Illegal pitchs-Florida/UCLA

[Lozza]

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.

My answer to that is 'cry more'. Every pitcher who leaps KNOWS that they leap. If they can't pitch legal, than they don't deserve to be there.

 

[EP Dad]

The question that needs to be answered is why the coaches around the country are allowing/recruiting/encouraging the hopping? Fowler for instance. Isn't she playing for arguably the best softball program in the country? Credit her for cleaning it up to get to the Finals but why was it such an issue in the first place?

 

[SoftSocDad]

There was an effort to get compliant, but I wouldn't say that anything was cleaned up, per se.

 

[EP Dad]

There was an effort to get compliant, but I wouldn't say that anything was cleaned up, per se.

Well, this rule isn't like hockey obstruction, or football holding, or Basketball fouling. The rule is pretty clear and barely has any subjectivity to it. Cleaning it up should have been a non-issue.

 

[T Red]

The question that needs to be answered is why the coaches around the country are allowing/recruiting/encouraging the hopping?

Because the governing bodies (in this case the NCAA) have allowed the leap to continue. Enforce the rule as they have at the CWS from now on and the coaches will get the idea quickly. It's not just the coaches at fault. There's plenty of blame to go around. The coaches know the rules. The umps know the rules. I see enforcement as the key though, because coaches are going to push the limit to win it's what their paid to do.

 

[SoftSocDad]

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?

Still haven't figured out the answer to this one.

From 'Bullpenace' on UltimateCollegeSoftball:

Last night I slowed mo'd the wcws pitchers, all showed some air. Why are they not called?? It will never, never, never be fixed. The NCAA is beating their head against the wall on this one and it could cause one damage to one of their fastest growing sports in popularity.

I saw it time and again.

 

[Bishop]

Dunno SoftballSoccerDad. 5 of the 6 pitcher I coach all can keep contact with the pivot foot. I assume, if they tried the college pitchers would be able to also. Guess what, they won't try until they start getting called on it. Just like Fowler didn't try to fix her leap until WCWS even though she knew back in March when she first started getting called this year. That's even giving her the allowance that she and her coaches had no clue until then.

It's not physically impossible to comply with the rule, it's not even difficult. The fact that the rules haven't been enforced for years, means that the players that have strayed from the rules, DON'T WANT TO CHANGE. Just like those of us who legal pitchers, don't want to change either if the rules are removed or modified.

The two sides of the argument will never come together and agree on something. They want exactly the opposite thing for exactly the same reasons.

 

[tojo]

Bishop, you say 5 of the 6 pitchers you coach can keep contact with the pivot foot. Then you say "It's not physically impossible to comply with rule, it's not even difficult." referring to keeping contact with the pivot foot. Apparently, for one of your students it must be difficult.

 

[PEPPERS]

My answer to that is 'cry more'. Every pitcher who leaps KNOWS that they leap. If they can't pitch legal, than they don't deserve to be there.

Believe me pitching legal is an advantage to my daughter, the way her coach teaches pitching he is strict on making sure a kid is legal in the pitching motion.

I guess like most people are wondering why all at once hopping and jumping are being called. It sees like something is up, what I don’t know. Will the rule change to allow it? Some of the coaches have a great deal of pull so who knows. My concern is that my daughters pitching coach preaches that this motion can cause injury to the pitcher, leaping and jumping, if that is the case then the rule needs to be enforced.

We faced a pitcher a few weeks ago who was 18 and a D1 signee and was a great pitcher she beat my daughter who pitched that game 1 – 0 in a 7 inning game and the other team was a better hitting team than ours. The 18 YO pitcher jumped every pitch and her front foot’s back heel landed on the pitching circle every pitch, she was a great pitcher.

My daughter is 15, I want her to be a good pitcher, but it is more important for me when she is older for her to be able to play with her kids and enjoy her life after SB and not be laden with hip, leg or back problems.

Has anyone else noticed that in the championship game the close-ups of the pitchers are from the knee up, you can’t see the feet in the pitching motion, I can't tell if they are legal or not.

 

[tojo]

Peppers, I also noticed the close ups were from the knee up. It looked like Fowler was airborne on the last pitch to Langenfeld.