POLL~ Have you watched MENS FASTPITCH?

[Lobster Birch]

The first time I ever saw fastpitch was men playing on the school field by my grandmother’s house in Peterson, Minnesota. This would have been in the late '70s or early '80s. I had never hear of it and found it very strange.

I think I was pulling for the timber company over the feed company.

 

[Northball]

The first time I ever saw fastpitch was men playing on the school field by my grandmother’s house in Peterson, Minnesota. This would have been in the late '70s or early '80s. I had never hear of it and found it very strange.

I think I was pulling for the timber company over the feed company.

Lemmee guess...It was Peterson Feeds...
Dominant men's team in our area was Hanson Silo.

 

[Hillhouse]

Thanks RAD for the PM telling me about this thread. I could bore the socks off of everyone here by telling you all about the history of the game. About how nearly everything you see now is a result of men's fastpitch of yesteryear. Men's softball put ASA on the map back in the 50's or so. Then, as more and more people became unhappy with ASA, other organizations formed. The same thing has happened to the girl's game. As more and more people became frustrated with all things ASA (now called USA softball) other organizations popped up and started taking over. While I think USSSA was originally a slow pitch oriented organization, they quickly saw the money that is available in girls softball. Today, I'm not sure which side of softball is more profitable to USSSA, slow pitch or girls softball. I'm guessing the girl's game is more lucrative, adult sport numbers are declining annually but the girls game continues to flourish. Even PGF was created as direct competition for ASA/USA, and ironically PGF is considered more prestigious than USA nationals. The reason I say that's ironic is, USA softball is who holds the ticket to playing for the National team(s). I'm really surprised USA softball never made playing in USA Nationals to be mandatory for being on a National team, since they are the governing body of the sport.

Mankato MN is hosting the ISC men's world championship in 2025. Hopefully you guys who live out there will check it out.

@Northball, I'm not sure when you saw Adam Folkard pitch, but for a stretch run between 2009 and 2017 or so, he was the most dominant pitcher in the world. In that time there was plenty of guys who were 2nd in the world behind Adam but all of them were a distant second in that time frame. It's hard to quantify here how hard he threw and how much he dominated the sport. Ironically, he and I were on opposite teams that were ARCH rivals. But, during the summer months he lived with me at my house for 2 summers. Imagine a NY Yankee letting a Boston Red Sox player live at his place!!! lol. (Adam is from Australia btw). Adam is still top 10 in the world but he's in his late 30's now and has had some pretty tough injuries in his arm and shoulder. Those have really taken a toll on him. For a while, he (and his team, which had an incredible lineup) he and team would win anything and everything they entered, teams were playing for 2nd place in each tournament. After a fall out with his team of the last 12 years this summer, I think he'll be pretty motivated next summer to beat his former team.

The past couple of years, my former team NY Gremlins have sort of dominated the scene. And as their future hall of fame pitcher Andrew Kirkpatrick has retired after this last summer (also from Australia) the Gremlins brought in a young Australian who has had one of the best 12 months a pitcher could possibly have. Jack Beesgrove won the WBSC men's final, won the WBSC 23u world final, and won every final of every tournament they entered this past summer. Jack was the winning pitcher in all the events listed above, and this includes the USA Major National championship and the ISC World club tournament, I am pretty sure he won MVPitcher at all of them.

There's a lot of games achieved on the YouTube channels for: Softball Premier and Jim Wana. These are games that were on TV or streamed, not a go-pro camera on the backstop for Game changer. Announcers, replays, etc. The only downside of it is, it's very hard to see how hard they are throwing from TV. Jim Wana is a New Zealander who has a lot of games that were on TV in NZ from the 1980's.

Also on YouTube is the 1992 ISC final. I think that game is broken up into 5 parts, but you all would get to see a young Mike White (Texas coach) pitching that final. White as part of a team from Sioux City IA that is considered to be one of the best teams of all time.

@LEsoftballdad, last I knew there was a small league of men's FP in Central Park. But that was a while ago, it might have ceased operating since then. I'm pretty sure they played on Saturday mornings. It was very low level though.

I think a lot of people on here would be amazed at how many college coaches play or played softball. A small list: Mike White (Texas), Pete Meredith (BYU), Jody Hennigar (just quit coaching at Buffalo), Jeremy Manley (AZ State), Kyle Jamison (Clemson), Mike Larabee (Florida International), Mike Roberts (Wisconsin), Glenn Moore (Baylor), John Gwiz (Toledo), Kirk Walker (UCLA), Rob Schweyer (new UCLA coach will be announced soon), Doug Gillis and Wally King (neither are on staffs now but were recently). There's others too which my mind is blank. Of all those listed, Walker, Moore and Jamison were the only ones who weren't playing at the top tier level. Glenn Moore also did a tour with the King and his Court at one point, if you wanna count that.

 

[RADcatcher]

Thanks RAD for the PM telling me about this thread. I could bore the socks off of everyone here by telling you all about the history of the game. About how nearly everything you see now is a result of men's fastpitch of yesteryear. Men's softball put ASA on the map back in the 50's or so. Then, as more and more people became unhappy with ASA, other organizations formed. The same thing has happened to the girl's game. As more and more people became frustrated with all things ASA (now called USA softball) other organizations popped up and started taking over. While I think USSSA was originally a slow pitch oriented organization, they quickly saw the money that is available in girls softball. Today, I'm not sure which side of softball is more profitable to USSSA, slow pitch or girls softball. I'm guessing the girl's game is more lucrative, adult sport numbers are declining annually but the girls game continues to flourish. Even PGF was created as direct competition for ASA/USA, and ironically PGF is considered more prestigious than USA nationals. The reason I say that's ironic is, USA softball is who holds the ticket to playing for the National team(s). I'm really surprised USA softball never made playing in USA Nationals to be mandatory for being on a National team, since they are the governing body of the sport.

