Should the game be modified in today's age?
- Thread starter 02Crush
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02Crush
Way past gone
Did not know it was a male dominated sport in the beginning. Now I am going to be doing some serious work online tonight to search history. But you still think Optic yellow balls did not come about as a "safety" issue? I am certain long ago balls were not optic yellow.
02Crush
Way past gone
Seems it has always been played by both men and women. Loved the fact that the supposed first ball was a tied up Boxing glove.
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With 70’ bases, it would completely change the dynamics of the short game. Bunting and slapping would be far less common. You could call it baseball for girls instead of fastpitch. No thanks.
Fences now at a number of colleges are set. There isn’t room to push them back. What if their only option financially would be to drop softball? It's not as if it's a money making sport.
If anything, change the compression of the ball and make the ball less hot. It’s the cheapest way. But I’m not sure that’s even in the best interest of fastpitch. I kinda like it the way it is.
Fences now at a number of colleges are set. There isn’t room to push them back. What if their only option financially would be to drop softball? It's not as if it's a money making sport.
If anything, change the compression of the ball and make the ball less hot. It’s the cheapest way. But I’m not sure that’s even in the best interest of fastpitch. I kinda like it the way it is.
Offense. We already have soccer and ice hockey team sports you can watch for an hour and no one scores. You do anything to take away the scoring and you start to lose folks interest.
Don't know when they changed internationally (I am positive they had the white balls in Atlanta) but I remember them coming in around the early 2000s in Australia. We thought it was HILARIOUS to be playing with anything but white. Now I couldn't go back. When I coached a U13 team here I was given white balls. I handed them back. I don't know why they make them anymore.
No for changing pitching distances. They weren't changed to 43 feet long ago (less than ten years?) Again I started pitching at 40 feet and it was an adjustment as an adult to have to move back. (then came to Perth and went BACK to 40 feet. Couldn't be touched the first year and the only one who didn't struggle the second when it was changed)
The most recent changes in the game have been made to make the game a bit more offensive. Optic yellow balls, and the increased distance from pitcher plate to home plate were changed to give pitchers less of an advantage.
- Jun 22, 2008
- 3,438
- 48
Yep, the base distance issue was raised a short while ago, by me, and you would have thought softball was asking for their first born.
To start, the ONLY thing fast about the game of fastpitch softball, is the fast pitch. Other than that, if you want a fast paced game with constant action, go watch a slow pitch game. And before someone ignorant of the game talks about the fat beer-bellied players, today there is more to the game than the local rec teams. If you honestly believe that is what the SP game is, you need to get you head out of ........... the sand and go find some decent games. They are not difficult to find and, like FP, there are many levels including the good, bad and ugly.
Speaking of rec teams, that was the purpose of the game, recreation. In the beginning, the game was adopted by many fire fighting companies and men's clubs as a means of distraction and exercise. Of course, any time you get that much testosterone in one place, someone is going to brag about being better than the next guy and now you have a competitive game.
The game, which more resembles the origin of baseball than baseball does, was played with crudely tooled equipment that was not manufactured for endurance and performance. The game was not played by sport-specific athletes, but by nearly anyone in the community that chose to take part. It was not developed as anything, but a recreational activity. Yes, it was competitive at some levels and created a fair amount of braggadocio, but was often part of a community event which ended with all taking part in celebration, not just the winners.
While women have played the game for nearly a century, until the late 20th century there were still some schools and parts of society that considered the game "un-ladylike". When I was in HS in the 60's, the girl's softball team was deemed not suitable for young ladies and my HS was quite liberal in an upper middle-class suburban area. They replaced it with women's field lacrosse! Still haven't figured that one out.
The point is that the game was played on bases at 60' when it was recreational, by athletes and non-athletes alike with relatively dead equipment. That is no longer the case. There are many more female than male FP players and many more youth players than adults. The equipment is space-age compared to what was being used just 20 years ago.
The pitching distance became in issue because the defense and highly-developed pitchers become the dominant part of the game. However, no change has ever been initiated to accommodate the high-performance equipment and greatly improved athleticism of today's players.
IMO, 65' bases would be quite appropriate for the FP game of the 21st century and it really doesn't change the game as much as the reactionaries believe it would.
To start, the ONLY thing fast about the game of fastpitch softball, is the fast pitch. Other than that, if you want a fast paced game with constant action, go watch a slow pitch game. And before someone ignorant of the game talks about the fat beer-bellied players, today there is more to the game than the local rec teams. If you honestly believe that is what the SP game is, you need to get you head out of ........... the sand and go find some decent games. They are not difficult to find and, like FP, there are many levels including the good, bad and ugly.
Speaking of rec teams, that was the purpose of the game, recreation. In the beginning, the game was adopted by many fire fighting companies and men's clubs as a means of distraction and exercise. Of course, any time you get that much testosterone in one place, someone is going to brag about being better than the next guy and now you have a competitive game.
The game, which more resembles the origin of baseball than baseball does, was played with crudely tooled equipment that was not manufactured for endurance and performance. The game was not played by sport-specific athletes, but by nearly anyone in the community that chose to take part. It was not developed as anything, but a recreational activity. Yes, it was competitive at some levels and created a fair amount of braggadocio, but was often part of a community event which ended with all taking part in celebration, not just the winners.
While women have played the game for nearly a century, until the late 20th century there were still some schools and parts of society that considered the game "un-ladylike". When I was in HS in the 60's, the girl's softball team was deemed not suitable for young ladies and my HS was quite liberal in an upper middle-class suburban area. They replaced it with women's field lacrosse! Still haven't figured that one out.
The point is that the game was played on bases at 60' when it was recreational, by athletes and non-athletes alike with relatively dead equipment. That is no longer the case. There are many more female than male FP players and many more youth players than adults. The equipment is space-age compared to what was being used just 20 years ago.
The pitching distance became in issue because the defense and highly-developed pitchers become the dominant part of the game. However, no change has ever been initiated to accommodate the high-performance equipment and greatly improved athleticism of today's players.
IMO, 65' bases would be quite appropriate for the FP game of the 21st century and it really doesn't change the game as much as the reactionaries believe it would.
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Restrict the bats/balls if too many hot hits or home runs but the field dimensions seem perfect to me, as many have said, EXCEPT for the way in which balls leave the park sometimes (not in all levels of games, though).
Making the bat or ball less hot would also force girls to improve their swings to be more efficient, which wouldn't be a bad thing. To me we always point to major league baseball player swings to emulate, but they play on different sized field with different equipment and face different pitching, it DOES make a difference in how you *optimize* the swing --ie, get the last few bits of efficiency out of it that separate superstar from average player.
For instance, in high school baseball BBCOR bats make a huge difference for kids and really challenge them to work on their swings.
Making the bat or ball less hot would also force girls to improve their swings to be more efficient, which wouldn't be a bad thing. To me we always point to major league baseball player swings to emulate, but they play on different sized field with different equipment and face different pitching, it DOES make a difference in how you *optimize* the swing --ie, get the last few bits of efficiency out of it that separate superstar from average player.
For instance, in high school baseball BBCOR bats make a huge difference for kids and really challenge them to work on their swings.
- Jan 25, 2011
- 2,278
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MTR,well said
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