2B, he moved behind the pitcher, bent over and stared at her push off foot. I have never seen the 3B umpire so completely involved with checking for IPs.

I think this is a really clever way to control IPs. A pitcher really can't do much of a crow how or get outside the lane while dragging the push off foot.

 

[PEPPERS]

I heard this from some of the Tenseness fans during the Monica Abbott years that the Vols recruited slappers who were out of the box when hitting and that was a big part of their offense. That during the season it was rarely if ever called and that teams in the SEC had complained a number of times, but no body listen. Then they made it to the College World Series and then the umps called ever time a Vol slapper was out of the box and it affected their ability to score runs thus they lost due to this during the Abbott years, according to some of the fans.

I recall going to a game in Chattanooga , TN where Abbott set the strikeout record the coach from the other team complained about 2 thingts slappers out of the box and Abbott leaping, neither were called by the umps.

This seems to be the same case with some of the pitchers this year, they had been allowed to pitch using the motion and hops and leaps most of the year, although some were called early and then forgotten about and at the CWS it’s being called again.

The Vol fans, which we go to some of the games and talk and listen, felt they were singled out by the umps. How do you feel or think is this singled out a few teams like Flordia or pitchers and what is up with the calling of the illegal pitches? If a D1 team pays for a scholarship to a pitcher and then discovers she is effective only using an illegal pitching motion there are not going to be very happy. Then they are the ones who made that decision.

I talked to my daughters pitching coach yesterday and he advised that every pitching coach other that himself, in the area he knew, taught hop and leap. He advised that a D1 pitcher had came to him last year to learn not to leap and after a few lessons decided to continue using the same motion, advising that it had gotten her this far and she decided not to change.

 

[sluggers]

The Tennessee fans have a persecution complex. They love to whine.