Pitchers Duel OR Hitters Duel ~ which would you prefer?

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radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
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Pitchers duel or Hitters duel
Which would you prefer?
______________________
I'm bringing this up as I read people talking about the short fences in softball
= homeruns.
Like this has always been.
But it hasnt!

There were changes made in softball to balance out the pitcher's duel. Make the game more exciting and bring more fan base. It seemed to have worked! Perhaps there may be some on DFP that weren't around before these changes were made so I'm sharing this.

Softball used to be very much a pitcher's duel with very few hits and very few runners on base. Lots of extra inning games.
Pitching was from 40 ft.
I do believe the old ball had a lot more movement in it as its surface had more tact to react with spin/air. The pitching speeds were still the same as they are currently.
Thrown from a pitching rubber at 40'.

In an effort to make softball more appealing they made some changes to the game. Firstly they moved the pitching back 3 feet.
They changed the ball.
New ball is created to have more flight! Smoother surface.
Also new bat technology stepped up to the plate.

*While these changes did inflate batting averages by easily a hundred points.
It created a much livelier game with many more batters able to hit home runs. Where previously it was very hard to hit a homerun and did not happen all the time at all.
Added many more baserunners to the game.
Certainly started challenging deffense more!

So this brings up the question what would you prefer ?
A PITCHERS DUEL OR A HITTERS DUEL?


I am glad to experience BOTH !

*as a separate note to those that talk about the bat technology adding so much.
Would like to share about the new ball versus the old ball.
I had taken an old white debeer ball and the new yellow ball....my old aluminum bat and a DeMarini to the plate to toss up and hit .
With both bats hitting the old white Debeer, the ball reacted almost the same. Hard to reach the fence.
However hitting the new yellow ball, both bats crushed it over the fence. Easily adding measurable distance!
It is my opinion that the flight of the yellow ball has added tremendously to the speed of the game and the distance of hitting.
 
Last edited:
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I prefer a well-played game doesn't matter whether it is 1-0 or 8-7. With respect to the fences being moved back my only complaint there is in college softball from what I have seen you can mishit a ball and get a HR. In MLB you rarely if ever see HRs that are not squared up. I mean it isn't a huge deal, I am not going to stop watching because of it but it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Make them 220 feet instead of 200. There would still be plenty of HRs..
 
Last edited:
Apr 16, 2013
1,113
83
If you're discussing an older ball, I don't know that an OLD ball would be the best to compare with. It could be well used and thus somewhat decomposed. I've got a whole bucket full of game balls that we use for fielding/BP, and some are to the point that I call them the "mush balls". Not saying you're wrong or right; but if you're not comparing two new, out of the wrapper, balls, then it's not really a fair comparison.

Personally, the only thing I'd like to see is a weight minimum like baseball has. Starting around middle school, baseball is required to start using BBCOR bats... -3. I find it almost sexist (sorry, NOT trying to go "there") that WOMEN are still allowed to use the exact same bats they used when they were 8. I also think the 1.20 BPF standard could use a little reduction too. 1.10 would be just fine and sluggers would still hit home runs. However, it might cut down on some of the "check swing" home runs. LL baseball did this with the new standard and I hear it's working quite well. Pitching, IMO, is great where it is.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Was refferencing 'old ball'
As to 'no longer used.'
Not worn out.
Agree mushy is worn out!

Nice responses!
Look forward to more!
 

BigSkyHi

All I know is I don't know
Jan 13, 2020
1,385
113
Great pitching; great hitting; great base running; great defense. All the uniforms are dirty. That’s my kinda game.

Can’t wait til we get to 12U
 
Mar 8, 2016
313
63
I like a good well played game no matter the score. You can have a good game with a score of 2-1, 4-3, or 10-8. Having said that I like a game were every at bat and even every pitch feels important in the moment. In my experience these types of games tend to come in games with scores of 4 or less. Games with bad defense are probably my least favorite games to watch. Particularly if it is DD's team playing poor defense.
 
Feb 28, 2015
307
28
Heatbox
My thing is/was I'd rather lose 2-1, 4-3, 7-6 etc. to a really good team than win 13-0, 21-0, 14-1 etc to a "bad" team. Sometimes we would even beat a really good team 2-1, 4-3, 10-8. Now in HS you wouldnn't have pitchers duel until the playoffs for the most part.
 

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