daboss,
The right toe dragging on the ground. Basically leaping.
I was at my DD's junior college game today. I am not exaggerating when I make this statement. One of the other teams pitchers didn't throw one legal pitch. It was beyond obvious. It was not called once . She threw to 5 batters and roughly 30 pitches . Not one legal and never called. It's become a joke
There's a host of reasons for this. Too many issues to list. One of the reasons is the umpires in general are not fluently schooled on the issues that actually are illegal. They can't readily identify the infractions. They don't want to get into a confrontation with coaches-----------or pitchers that actually have a better understanding of the rules for pitchers. This is not an excuse but an opinion. When you consider all the things a pair of umpires need to watch in the course of a game, what goes on in the circle has to be obviously blatant for them to call it. Watching for a flat or upward pointing toe compared to a downward pointing toe is difficult to judge at times.
Remember; recollection is all they have to fall back on if a confrontation is to follow. If we had video to use to prove a point, a safety net would exist but so would the assurance all the games would be longer. I don't believe that is something we want as a result. With more umpires (3 or more) you would expect more enforcement of the rules or at least a clearer more consistent enforcement. Since we already deal with a shortage of umpires I don't see this option being available anytime soon.
So where does this leave us? I believe City Slicker points out something I'd like to say a few words on. I believe most qualified pitching instructors are teaching the girls the proper mechanics of pitching. Also, I believe some of these girls are confident they have a handle on this art and convince Mom and Dad there is no need to get up at 5am on Sunday morning to go to their lesson, they can do this on their own. They continue to practice with their coaches that have little or no knowledge of pitching mechanics and are allowed to develop a form that has illegal tendencies and nobody there is the wiser. For many they simply are thrilled the girl can reach to Missouri and come around with a screaming fastball that actually gets called a strike after it travels 43 ft. Now take this kid to a game with an umpire that knows pitching infractions and have them call it and you can bet the farm the entire staff and this confident kid will be ready to argue what a jerk the umpire is being. Sometimes, it actually comes down to "Are we going to play this game or not?" Again, I'm not saying it's right.
Can we fix the issue? The answer is in the knowledge our umpires have and the willingness to call infractions as they see them. This may mean more intense training for umpires in the off season. It might be we need to pay them more for a better effort. Are we ready to add more to the expense column for a game of fastpitch softball? Things seldom change for the principle of it. Money talks.
Just my opinion.
