"What's Leapin'?"

[Glipski]

Funny, though ironic story from a USSSA tournament yesterday. Happen to find myself exiting the restroom at the same time the Head USSSA official was entering. Being the somewhat inquisitive person I am, I inquired about his connection to the officials calling games at said tournament. Before you bring it up, I gave him time to finish his business prior to beginning the
Great Sh*thouse Inquisition of 2010 , otherwise known as GSI 2010, so obviously he didn't have to pee during the questioning.

Here it goes:
me: "are you affiliated with the umpires here today?"
him: "why, yes I am. I'm the lead official. We're from W***er R****ns (name edited to protect a great baseball town), where we know ball. I make sure they're doing their jobs the right way. Why?"
me: "wow, great place you're from. Might I ask why none of your officials are calling illegal pitches today?"
Intermission: Anyone who has seen my replies to illegal pitching threads knows how I feel about them...returning to regularly scheduled program-
me: "I've made the rounds to several fields and witnessed more than one age group with pitchers blatantly leaping, some over a foot in the air on stride-out, yet nobody is calling them on it."
him: "Wha, wha, what's leaping?"
*If I'm lying, I'm dying*
me: "according to everyone's rule books, the drag foot should never rise above the plane of the field prior to release of the ball. At least one foot must maintain contact with the ground at all times before the pitcher releases the ball. Otherwise they're airborne for a period of time and are illegal."
*not sure of the exact wording of the rules, but hey, we're in the john, ok?"*
him: "Well, if they're not calling it now, they will be, I'm going to check on it right now"
me: "Thanks. I'm sure you'll get it fixed. I appreciate it."
him: "can I leave now?" *kidding...added for effect

How can anyone ever expect the rules to be enforced if the officials claim to not even know what they are? I heard more obscure rules quoted by fans and family at this tournament that at any I have attended, yet NOT ONE ever mentioned leaping or crow hopping...and I did actually see a pitcher making a replant prior to release, it was awesome, too. She ruled it.

Finally, on to the question: I wonder, since we're all obviously so entrenched in pitching relative to the other facets of fastpitch, are we really the only ones that:

• 
  [*]actually know about the rules, and
  [*]really care about the rules?

It seems that besides us, the weary crew of the pitchers guild, no one seems to be bothered by this issue. Now, throw in a rolled bat or try and sneak in a dead ball to the pitcher (yeah you know you tried it last week against that team of sluggers on steroids who all drove their own cars to their 10U game) and let's see all the rules officianodos come crawling out of the woodwork (or aluminumwork).

Just a footnote: he didn't check on anything. He actually ended up under a tent with the TD drinking a Pepsi and backslapping the rest of the day, but hey, "what's a lax Catholic gonna do?" (a quote from my all time favorite movie, and the greatest, mostest bestest movie in the history of cinema, "Rudy")

Please post your thoughts on this, and as always, feel free to tell me how wrong I am rather than addressing the question at hand

 

[Lozza]

I have enough trouble getting people to teach proper mechanics (as in teaching the girls to turn their bodies) to worry about leaping over here. There's only one A grade pitcher who is illegal and she gets called at least once a game anyways.

Apparently its legal now though. (international rules, not sure about America) And all the 'top state pitchers' are teaching these girls how to leap. Except that they don't know how to do it properly, so they're teaching piss poor mechanics. Not even ignoring the fact that they're not fixing the basic mechanics to these girls. I had to leave that day.

 

[Glipski]

Not legal here. Just yesterday a pitcher from Auburn University got called 4 times in a game against Georgia Tech for leaping (she, of course, laughed about it every time it happened).
WHEN (not IF) it's deemed legal here, I'll shut up. Since it's obvious to me that a few bitching coaches who refuse to follow the rules outweigh the HUGE majority of coaches who DO follow the rules, but obliviously keep their eyes on the batters and mouths shut about these pitchers, then I believe it will be removed from everyone's rule books and made legal. I'm accustomed to seeing the squeaky wheel get the grease in most things in this country, right or wrong, just how it is, so as it's easier for the officials not to have to deal with this issue, it will get removed.

Write it on the wall...Leaping will be legal...Glipski said it this day on this board

 

[Lozza]

Its already legal in the rest of the world. So it won't be long before its legal in America.

I hate it. The main reason is because umpires don't police it.

 

[Glipski]

Well, not to start slinging poo, but I suppose we could get our government involved in the process and they would go to all the world leaders and apologize for our failure to allow leaping in the sport of fastpitch and then begin a nationwide smear campaign of all fastpitch coaches who don't allow it now. They would then surmise that it was unfair that some leapt while others didn't and propose a new leap tax designed to fund massive training on a national scale aimed at teaching proper leaping to the pitchers who have fell behind the rest of the world. This tax will be aimed at the rich and will alleviate any tensions between countries based on the absence of leaping in US pitching. There will be massive debate over the legitimacy of the new tax and eventually Congress will force it through using reconciliation, after which it will be determined that fastpitch as a sport is totally unconstitutional as it unfairly disadvantages non-leapers that went through the system prior to the new tax. Fastpitch will be outlawed and a new sport called " Semi- somewhat fastpitch" will be mandated for all girls under the age of 18 and the ball will have to be rolled across the plate to the batter who will kick it instead of using a bat.