Illegal Pitches.....

......using the "next level" to make an example for TBR to comment on......today, in OKC, college world series, there has been to date 10 illegal pitches called. In the first game 6 and now in the second game in the top of the second, 4 more have been called.

My question is......why all of a sudden is there a big to do over a kids drag foot leaving the ground an inchish or so when it has not been called all year?

Whats your opinion?

Marlin

 

i think they should be called. Just because they missed it all year, and many years before don't mean they should continue to do a sub par job. The rules are there for a reason. If it is a rule it should be enforced. sort of like the "illegal alien" thing. It's illegal but go ahead and do it with no punishment.

 

I would bet that before the tournament there is an umpire's meeting and the topic goes like this: "This year we want to focus better on the pitching mechanics." and then they do. Next year it might be slappers stepping out of the box and then it might be runners leaving early. What happens at tournament has little to do with regular season.

 

Illegal Pitch

I talked with a D1 coach at the start of conference play about this very issue -- after his pitcher had several called in a game -- he stated that the NCAA sent out a letter to all coaches letting them know this was coming -- he was upset that they didn't start at the beginning on the season --So it has been called for at least half of the season --- He said that the umpires told him that they were told it would trickle down in the showcase and HS level -- I agree with another post next year it will be something else!

 

I also agree with the comment made by the Florida Head Coach, 'it needs to be fixed at the grass root level, HS and TB. By the time they get to college, they have been allowed to pitch this way for 10-12 years, then the college coaches are expected to try to fix it in 2 months.' I hope the HS and TB Umpire Associations will take notice and get/give the training necessary to fix it before the girls go to college and get embarassed/frustrated in the biggest games of their lives. The one problem I have with how the NCAA is doing it is, they told the coaches in MARCH that they were gonna emphasize it. The season starts in February. They coulda told them in August so the pitchers had time to work on their mechanics.

 

If they have been allowing it all season they shouldn't be calling it now.

If they have been calling it all season it's the coach's fault.

Bottom line, though, it's the coach's responsibility to know the rules and the umpire's responsibility to enforce them.

What I don't understand at this particular moment is why Candrea hasn't changed pitchers.

 

If they are going to call illegal pitch on nearly every pitch why not look at the slapper's that are way out of the box?

 

Those pitchers have pitched all season and they get called at the WCWS. The Arizona pitcher pitched the same way each and every pitch. If they are going to call it then they should have called her everytime she threw the ball.

 

Just watched highlights of the UCLA and FLA game. They showed several of the so called illegal pitches. Her toe was about 1 inch off the gound. You telling me that 1 inch will give the pitcher an advantage?

 

The announcers said that Arizona's pitcher had been called 6 times all year and 7 times tonite. So, I'm not sure they were 'emphasizing' it all year. I guess the other difference could also be the umps for the WS are selected on their , for lack of a better term, body of work during the season. So maybe it wasn't being called as much as it should have been during the season by some of the umps who aren't working the WS.