TX vs. Ark game 3

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Aug 21, 2008
2,359
113
So, I don't spend a lot of time watching softball on TV. Honestly I can't handle listening to the announcers. It's beyond sick. Last week, in the Alabama vs. Stanford game, with a runner on 2 ( can't remember if it's 1st and 2nd or just 2nd base, it doesn't matter. Runner at 2 and 1 out, Alabama's top hitter was up. She hits a semi-deep fly ball to RF that the Stanford RF catches. The R2 tags up and advances to 3rd. Now there's 2 outs, with a runner on third. The announcer actually said this: "A lot of coaches would've wanted the RF to let that ball drop so the runner doesn't advance to 3rd and be 60 ft away from scoring". ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? You got their best hitter to pop out and now have 2 down. Please name a single coach that would've wanted that ball dropped. I can't handle the stupidity.

Today, as I was doing some maintenance and a water change on my aquarium, I put on ESPN to see Texas vs. Arkansas. I thought, I'll leave this on while I clean fish crap. In or about the 5th inning, score was 0-0. TX had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Whoever was calling pitches for Arkansas was either on drugs, incompetent, or both. The pitcher threw riseball, riseball, and another riseball. WTF are you thinking?? A fly ball will score the run!!! There's a lot more fly balls on riseballs than there is dropballs. How do you not play the percentages there? I was/am completely baffled. This is the #4 team in the country and to me this is softball pitching 101. While I am former teammates with Mike White and I'd consider him a friend for many years, so I was cheering for him I guess. And I'm happy they won. I couldn't understand the thinking there, it doesn't make sense. I absolutely hate when things like that are on TV and young pitchers/coaches watching this don't understand the significance of what was happening.

#2. You could've knocked me over with a feather when, during the in-game interview with Mike White, he mentioned something about his pitcher's need to locate her change up and screwball. SCREWBALL???? Folks, I can tell you that I have spent a long time with Mike White. We've been teammates and opponents for 30 years. He recruits my students annually so he calls me frequently. On top of that, in terms of pitching..... he is the GOAT. I'm not smart enough to articulate how good he was. How intelligent he was in his playing career. How much I learned from him both as teammates and opponents. The man has literally forgot more about pitching than anyone else. That's truly not much an exaggeration. I've got to play with and against many of the best players the world has ever known, and each of them say: If I had a single game to play for the world championship, Mike White is the guy I'd want pitching for my team. Guys, I'm trying desperately to explain how good this man was during his career. GOAT is all you can say. And for him to acknowledge a pitch that he KNOWS to be ****** it baffling to me. The only thing I can think of is, if he calls it ***** publicly (which I KNOW is how he really feels about it) he might ruin his pitcher's confidence. But I'm telling you, he and I have had conversations about how full of crap the TV announcers are, about the "screwball", and other things we shake our heads about regarding pitching. As good as he was as a RHP, he could not make a ball spin in the direction of a "screwball" movement. Neither could I. I could not believe he gave any credence to it. If anyone wants to talk about the benefits, and the need, to throw the ball inside to hitters, I'll talk about that all day. But the ball doesn't "screw" in. When he said that, I think I murdered a fish out of anger. LOL. I have to end this now and take my fish to the vet. I'm going to bill Mike White for it. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oct 1, 2014
2,219
113
USA
Bill - leave the volume on for a few more games and you will learn that it is likely the most frequently thrown ball out there these days. It used to be primarily MS the 2 or 3 time(?) Olympic Champion saying it...now it's everywhere.
 

LEsoftballdad

DFP Vendor
Jun 29, 2021
2,838
113
NY
This was the thread I didn't know I needed, but boy do I agree with everything Bill says.

The announcers are not good. If I have to hear "Oppo Taco" one more time, I might lose it.

As for the screwball, it's an inside fastball. The wrist doesn't flex and bend that way all too well, so getting the correct spin is almost impossible.

Thanks for the thread!
 
Jul 5, 2016
652
63
Nonetheless, give the Texas pitchers some credit for holding Arkansas to 1 run over two games. A bit of a bummer actually - I was hoping to see the Hogs advance. But they had many chances to score and repeatedly failed to get hits with RISP.
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
Last night DD and I were watching online d3 games and TV. Something we heard several times that doesn't make any sense. "She's not trying to do too much" Huh?

