Illegal pitching

[RubberBiscuit]

True but I was hoping for an answer to my question of why it isn't called only to receive sarcastic responses and people questioning the call itself by "professional umpires".

I gave up.....

Welcome to my island ms244.

Illegal Pitches are like bad government. We all don't want this problem but yet it keeps going and going.........

 

[58sdad]

haven't read this entire thread (it's pretty long), but the one that kills me is when the right handed pitcher starts with her left foot behind the rubber.. some girls dig a hole behind the rubber so the ump cant see it.. then as the game goes on that left foot creeps farther and farther back at the start.. she gets to be like a track runner coming out of the blocks and poof she is throwing 7-8mph faster because she is getting significantly more leg drive by starting with one foot back.. unlike crow hopping this really does cause an advantage and is cheating, still it never gets called even when you try to point it out to the umps..

 

[chinamigarden]

haven't read this entire thread (it's pretty long), but the one that kills me is when the right handed pitcher starts with her left foot behind the rubber.. some girls dig a hole behind the rubber so the ump cant see it.. then as the game goes on that left foot creeps farther and farther back at the start.. she gets to be like a track runner coming out of the blocks and poof she is throwing 7-8mph faster because she is getting significantly more leg drive by starting with one foot back.. unlike crow hopping this really does cause an advantage and is cheating, still it never gets called even when you try to point it out to the umps..

Crow hopping doesn't gain an advantage? You think that replanting and then pushing off from 2 feet closer to the plate is not an advantage?

BTW I have never noticed anyone doing what you suggest, I am sure its out there, but I have not seen it.

 

[58sdad]

Crow hopping doesn't gain an advantage? You think that replanting and then pushing off from 2 feet closer to the plate is not an advantage?

BTW I have never noticed anyone doing what you suggest, I am sure its out there, but I have not seen it.

really? I see it a lot.. pitchers not starting with both feet on the rubber.. some are pretty adept at digging out a hole behind the rubber so the home plate ump cant see the foot at all. as the game goes on and the pitcher tires she can start cheating back and keep her velocity up.

 

[58sdad]

I can ask the HS coach, but the old rules state (my book is 2010):

"...with the non-pivot foot in contact with or behind the pitching plate."

Common to see HS pitchers with the back foot off. I did not see any advantage. In fact, those were often slow pitchers.

from the ASA rulebook.. "Both feet must remain in contact with the pitching plate at all times prior to the forward step."

you can generate a lot more leg drive with a foot behind the rubber than you can with both feet touching.. it's like starting a sprint race, do you get more drive with one leg behind the other or with both feet on the starting line?

 

[Red504]

We ran into this problem in one of our all star tournaments. The other pitcher never presented the ball or even made an effort to bring her hands together. This resulted in a very fast windup which put our batters at a disadvantage. This pitcher was a really good and I wouldn't call her out in rec ball. But this was an all star tournament and we travelled an hour to get to and paid $400 for. I worked hard to make sure my pitchers never get called out for an illegal pitch. Needless to say the umpires admittedly didn't know what an illegal pitch was and told me to go speak to the tournament director. He came over and said it was ok and not illegal. After the game he came to me and another coach and admitted it was illegal but said "it doesn't matter". Frustrating but most of these umpires are baseball umpires and not familiar with softball.