Pitching and Pitchers Discussion 8 pitchers in two games - all called with illegal pitches

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What were the illegal pitches called for ? What was the infraction ?

 

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One correction to Five-O, and this really hurts. The only strike out of the inning was erased by this ego maniac................for an illegal pitch!

 

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Wow thats too bad to hear that on such a great weekend of ball playing. On the flipside of that ump I must say watching the last games of the day for the championships the crews seemed to be on their games. They were doing their mechanics and coming out from behind home plate doing their job as if it was the first game of the day. Sometimes that late they are just there going through the motions and these crews weren't! Kudos to them..

Hope one bad apple doesn't leave a bad taste for the rest of the games because even with the weather, it was still a great weekend of ball for me...

 

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We were also at the Stingray's tournament this weekend, and while warming up, my daughter pointed out that all three pitchers from a certain team were warming up with illegal pitches! She came to the conclousion that they must teach their kids to pitch that way, since they all did exactly the same thing. They all hopped, replanted, and then released the ball. This was in warm-ups.

 

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One correction to Five-O, and this really hurts. The only strike out of the inning was erased by this ego maniac................for an illegal pitch!

Sorry!! There were so many of them I lost track!!!

 

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About field conditions: When there is loose dirt, holes etc. around the pitching rubber, pitchers from BOTH teams have to deal with the SAME conditions during a game. Actually, every pitcher that plays on that particular field has to deal with it. As a pitcher, my daughter has had to deal with that her entire pitching career. It's an unfortunate part of tournament ball. A suggestion would be to have an assistant coach look up the TD between innings (NOT THE UMPIRING STAFF) and request the field problem be addressed. The umpires usually have nothing to do with field conditions - unless they are rules violations. The TD or tournament field maintenance crew is your best bet.

I made a comment about sandy conditions my DD had to deal with in Panama City Beach Fla. in another thread. Those fields were very challenging with holes and soft, loose sand - but BOTH pitchers used the same pitching surface. I also know of a certain pitcher in Ohio that practiced under a lawn sprinkler with a hole where her stride foot landed. I was told years ago by a very knowledgable pitching coach that the pitcher who is best prepared for adverse conditions (rain, cold, snow, holes, etc.) will be better prepared to help their team win games.

I watched several of the later Sunday 18u games (Lasers, Sundogs, Team Indiana, Wolfpack, Extreme). From my perspective, which was generally behind the backstop, I didn't see any obvious pitching infractions, at least nothing more than you would see in a typical college game. From a side view, as a field ump might have, it's far easier to see. In the games where the opposing coaches didn't complain, it's simply their loss. I DID see some a couple "side skippers" in the 16u games. This type of pitching rarely gets called in Ohio - it's the ones that leap sideways and leave two obvious holes where their feet land. Poor teaching, and poor mechanics.

There are bad apples in every umpiring crew. Of all the games I watched at Stingrays this weekend, I saw very few poor or blown calls - fewer than normal at least. The ump that was making a spectacle was the obvious bad apple. But I wouldn't judge the overall officiating crew by the actions of one lousy umpire.

 

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We were also at the Stingray's tournament this weekend, and while warming up, my daughter pointed out that all three pitchers from a certain team were warming up with illegal pitches!

Pitchers do a lot of crazy stuff while warming up that would be flat out illegal in a game. Maybe this was just something from their warm-up routine.

The crews assigned to the championship games at Stingray's were comprised of some of the most experienced umpires in the area. You had guys that call college ball and at least one that I know for a fact calls games for the Akron Racers.

Add to that the umpires coming in for the final games were not the same umpires that had been there all day long. They were fresh crews comimg in that hadn't worked five or six games in a row before getting to the finals.

That is the philosophy that the assigner for the central district (Central Ohio Softball Umpires Association) tries to stick to- schedule the best umpires for the semi-final and championship games and keep the crews fresh. Our assigner is adamantly against having umpires work so many games in one day, or in a row, that they become fatigued or ineffective.

This kind of ties in with the earlier comments about quality of "the umpiring in Columbus". Just because a game was played in Columbus, that does not mean that the umpires were necessarily from the Columbus unit.

For instance, the tournament held at Berliner last weekend was mostly comprised of umpires from the Akron area. That tournament had different sponsors, different assigners and different umpires.

Some individual umpires might work for other units for a few games here and there, depending on their schedule or what contacts they have developed with other umpire associations. Some local assigners might even "borrow" umpires from another association if there is a shortage of available umpires in their area.

For instance, I worked two of the late games on Friday at Beekman with an umpire that told me he had just arrived after working seven games at Berliner that day! He was from the Akron area and had carpooled down with a couple of other umpires to stay in Columbus all weekend and work as many games as they could squeeze in.

I will say that of the eight games I worked at Stingray's, all of the partners I had were top-notch umpires. We didn't have any arguments, complaints, game delays, weird rulings or unruly fans that can ruin an otherwise perfect softball game. I had one coach request time and come ask me about a call I made in the field. He was polite and professional about it, even though he wasn't happy how it worked out, and we continued the game without interuption. These eight games were about as routine as they could possibly get and a joy to work.

 

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We had good umpires at the Buckeye Showdown in Columbus over the weekend, but like Bretman said most of them that we talked to came down from the Akron/Canton/Cleveland areas.