We started laughing. Dad I was try my hardest.

DD responding to coach's comment about a weak attempt at a swing. Hey coach gimme a break! I wasn't trying to do too much with that pitch.
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
Come on, guys! There is a thread for this stuff!

Remember, snark is ENCOURAGED in this thread!

 
Mar 10, 2020
734
63
So, I don't spend a lot of time watching softball on TV. Honestly I can't handle listening to the announcers. It's beyond sick. Last week, in the Alabama vs. Stanford game, with a runner on 2 ( can't remember if it's 1st and 2nd or just 2nd base, it doesn't matter. Runner at 2 and 1 out, Alabama's top hitter was up. She hits a semi-deep fly ball to RF that the Stanford RF catches. The R2 tags up and advances to 3rd. Now there's 2 outs, with a runner on third. The announcer actually said this: "A lot of coaches would've wanted the RF to let that ball drop so the runner doesn't advance to 3rd and be 60 ft away from scoring". ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? You got their best hitter to pop out and now have 2 down. Please name a single coach that would've wanted that ball dropped. I can't handle the stupidity.

Today, as I was doing some maintenance and a water change on my aquarium, I put on ESPN to see Texas vs. Arkansas. I thought, I'll leave this on while I clean fish crap. In or about the 5th inning, score was 0-0. TX had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Whoever was calling pitches for Arkansas was either on drugs, incompetent, or both. The pitcher threw riseball, riseball, and another riseball. WTF are you thinking?? A fly ball will score the run!!! There's a lot more fly balls on riseballs than there is dropballs. How do you not play the percentages there? I was/am completely baffled. This is the #4 team in the country and to me this is softball pitching 101. While I am former teammates with Mike White and I'd consider him a friend for many years, so I was cheering for him I guess. And I'm happy they won. I couldn't understand the thinking there, it doesn't make sense. I absolutely hate when things like that are on TV and young pitchers/coaches watching this don't understand the significance of what was happening.

#2. You could've knocked me over with a feather when, during the in-game interview with Mike White, he mentioned something about his pitcher's need to locate her change up and screwball. SCREWBALL???? Folks, I can tell you that I have spent a long time with Mike White. We've been teammates and opponents for 30 years. He recruits my students annually so he calls me frequently. On top of that, in terms of pitching..... he is the GOAT. I'm not smart enough to articulate how good he was. How intelligent he was in his playing career. How much I learned from him both as teammates and opponents. The man has literally forgot more about pitching than anyone else. That's truly not much an exaggeration. I've got to play with and against many of the best players the world has ever known, and each of them say: If I had a single game to play for the world championship, Mike White is the guy I'd want pitching for my team. Guys, I'm trying desperately to explain how good this man was during his career. GOAT is all you can say. And for him to acknowledge a pitch that he KNOWS to be bulls**t, it baffling to me. The only thing I can think of is, if he calls it BS publicly (which I KNOW is how he really feels about it) he might ruin his pitcher's confidence. But I'm telling you, he and I have had conversations about how full of crap the TV announcers are, about the "screwball", and other things we shake our heads about regarding pitching. As good as he was as a RHP, he could not make a ball spin in the direction of a "screwball" movement. Neither could I. I could not believe he gave any credence to it. If anyone wants to talk about the benefits, and the need, to throw the ball inside to hitters, I'll talk about that all day. But the ball doesn't "screw" in. When he said that, I think I murdered a fish out of anger. LOL. I have to end this now and take my fish to the vet. I'm going to bill Mike White for it. :)
Edit:
 
Last edited:
Jul 5, 2016
652
63
This was the thread I didn't know I needed, but boy do I agree with everything Bill says.

The announcers are not good. If I have to hear "Oppo Taco" one more time, I might lose it.

As for the screwball, it's an inside fastball. The wrist doesn't flex and bend that way all too well, so getting the correct spin is almost impossible.

Thanks for the thread!
A real riseball (ball has meaningful backspin) is pretty uncommon, but some pitchers can do it.

Might it not be same same with screwballs - most might be inside fastballs but some actually have the right spin?
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,474
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top