pitcher maintain contact with rubber

[NumeroUno]

Don't mess with MTR the boy knows his stuff!!!

[bigsig]

If I recall correctly, that's a protestable call

If the situation warrants it, do it!

Umpire's judgement, NOT protestable.

It is protestable if the umpire interprets the rule incorrectly. The umpire stated the pitcher must keep contact with the pitcher's plate until the ball is pitched. That is not true, hence it is a rule interpretation which is indeed protestable.

Here is what I'm looking at:
ASA 2008
Rule 6 Sec 3 Legal Delivery
I: In the act of delivering the ball the pitcher must take one step with the non-pivot foot simultaneous with the release of the ball.....It is not a step if the pitcher slides the foot across the the pitcher's plate or if the pivot foot turns or slides in order to push off the plate, provided contact is maintained with the plate.
(Underlines are mine)

IMO Sounds like the ump's explanation was correct.

[wadeintothem]

Here is what I'm looking at:
ASA 2008
Rule 6 Sec 3 Legal Delivery
I: In the act of delivering the ball the pitcher must take one step with the non-pivot foot simultaneous with the release of the ball.....It is not a step if the pitcher slides the foot across the the pitcher's plate or if the pivot foot turns or slides in order to push off the plate, provided contact is maintained with the plate.
(Underlines are mine)

IMO Sounds like the ump's explanation was correct.

Did you actually read the OP?

That rule is talking about a side to side slide on the pitchers plate.

[MTR]

Here is what I'm looking at:
ASA 2008
Rule 6 Sec 3 Legal Delivery
I: In the act of delivering the ball the pitcher must take one step with the non-pivot foot simultaneous with the release of the ball.....It is not a step if the pitcher slides the foot across the the pitcher's plate or if the pivot foot turns or slides in order to push off the plate, provided contact is maintained with the plate.
(Underlines are mine)

IMO Sounds like the ump's explanation was correct.

You are referencing a rule which offers the restrictions and exceptions of the step required with the pitch.

Now, drop down two paragraphs to 6(FP).3.K where it states:

(Women's and all JO play) Pushing off and dragging the pivot foot in contact with the ground is required. If a hole has been created, the pivot foot may drag no higher than the level plane of the ground

This umpire didn't have a clue.

[BeyondTheScoreBoard]

It sounds like the umpire was applying a slo-pitch rule.

[MTR]

It sounds like the umpire was applying a slo-pitch rule.

Even in slowpitch, the pitcher is permitted to lose contact with the pitcher's plate.

[pdj]

This is an attempt to engage a memory that is on the decline.

In about 1983 ASA started to allow the leap by rule. There was a lot of harping, and leaping, for several years prior. Roy Burlison is a name that comes to mind for one that changed the game of pitching with an explosion off of the rubber.

With so many people going to a leaping windmill from slingshot the pivot foot watchers had a tough few years. A number of older players/fans still bemoan the one foot on and leap as killing the male game.

[MTR]

This is an attempt to engage a memory that is on the decline.

In about 1983 ASA started to allow the leap by rule. There was a lot of harping, and leaping, for several years prior. Roy Burlison is a name that comes to mind for one that changed the game of pitching with an explosion off of the rubber.

With so many people going to a leaping windmill from slingshot the pivot foot watchers had a tough few years. A number of older players/fans still bemoan the one foot on and leap as killing the male game.

ASA legalized leaping in 2007. What was "allowed" or overlooked prior to that may be another story

Then again, I don't have a rule book from that period, so that may have been the rule at that time. I do, however, have a rule book from 1936 which only requires one foot in contact with the pitcher's plate at the start of the pitch.

[pdj]

Guess I should not have used the word leap. Lets try it this way, about 1983 the ASA no longer required that the pivot foot, for fastpitch pitchers, to maintain contact with the rubber until the ball was released. When this rule came in there was a lot, much more than I see today, of replanting.

[play-more/talk-less]

Arguing will (as is the case with 99% of umps) only make it worse so just wait til next game, next blue rather than get all upset about it you can't change your pitching style in the middle of a game no matter who is right or wrong.