SPOTLIGHT: Tori Finucane's Comeback

[JJsqueeze]

I hate to say it...actually I don't but in mask debate thread # 236 from two years ago I predicted high profile head shots leading to change. I think that time has come and I agree with Riseball that the stigma is pretty much gone. If Florida, Mizzou and Oregon have mask wearing pitchers (and we know at least two of those three coaches are pretty hard nosed old schoolers) then clearly a kid can wear a mask and not face a recruiting ban. As with all things there will be pockets of stupidity where a coach might criticize the choice, but as long as families vote with their feet then they will change their tune after losing some good pitchers.

As for leaving it fat and fielding your position. On the first point, duh...of course they don't want to leave it fat. Pitchers spend their entire lives trying to throw on the edge of a box and not in the box of the strike zone. They also throw balls that don't do what they are supposed to sometimes. Also they face tight zones sometimes and are squeezed into a box, and face 3-2 counts with bases loaded. Plenty of girls have long enough arms and bats to take a pitch that is mostly off the outside and put it dead center up the middle. There are a lot of reasons besides a pitch being fat that can cause it to be hot up the middle hard. It is a stats game and the FATTER it is thrown the MORE LIKELY it can get hammered up the middle but it can happen on any pitch that a hitter can extend to. In on the hands is about the only spot that really can't be hit super hard up the middle.

Fielding your position of course will reduce some hits, but the reaction time on say 90 MPH rocket from 37 feet is pretty small. So some shots are simply impossible to field.

hit your spots, field your position, wear a mask.

 

[knightsb]

Now that the mask stigma appears to gone the way of the dinosaur with even some of those at the highest level wearing masks, I have to wonder what will come next.

IMHO, if there was any good to come out of the head shot that Finucane took it was to decrease if not erase the stigma for pitchers wearing a mask. Riseball, I know we have disagreed on this issue in the past, but I'll now concede I do not see "stigma" as an excuse for a pitcher to not wear a mask if she chooses to. This freshman class of starting pitchers (Barnhill: Florida, Show: Texas A&M, Kleist: Oregon) shows pitchers wearing a mask at the highest level of softball.

Edit: I think I was typing as you were posting JJ, you said it better than me.

 

[Top_Notch]

I witnessed one girl get hit in the head wearing a mask. It is a sound I'd like to forget. Luckily the mask took a lot of the force. And I also witnessed DD take a line drive right back at her. The screams you hear are of nightmares. I'm all for any protective device a pitcher can wear because simply put, there is not enough time to react.

 

[Down and Out]

We have had many conversations about hitting your spots, and DD being the first to realize if a pitch is going fat. If she misses fat she fondly calls it a "Chuck and Duck"

 

[4KidsDad]

I've read a lot of these posts regarding mask or no mask debate.

I simply don't see any good argument for not wearing a mask.

It almost seems like some sort of macho thing which I wouldn't think applies to females.

 

[riseball]

Feel bad for Finucane. Despite all her accomplishments in the circle it appears that now she is forever "the one that got hit in the face."

 

[knightsb]

Feel bad for Finucane. Despite all her accomplishments in the circle it appears that now she is forever "the one that got hit in the face."

Actually Kelsey Nunley was hit in the face back in 2014... Oh wait, she was wearing a face mask.

 

[riseball]

Now that masks are main stream just wondering if the morbid fascination will end and people will move on.

 

[knightsb]

Now that masks are main stream just wondering when the morbid fascination will end and people will move on.

If It bothers you so much why torment yourself by visiting the threads?

Mizzou is the one who produced the video.

 

[Vertigo]

I think people will finally move on when the "play better defense" mentality goes to the wayside. I find it difficult to believe that D1 pitchers make it to that level without knowing how to play good defense. Sometimes it's just a good, solid hit and no matter how quick the reaction time, it's just going to be impossible to field cleanly. I don't know why that's such a difficult concept for some to accept?