They should move back college fences

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

My HS field is 220'. Any college under that distance should put up a high wall. I understand field restrictions based on availability of land, but a tall fence should not be an issue.

Agreed. This is what Columbia baseball does for their super short (350ish) center field, bound by the Harlem River. It looks a little goofy with a super long high wall out there, but it works.

 

[Dabears17]

I asked my 13 year old DD to check out the Vanderbilt program, as it's a good school near where we live.

They don't have a softball team. . Reason cited is there's nowhere to build a field.

A very good player I coached in 2008 got into Vanderbilt and decided to go there for the academics. I always suspected she was smart enough to get into a school where she wouldn't have an opportunity to play.

University of Southern California's excuse is the same, no place to build a softball field.

 

[cnardone]

I asked my 13 year old DD to check out the Vanderbilt program, as it's a good school near where we live.

They don't have a softball team. . Reason cited is there's nowhere to build a field.

As my alma mater, this disappoints me to no end.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

A very good player I coached in 2008 got into Vanderbilt and decided to go there for the academics. I always suspected she was smart enough to get into a school where she wouldn't have an opportunity to play.

University of Southern California's excuse is the same, no place to build a softball field.

Yet, USC has a woman's lacrosse team in an area with very little local lacrosse teams. In fact, more than half their roster is made up of girls from the NYC Metro area.

 

[Nimrod]

My question would be is hitting home runs bad for the game? Are the bases being so close together also bad for the game and also need moved back?

Bases are fine. The short distances force urgency and quick decisions that make the game more exciting. Also creates jobs for slappers.

As for fences, some people are concerned that with the increasing power of hitters and bats that the game is trending toward what people don't like about MLB - high HR, high SO. The easier it becomes to hit homers, the more pitchers need to go for strikeouts. Harder for finesse/control pitchers to survive, so you'll get more power on power, maybe more walks, less action And the easier it is to hit homers, the more coaches will be forced to take power hitters at the expense of defense, especially when there's not much outfield grass to cover. Short fences also make it harder to hit doubles and triples. Lot of balls that hit short fences are turned into singles.

But yeah, I like homers too, and I don't think it's out of hand yet, especially when two equal teams are playing. A lot of the HR fests occur in mismatches. You're probably not hitting 5 HR off a top-10 team.

 

[jdint]

As of Feb. 20th you have 3 teams averaging more than 2 HR's a game. 34 averaging between 1 and 2 per game and 10 averaging exactly 1 a game. The rest of D1 is averaging less than 1 HR per game, so my belief is this only a problem at the very upper levels of D1. That's if you consider it a problem at all.

 

[uncdrew]

My question would be is hitting home runs bad for the game? Are the bases being so close together also bad for the game and also need moved back?

I'm with ya. I love the long ball. I have no problem with the shorter fields. Kinda wish sometimes that our young kids had shorter fields.

 

[uncdrew]

As my alma mater, this disappoints me to no end.

My sweet DD said "Maybe they'll have one by the time I get to college".

I just smiled. I suppose it could happen. I mean Clemson and Duke didn't have programs until just recently.

 

[daywalkerdad]

I was at 1 day of the Clearwater Invitational and I think there were something like 14 home runs in the 3 games I watched. All but 2 of them were crushed and would have been out if the fences were 220ft - some of them were def over 250ft. It's crazy to me that many colleges play on field with the same dimensions as some 12u teams.

Fences need to deeper and/or coaches need to manage different.

 

[wheresmycar]

University of Southern California's excuse is the same, no place to build a softball field.

I call BS...

Columbia University can squeeze one in on the north tip of Manhattan Island.... And it is definitely squeezed.
George Washington can squeeze one into DC.
Georgetown, apparently, plays at a rec park in DC.

And no reason the field has to be "on campus". UGAs is miles away from campus, on outskirts of Athens. Georgia States softball complex is outside the perimeter (i285), nowhere near their downtown campus.

And it i