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Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,044
113
Look at that fair ball in the Pirates-Mets game the other night. Everybody was losing their minds on how awful the call was ... until the replay showed it was correct.

I watched that clip repeatedly. A ball couldn't be any closer to being foul and still be fair. Only on a precisely chalked MLB field could an umpire call that ball fair. On the typical field I see in softball, I'm calling that foul.

Anyway, the reactions to the play were comically stupid from the players to the press box. From the players arguing during the play to the manager nearly assaulting the HP umpire for a call that there is no way the manager could fully see, the Mets beclowned themselves. I believe THIS is where the problems for youth baseball / softball umpires originate. Too many see MLB as the model for how coaches should react to judgement calls they disagree with.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
Not nearly. He did assault him, and in legal speak, I believe he battered him too. I'm not a lawyer though; I didn't play one on TV and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night either.

I appreciate the title update and I will apologize if my comments came off as harsh. Nothing in your post came off that way @AdamTheSoftballDad, but the title sure did. I believe that you didn't target it that way, however that is my point. Comments like that should not be automatic or justifiable. We need to make a concerted effort to get that mentality out of the game.

To your point, yeah ... they both looked pretty safe to me. The only critique I could offer is that I feel the umpire was not getting a wide enough angle on the play and possibly was not fully seeing the catch occur. I know when I work games on fields like that (full size baseball turf but the game we are playing has shortened dimensions) it does throw me off on my positioning. Your natural instinct (or mine anyway!) is to use the field (brown/green) as a reference point. When the brown starts behind you, it is ... odd.
 
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marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
I think there are plenty of pitchers out there; i don't know that Cat at 38 is nearly as dominant as her reputation. I would have loved to see what Juarez, Garcia or Fouts (or even my beloved Kelli Barhnill) would have done on this stage. Likewise, I would have liked to see some of those Oklahoma power hitters go against this kind of competition.

I appreciate the careers Cat and Monica have had, but if we're treading out 35+-year-olds as the best we have to offer, then I can understand why some might doubt the athleticism of those who play. right now it looks like we've put together a daddy-coached team, with USA softball being the daddy -- bring along their favorites (and I say this as a Florida fan with three Gators on the team, despite Beth constantly giving us credit for Ali). The Olympics should be a place where stars are born and made, or at least recognized.

Totally disagree. Cat and Monica are CLEARLY the best the USA currently has to offer - they have 12-15 years of playing professional softball against fully grown women (and remeber Garcia is on the USA rosterand likely wont see the field). That isn't a question about athletismc or anything else - they are the absolute best at what they do. Without them, the USA team would not be favored in this tournament. Hell, Ueno is 39 so it is not like Japan is trotting out a young star as their starter (though I really like what I have seen from Goto this past couple of years)

While players like Fouts and others may step up in the future, the reality is that most of these pitchers get rocked early in Team USA careers - Barnhill to the point where she has a LONG road back if she wants to play for Team USA again. It is the same reason you see Parnaby start for Australia and Stepto being the first arm in the bullpen over Gabbie Plain.

Most of these teams are full of grown women and the few younger international players on the rosters are players who have been playing against grown woman most of their life. There is a big difference between a 22 year old just out of college and a 30 year old with another 8 years of experience and often more physical maturity. The lack of a realistic place to play beyond college in the USA evens the playing field quite a bit worldwide - other countries have that so you get to see who that college age star could REALLY become if given more time and experience.

The issue is that very few players have followed Cat and Abbott overseas long term - the Japanese pro league is the best out there and very few players from the USA are playing there and the NPF is not a livelihood by itself, so a lot of players are not playing in it more than a couple of years before retiring from the game or going into full time coaching and not playing.
 
Aug 13, 2020
29
3
That 1-0 win over Canada was a little scary. It seems like team USA is going to have a lot of close games throughout this tournament and just rely on their pitchers to stop the other teams from scoring. Thankfully team USA has some of the best pitching in the world thanks to Monica abott and cat osterman but pitching can only take a team so far. Team USA is really going to have to step up their hitting game if they want to beat Japan. We’ve got so much speed at the top of the lineup with McCleney and Reed but they can’t score if the others don’t start hitting the ball.
 
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Jul 5, 2016
652
63
That 1-0 win over Canada was a little scary. It seems like team USA is going to have a lot of close games throughout this tournament and just rely on their pitchers to stop the other teams from scoring. Thankfully team USA has some of the best pitching in the world thanks to Monica abott and cat osterman but pitching can only take a team so far. Team USA is really going to have to step up their hitting game if they want to beat Japan.

Word
 
Nov 22, 2019
297
43
That 1-0 win over Canada was a little scary. It seems like team USA is going to have a lot of close games throughout this tournament and just rely on their pitchers to stop the other teams from scoring. Thankfully team USA has some of the best pitching in the world thanks to Monica abott and cat osterman but pitching can only take a team so far. Team USA is really going to have to step up their hitting game if they want to beat Japan.

The US couldn't score a run against an 18-year-old kid who pitches for the Newton Rock, and they've scored 3 runs in 2 games. Japan's line-up was designed for Abbott and Cat - I think they are the clear favorite.
 
Apr 23, 2014
389
43
East Jabib
The US couldn't score a run against an 18-year-old kid who pitches for the Newton Rock, and they've scored 3 runs in 2 games. Japan's line-up was designed for Abbott and Cat - I think they are the clear favorite.

To be fair, she has spent the last few summers playing internationally as part of Italy’s junior national team and recently as part of the national team. She’s been committed to Kentucky since the summer before entering HS. She is more experienced than an “18 year old kid who pitches for Newtown Rock”.


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