- Jul 3, 2009
- 50
- 0
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:
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
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