He's one of the best. His student beat OU today.
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- Aug 21, 2008
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I understand what you're saying but, it's a minor pet peeve of mine. When I see this, I am unable to not speak up. Nobody's student beat OU. My student didn't beat Stanford. The Florida TEAM beat the OU team. I realize that may sound petty but, even in my own career I'd never say that. If you look at the game of me pitching on YouTube, pitching against the Toronto Gators. I entered that game in the 5th, down 3-2. Now, that Gators team is the best team in Canada's history and considered one of the top 5 teams of all time. That pitcher for them, Darren Zack, he's on Mt Rushmore. The Gators went on to win the World championship a month later in the most incredible of fashions. Anyway, I didn't defeat Darren Zack. Seattle beat Toronto. To me, it's a distinction I always make.
LESoftballdad, I understand what you're saying. You were giving Jon a compliment, and I am not trying to piss on that. Even as I write this, I still have not seen that Rothrock throw a single pitch but, at lessons today I was listening to the game on the radio, it sounds like she did great. Beating OU twice, on consecutive days, is a pretty tall order for anyone. I enjoyed meeting Jon when we worked together. Please say hello the next time you're together.
Bill, I understand what you're saying, and it's most definitely a team game, but the box score says winning and losing pitcher. So, in that respect, she did beat OU yesterday. She got credited with the win. And, she got the loss today.
This is something I stress to my other daughter, who is a catcher, about why her sister has more pressure on her. It doesn't say losing catcher in the paper.
Yes, Jon is a nice guy with a unique sense of humor. For those who've met him, you'll get it.
- Aug 21, 2008
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While all this is true, I'd like to think I have a pretty decent grasp of the whole WP/LP stuff. And you're right, the pitcher alone takes the wins and the losses. Something I've just never really thought as fair when considering the pitcher can't control errors or runs scored by offense. But, it is what it is. That said there is something VERY wrong with a system when a pitcher can say "I beat Team XYZ!!" while the score was 20-19. That "win" is the same as the 1-0 perfect game that someone might throw against a really good team, as far as the W/L column goes.
As I said in the previous post, I realize this is a pet peeve of mine. I just know I am quick to make the distinction on my own behalf when someone say that I (Bill Hillhouse) defeated a team, even better when they do pitcher vs. pitcher. "Oh man, you beat Peter Meredith???" No, my team scratched a run and we won.
Sadly I live in hypocrisy because I take it very personal when I lose games due to bad pitching. I'm the first the say I got crushed.
Moreover, and I am not suggesting Jon toots his own horn, I know he does not!!! But there are pitching coaches out there who aren't afraid to brag about their ace student getting a D1 ride or pitching a great game on TV or whatever. But, you hear nothing regarding his/her 12u Class C pitcher who may have won a local tournament that was not on TV or publicized. For my own students, I really try not to draw that distinction. They all get the exact same training, exact same words, etc. But some do more with it than others. Some work harder. And lets be honest, some just don't belong pitching!!! But if they love pitching and want to keep at it, I will always help them regardless of their skill level.
It's the only way to get movement left to right. When I warm up, I start with 10-15 windmill pitches and left to right is the only movement I can get. If you can't throw a screwball with spin, then why not use this?
As a slowpitch pitcher, I use laminar flow and seam orientation to get movement. Spinning it does next to nothing at our speeds, using laminar flow does a lot. I've posted a lot about this here Dropcity if you care to look into how I use it in slow pitch.
fortunately, that's not something I have to worry about in slowpitch. No one blames me for losses except me when I don't pitch well [walks kill, especially the bottom of the order]... or when I don't hit well [it's slow pitch damn it!]. We all understand it's a team loss. That's why I love slowpitch. It's a lot more hitting and defense and not pitchers dominating hitters.
There is a lot of precision involved in throwing SSW breaking pitches. The spin axis has to be perfect, and the seam orientation also has to be spot on. What's interesting is that the same spin axis with a seam orientation 180 degrees different will make the ball break the other way. So you could throw both a curve and a screw with the same release but with a different grip/seam orientation.
I've been down this road before WiLD. What I finally figured out is this whole "There is no screwball in fastpitch" mantra is simply about semantics. They are defining a screwball as a ball with L-R spin. Which is in fact impossible to throw. They are correct. But the key thing to know is, they aren't saying that it's impossible to throw a ball that moves from L-R. They're simply saying that you can't call that pitch a screwball. The takeaway is they define pitch names by the spin, not the movement. Once you grasp that like I finally did, it all becomes clearer. Just call it a pitch with "run" and the semantics police will leave you alone.
I wouldn't go that far. I'm pretty sure Bill could make the ball sing and dance if there were a microphone and dance floor on the field.
True, but they do use the same size ball, with seams, and the question is whether those seams can be utilized to cause movement. In baseball the answer to that question is 'yes', but it has only been recently recognized and accepted.
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