Georgia vs Mizzou

[Nzane]

The umpires cannot see the lines very well. Remember, you are seen them from a shot more than 20' above field level.

I just read this line again. Thats funny!! If they can't see those lines, how do they see the foul lines??

No, what's funny is how someone can ask such a question without an emoticon demonstrating that you are aware how absurd it is. That is, unless you are not.

Better??

[coolstuff]

Gonna dig up this old topic to share a story of what happened this past weekend.

Our pitcher was called for an illegal pitch because of the aforementioned "pitching lane" violation. There were no chalk marks to designate the lane. The ump was one of those who likes to perform. In fact, he made a big production of explaining the call to everyone and all while standing at the plate. One of our coaches explained that this was first time that weekend - in fact the entire summer season - that we had seen that call made on ANY pitcher. "Then the other umpires are calling it wrong," the blue loudly proclaimed. The penalty is certainly severe. All base runners advance one base, and the batter advances to first. There was already a runner at first, so now they have runners on 1st and 2nd. Then, the PU calls our pitcher for the same thing ON THE VERY NEXT PITCH. OK, so now the bases are loaded, thank you very much. Our pitcher was so rattled the coaches eventually had to bring in another pitcher.

A call was put in to the TD. Two guys arrive in a golf cart and slip a note to the PU through the backstop fence. He didn't call a pitching lane violation again - and he didn't really say a single word after that except to make his calls.

Oh, and we won the game anyway.

[SoCalASABlue]

Seems a few key items are missing from coolstuff's post...

(1) How many umpires? In single umpire mechanics, there really shouldn't be much of a problem seeing BLATANT lane violations since the PU is already totally focused on the pitcher. I'm not talking about not having both feet on the pitcher's plate like Monica Abbott...I mean the outside the 24" pitcher's plate violations.

(2) Was a protest filed, which is really the only reason the TD should even become involved?

(3) What pitch was the pitcher throwing? After being called for it the first time, did the pitching coach call for the same pitch again? If so, why? Was it a dare to see if he'd call it again?

The "never been called all weekend or summer" argument doesn't hold water either - otherwise there wouldn't be so many complaints on this site and others about umpires who do NOT call openly illegal pitches. The fact that other umpires this summer may have ignored and/or simply not recognized an illegal pitch is just a sad circumstance in and of itself.

The fact that the PU may have been an attention whore is immaterial to whether your pitcher was in fact throwing an illegal pitch. Did she just got caught this time? Be honest, since you've already won the game and it makes no difference.

There is no requirement below the NCAA level to mark the "pitching lane" and even then, I have seen NCAA games this past season where there were no lines. And typically the lines are blurred or wiped away by both sides' pitchers within an inning or two.

Just curious...no big deal either way...I have also been on both sides of this issue, being the umpire that called an illegal pitch on the "next Cat Osterman" for the first time ever and being the coach that saw blatantly illegal pitches routinely ignored so the game didn't turn into a walkfest.

[Whizzer86]

I'm not even sure what the lines or rule is for. Its not as if the pitchers can attempt a pick off.

This has always been my question. Why is the rule in place? There is no pick off attempt since the runner cannot lead off so there is no deception to the runner or batter and no unfair advantage is gained by the pitcher.

[SoCalASABlue]

The marking of the pitching lane has nothing to do with the fact that a softball pitcher cannot attempt a pickoff.

The NCAA decided to mark the "pitching lane" because of the former pitcher from Arizona named Taryn Mowatt. She dominated as a pitcher by predominantly throwing screwballs that started so far outside before breaking into the plate that they were virtually unhittable. But she couldn't throw that pitch within the rules - hence her stepping outside the width of the pitcher's plate.

There's a pitcher from Georgia I saw on ESPN this past season that was an even worse violator of the width of the pitcher's plate.

And if there is no discernable advantage to the pitcher when she steps outside the width of the pitcher's plate, then why do it?

Same logic applies to the crow hop, leaping, rolling bats, etc. If it doesn't give you an unfair advantage over your opponent, why do it?

[coolstuff]

The penalty is certainly severe. All base runners advance one base, and the batter advances to first. .

The penalty is a ball to the batter. The batter would only advance if it was then ball 4. Did your ump actually award first for an IP?

No, you are right. The illegal pitch was a ball to the batter, and it was the 4th ball so the batter walked. The next pitch to the new batter was also called an illegal pitch, advancing the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Our pitcher was so rattled she walked that batter filling the bases. My memory is faulty. Sorry.