 

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I will say we had the best umpires this year at Buckeye Showdown. I have been around softball and have watched countless hours of video on softball rules and what are illegal pitches. I'm friends with both coaches in this game. I will say this umpire is wrong since I have seen these kids pitch. We had two kids at Buckeye Showdown pitching illegal. Once side arm and one replanting. In both cases the field umpire talked to me about it at first base and I agreed with him. Just tell the coach what they are doing wrong. The kids were struggling and you could tell that the team was weak in pitching . It was not going to effect the game. In both cases I was friends with the umpires in the game. Only one umpire made a bad call on the look back rule. He called our runner at first out who was attemping to make a delayed steal. Told me pitchier was in the cirle and had to go back to first. I told him unless she looks our runner back, she is not out. He looked it up after our ran delay and did admit he got it wrong.

 

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The umpires down at Stingrays were good for the most part, there were a couple however that should not be invited back to anywhere. The ump in the Stingray game was just clueless, the pitchers back toe would slip off the back of rubber b/c of the hole that was there, not a step back. He took control of the game and decided the outcome. Shame on him.

 

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...I will say that of the eight games I worked at Stingray's, all of the partners I had were top-notch umpires. We didn't have any arguments, complaints, game delays, weird rulings or unruly fans that can ruin an otherwise perfect softball game. I had one coach request time and come ask me about a call I made in the field. He was polite and professional about it, even though he wasn't happy how it worked out, and we continued the game without interuption. These eight games were about as routine as they could possibly get and a joy to work.

Thought I'd pass this along... I was talking to a couple of the coaches from one of your games this weekend, and they had nothing but good things to say about the calls and how you and your partner handled things.:yahoo:

 

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I have no complaints on the umpiring of any of the other games I watched. There are umpires you WANT to do your game because they professional and do their job right. If they make a call you disagree with, you tend to look past it because they are good. Then there are CLOWNS like this crew. This guy has an issue with all this from what I understand. I would hope the Stingrays would ask the ASA look into this guy and do something. I know that other tournaments have made statements that certian umps are not allowed to work their tournaments any more. I think this JOKE of an ump should take up s*cc:*r, v*ll&yb*ll or soemthing because he DOES not understand softball.

 

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I have no complaints on the umpiring of any of the other games I watched. There are umpires you WANT to do your game because they professional and do their job right. If they make a call you disagree with, you tend to look past it because they are good. Then there are CLOWNS like this crew. This guy has an issue with all this from what I understand. I would hope the Stingrays would ask the ASA look into this guy and do something. I know that other tournaments have made statements that certian umps are not allowed to work their tournaments any more. I think this JOKE of an ump should take up s*cc:*r, v*ll&yb*ll or soemthing because he DOES not understand softball.

I wouldn't lump these umpires together. The plate umpire did a nice job and from what I could tell he was no more happy about it then everyone else was. It really was more about the field umpire, he was the one making the calls.

I was not there when the Heat coaches asked for an explanation so I cannot comment on the responses that they got, but from what I could tell it did not make much sense. Again from where I stood in the 3rd base coaches box I didn't see anything wrong. Just a player working hard that should have been allowed to do her thing. BTW, I also think that the shot that she took off of her head was to some degree a result of this issue. We saw her throw the week before and she was confident and athletic. With all that was going on I feel that she lost just a little focus and she was definately not finishing as strongly as she had been. This part of the situation is really what bothered me most.

 

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I was not there when the Heat coaches asked for an explanation so I cannot comment on the responses that they got, but from what I could tell it did not make much sense. Again from where I stood in the 3rd base coaches box I didn't see anything wrong. Just a player working hard that should have been allowed to do her thing. BTW, I also think that the shot that she took off of her head was to some degree a result of this issue. We saw her throw the week before and she was confident and athletic. With all that was going on I feel that she lost just a little focus and she was definately not finishing as strongly as she had been. This part of the situation is really what bothered me most.

Rich, you are correct. She felt she had to pitch for the umpires. The end result was she tried to change in mid game. She was more worried about the field umpire and the continual illegal pitch call. She changed her focus, her stance, her delivery... the end result, she tood a shot off of the "game face" that probably saved her orbital bone but ended up taking her out of the game. She ended up with an egg size lump on her temple due to the shot off of the "game face".

It was interesting that while the UIC was watching, he did not make a single call, but before her cart was out of sight, he called two more illegal pitches withing 1 minute after she left.

Bretman, I am going to ask my parents to put together a video of her pitching for you to review. I am absolutely confident that after you review the clips you will shake your head in amazement, as did the home plate umpire. I will restate, since 11U, she has not received even as much as a warning from any umpire in any venue. This umpire ruined what should have been a great experience - not only for the players, but for the parents and coaching staff as well. This will leave a bad taste that will take a long time to get rid of.

 

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We complain when the Blue won't call it and now we scream when they do.;&

 

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Shane,

I hope you know me well enough to know the difference between sour grapes and a definate problem.

 

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We had an umpire that called one illegal pitch after we brought it to her attention but then said she was not illegal the rest of the game. This pitcher re planted on every pitch the entire time. This is the reason so many girls continue to do it. Why change if it might get called once a game or once a month. The advantage is worth it if that is the most they will call it. Do you think I could just have my pitchers start two feet in front of the rubber like those who jump and plant that drive foot again.

 

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I am attempting to compile a video clip for everyone to review. This will let you and others be the judge.

 

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shane,

i hope you know me well enough to know the difference between sour grapes and a definate problem.

 

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My question in the Stingray game or any game that has runners on base, should the field ump be watching the runners( as to leaving early ) or watching the pitcher for illegal pitches?
I would think it is kinda hard to focus on both of these at the same time. Being that with no runners on base the field ump can watch the pitcher and make his call.