Illegal Pitches

[ajaywill]

The pitching rules are not that hard to follow. Every coach has access to them and should have read them. They all know, or at least should know their pitchers are illegal and should be making them work on being legal in practice. Waiting for it to be called during a game and then giving the umpire crap about it is a big load of BS.

Just did an exposure tournament this past weekend and we were instructed not to call any IP, just to inform the coach of what the pitchers were doing wrong. Saw stepping on with hands together, stepping back off plate with stride foot, stepping forward with push off foot, double touching etc. Every coach more or less blew off the comments and said they had never been called before. Rest assured they will do nothing in practice to correct the problems and the next umpire that does call it will pay the price.

Maybe we need a web site where umpires can post the IPs they have called along with the school and pitcher's name.

That way there is no question over who has been called illegal

Since her name has been mentioned, I have umpired several games that Ms. Fowler pitched in during her HS and Travel Ball career. I know that I have called her for an illegal pitch more than once and also observed other umpires do it as well....

[Makina]

So she knows she does it, she just decides she going to do it until she gets called for it. And as we all know the talking heads were completely off-base!!

[MTR]

Combines are poorly attended by coaches. Suzy always smashes shots off of pitching machines. Very hard to have pitchers that can pitch effective batting practice.
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Thats why you use your own pitcher. Or the host can probably bring in some help from local college pitchers. It would be a nice work-out for them. For that matter, you could probably get a few coaches to bring a pitcher with them.

I was only mentioning an alternative which would seem to suit the issues you raised about priorities at a showcase.

[NewCoach]

Id like to see every IP called. Either you have a rule or you dont, consistant enforcement creates a level playing field, selective enforcement creates an unfair (intentional or not) advantage.

[Sam]

All that needs to be done is to change the pitching urles at all ages/divisions to reflect the same rules as mens fastpitch.

Candrea had hired Teresa Wilson as a pitching coach....he should have lit her up for not fixing the problem instead of blaming the umpires for enforcing the rules. One would have thought that Michelle Smith would have brought that little fact up.

[Makina]

She's a pitcher. Of course she's not going to blame the pitching coach! It's easier to blame the umpires for your failures.

[JCates]

How much Illegal Pitches is to Much for an umpire to call during a Single game.
They should call every one they see
SoCal Finest (Feed a Family). One game and that game was all about a Field Umpire all about her. Fourteen (14) Illegal pitches called in One Game I've never called that many in 5yrs umpiring (6).
Your coach should have made a pitching change before it got to that point.
Our Pitcher Never changed a thing and yet it was a hit and miss calls when she wanted to call it.
Many times based on where the BU is positioned they have a better view of the infraction than others.
Why waste a Time-Out when they give you NO Correction and it was all about her that game. Like they had to prove something to everyone.
It is not the umpires job to give instruction
Pitcher was never taking gaining an advantage on the batters and the other coaches on the other team never thought she was Illegall pitching.
Neither of those items are a requirement for an IP to be called.
Lefty Pitcher left foot was pivoting into the pitching mound and she said she was losing contact......
Then that is by definition an IP.
How about a shadow I guess she's never heard of that. She drags her foot ......inside of her shoe both the heel and inside toe.......Its a shame that an umpire needs to bring their 18 yrs of experience into a game and take control thaty way.
Pitcher was never the same after......I could understand States/Nationals but really it's just Pool Games. WoW!!!!!!

And therein lies the problem that we have had to deal with all along. Umpires would never call it until Nationals and then it was too late to correct the improper mechanic. I would think you would be happier knowing now in December so that your kid has time to work on correcting her problem before it costs you in a big game.

That is exactly how I would have responded to this post. I hate waiting until Nats and then seeing one thing focused on that was not even a problem all season. Even then umps are correct to call, but it needs to be a season long focus...not just at the big show.

[MTR]

That is exactly how I would have responded to this post. I hate waiting until Nats and then seeing one thing focused on that was not even a problem all season. Even then umps are correct to call, but it needs to be a season long focus...not just at the big show.

And how do you know the umpires you see at Nationals haven't been calling it all year long?

[Sam]

Every coach who knows anything about anything knows when their own pitcher throws illegally. That coach has choices. Get it corrected during the season and be good at Nationals or let it go and hope it nobody notices at Nationals. There are enough crocodile tears shed on this thread to drown.....a crocodile. The whiners could have fixed their pitchers. For christ's sake, they had 10 months to do it and they CHOSE to do nothing. If you don't like the IP's being called at Nationals, FIX YOUR PITCHERS! Don't sit on your collective asses and cry about it here when you had total control of the situation and you did nothing about it.

[Makina]

Every coach who knows anything about anything knows when their own pitcher throws illegally. That coach has choices. Get it corrected during the season and be good at Nationals or let it go and hope it nobody notices at Nationals. There are enough crocodile tears shed on this thread to drown.....a crocodile. The whiners could have fixed their pitchers. For christ's sake, they had 10 months to do it and they CHOSE to do nothing. If you don't like the IP's being called at Nationals, FIX YOUR PITCHERS! Don't sit on your collective asses and cry about it here when you had total control of the situation and you did nothing about it.

Harsh, but true! Unfortunately most coaches don't know that their pitcher is throwing an IP. The pitching coach may have even taught them to leap!