Mankato MN is hosting the ISC men's world championship in 2025. Hopefully you guys who live out there will check it out.

@Northball, I'm not sure when you saw Adam Folkard pitch, but for a stretch run between 2009 and 2017 or so, he was the most dominant pitcher in the world. In that time there was plenty of guys who were 2nd in the world behind Adam but all of them were a distant second in that time frame. It's hard to quantify here how hard he threw and how much he dominated the sport. Ironically, he and I were on opposite teams that were ARCH rivals. But, during the summer months he lived with me at my house for 2 summers. Imagine a NY Yankee letting a Boston Red Sox player live at his place!!! lol. (Adam is from Australia btw). Adam is still top 10 in the world but he's in his late 30's now and has had some pretty tough injuries in his arm and shoulder. Those have really taken a toll on him. For a while, he (and his team, which had an incredible lineup) he and team would win anything and everything they entered, teams were playing for 2nd place in each tournament. After a fall out with his team of the last 12 years this summer, I think he'll be pretty motivated next summer to beat his former team.

The past couple of years, my former team NY Gremlins have sort of dominated the scene. And as their future hall of fame pitcher Andrew Kirkpatrick has retired after this last summer (also from Australia) the Gremlins brought in a young Australian who has had one of the best 12 months a pitcher could possibly have. Jack Beesgrove won the WBSC men's final, won the WBSC 23u world final, and won every final of every tournament they entered this past summer. Jack was the winning pitcher in all the events listed above, and this includes the USA Major National championship and the ISC World club tournament, I am pretty sure he won MVPitcher at all of them.

There's a lot of games achieved on the YouTube channels for: Softball Premier and Jim Wana. These are games that were on TV or streamed, not a go-pro camera on the backstop for Game changer. Announcers, replays, etc. The only downside of it is, it's very hard to see how hard they are throwing from TV. Jim Wana is a New Zealander who has a lot of games that were on TV in NZ from the 1980's.

Also on YouTube is the 1992 ISC final. I think that game is broken up into 5 parts, but you all would get to see a young Mike White (Texas coach) pitching that final. White as part of a team from Sioux City IA that is considered to be one of the best teams of all time.

@LEsoftballdad, last I knew there was a small league of men's FP in Central Park. But that was a while ago, it might have ceased operating since then. I'm pretty sure they played on Saturday mornings. It was very low level though.

I think a lot of people on here would be amazed at how many college coaches play or played softball. A small list: Mike White (Texas), Pete Meredith (BYU), Jody Hennigar (just quit coaching at Buffalo), Jeremy Manley (AZ State), Kyle Jamison (Clemson), Mike Larabee (Florida International), Mike Roberts (Wisconsin), Glenn Moore (Baylor), John Gwiz (Toledo), Kirk Walker (UCLA), Rob Schweyer (new UCLA coach will be announced soon), Doug Gillis and Wally King (neither are on staffs now but were recently). There's others too which my mind is blank. Of all those listed, Walker, Moore and Jamison were the only ones who weren't playing at the top tier level. Glenn Moore also did a tour with the King and his Court at one point, if you wanna count that.

Absolutely! Appreciate your contributions on the website!
Another great read Mr B!

Hope more people get to see what men's fastpitch looks like live!

 

[RADcatcher]

Couldn't have guessed how this poll would have turned out. Thank you people for participating!

The results Really says something!
Strong possibility, if there were more people familiar with what it looked like to see REAL Crow hopping.
(still in the men's game)
VS.
Some of the much smaller effect of women's technical pitching issues that seem to redundantly come back into conversation.
More People would have a broader example to add to their perspectives of technical nuances that may or may not have Merit assisting pitchers.

Simply, Giant Crow hopping definitely gains ground!

BTW ~ Crow hopping was part of the women's game (pre 90's) before a lot of the restrictions in the women's game started to coming into effect.

 

[Vertigo]

“Little” crow hopping and “big” crow hopping both = crow hopping, no matter how you try to frame it. The advantage is it allows for the replant which causes the pitcher to drive from a release point closer to home and not from the rubber.

I think we’ve all conceded that it will never get called. It is what it is. But - it is still a crow hop.

 

[RADcatcher]

VS.
Some of the much smaller effect of women's technical pitching issues that seem to redundantly come back into conversation.

Which seems to catch people's eye's

More People would have a broader example to add to their perspectives of technical nuances that may or may not have Merit assisting pitchers.

Smaller technical nuances that may or may not have Merit assisting pitchers.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

Which seems to catch people's eye's


Smaller technical nuances that may or may not have Merit assisting pitchers.

Are you talking to yourself, Rad?

 

[Gtrips07]

Watched it as a Kid when there was a high-powered team in Aurora Illinois and also umpired the men's game some later on. The games I worked were for a league that had several divisons. One had an older gentleman that must have been in his 60's but could bend the ball like crazy.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

 

[RADcatcher]

Are you talking to yourself, Rad?

Making a point! purposely to not respond in rebuttal to people that continually take a bone of contention about umpires.
Those umpiring issues don't bother me! It bothers the Umpire police though.
Not my interest.
My focus is playing!

Regardless of umpires decisions,
the game still needs to be played.

Add this >>> if pitchers in the women's game were allowed to Crow Hop and truly started to launch & Crow hop.
>>>The Batters would make an adjustment and the Batters would hit the ball!
>>>Just as they will with leaping!
Or any other nuance.

Play Ball !