I have received numerous emails and text messages regarding the rundown in the Cubs/Whitesox game where a rundown between first and home plate took place. That can not happen within the rules of fastpitch softball though. If a batter-runner stops it is still legal but if that batter-runner takes even a small step back toward home plate the ball is dead, the batter is out and all runners return to the base the occupied at the time of the pitch. However, that baseball rundown was one for the ages and was a blast to watch over and over. So, was that scored a single, a fielder's choice and was that a stolen base when he made it to second safely beating the throw from the second baseman who had gone over to cover first? Here is the link to the twitter feed
https://t.co/l4dGmD2QOJ
(https://twitter.com/RealKentMurphy/status/1397970554318163980?s=03)
A there's deep grass on the field!
This rain will cause the grass to grow in outfield and if not held in check by mowing will affect the action in games played on fields with such grass. Last Saturday's games in Poynette between the Pumas and Random Lake were played on a field with tall grass. The field maintenance friend of mine had taken a week of vacation to take care of his elderly mother so the grass had gone unmown. In the bottom of the first inning a "sure single" turned into a stand up double when the grass stopped the ball short of where the outfielders figured it would stop based on the ball's speed off the bat and off the infield dirt just before hitting that tall green stuff.
I was at Diamond of Champions in Poynette this morning raking during the rain in an attempt to save a key Capitol North game this afternoon between the top two teams in the conference and in the Division 3 rankings. I noted that even after having been mowed on Monday by Dan, the grass was getting back to a height that was not conducive to a game with the magnitude the Lake Mills vs Poynette game carries.
There is an event on Saturday in Cedarburg that has some interesting connections between the host Bulldogs and one of the other two teams in the three-team event, that being D.C. Everest. Head Coach Mike Mathies of Everest graduated in 1986 from Everest. Co-Head coach Jeff Langkamp of Cedarburg graduated from Everest in 1992 and the other Co-Head coach, Mark Jessup graduated from Everest in 1985. Jessup is married to his Co-Head coach's sister who graduated from Everest with the Everest Head Softball Coach in 86. According to the 92 Everest grad he will be coaching against three Everest players whose parents graduated with him in 92.
And here is the Everest connection to Poynette. The athletic director at Baraboo High School is an older brother to the Co-Head coach that graduated from Everest in 1992 and the brother in law to the other Co-Head coach that graduated from Everest in 85 who is married to the sister of the younger brother (92) and older brother who graduated from Everest in 87. The Baraboo athletic director was the Poynette athletic director during the 1998-99 school year when Poynette made its first back-to-back Final Four (state tournament) appearance in Waukesha where he met my daughter who is now his wife. In the spring and summer of 2000 my son and I traveled to Janesville on Tuesday nights to play men's fastpitch at Monterey Stadium in the Janesville Men's Fastpitch League. On that team were the 1992 Everest grad, the 1987 Everest Grad and yet another brother of those two Everest grads who of course graduated from Everest in 88. On one of the league nights due to an injury etc. to a couple of our players we only had eight guys so we substituted in the 1993 Poynette graduate married to the 87 Everest grad and she played first base and like she always did, played it well.
Back in the early days of publishing The Fastpitch Chronicle newspaper I started using a radar gun at all the fastpitch games I went to. It was a very expensive piece of equipment manufactured by a company called Decatur Electronics. The company was renowned for making top quality radar devices used by law enforcement and actually manufactured the radar device that became known as a radar gun, specifically the "the Jugs Gun." The Jug's Gun was a cheaper device than the regular Decatur Electronics radar gun.
I could not afford to buy a $2000+ Decatur Electronics radar gun but I could offer the company a quarter page ad in the newspaper as barter each month and was able to sell the company on the deal. I got the radar gun and a three digit display box that attached to the radar gun via a cord. When the radar gun detected motion it displayed the speed in the little window on the back of the gun and instantly on the display box that I would place behind the backstop and just to the right of the umpire's right shoulder so as to see most of the plate and the outside river, bank and shore. The setup was a hit everywhere I traveled and was law enforcement accurate, tuning at 77 mph. I'd either hang the box on the backstop of just place it on the concrete behind the backstop so the crowd could keep track of speeds. The device came with a tuning fork to make sure it was working correctly. I simply tapped the tuning fork on the side of something hard, held it in the radar cone in front of the device and if working correctly the readout would display 77. Later I acquired for a nominal fee, a Jugs Radar gun that is powered by two of those Black and Decker tubular batteries that slide into the handle of the gun. That worked pretty well too but was not as accurate as the Decatur Gun.
A number of years ago a piece of equipment we now see everywhere hit the market and is known as Pocket Radar. For just $200 you could get the latest in the radar world and see how fast throwers are throwing, balls are leaving bats, runners can run and more.
However, the Pocket Radar lends itself to some readings that the user knows are not accurate but make for some great stories and head shakers and me say, "Oh Really?"
Here are a few examples. A few weeks ago I attended a game where two pitchers were being talked about in my fastpitch circles as being able to move pitches along in the low 60s. I thought I'd take a look at these two kids from the same conference and do a bit of scouting for a program I headed for 42 years. The stories I heard proved to be quite accurate for the most part -- but not on every pitch.
Nope! Both pitchers lived up to what some stories had been shared with me but neither of them hit the numbers that others had conveyed. See, the Pocket radar has many shortcomings. You get what you pay for with a $200 device but you also get things you didn't plan on getting for your two-hundred bucks.
If you've ever held a Pocket Radar, then you know that a high number of those pitches you watch are either going faster than the speed window shows or are not going as fast as shown. For instance, I was using the gun Saturday during the Random Lake at Poynette doubleheader. The Poynette pitcher in the first game threw her first three pitches at 60 mph. The fourth pitch was only going 8 (yes eight) mph according to the display window. A few more that followed were also in the 8 to 12 mph range when suddenly it went back up to 58-59 and again to 60. Just as suddenly as it told me there were 8 mph pitches it suddenly registered one at 93 mph. I showed that one to a few people social distanced a bit from me. We all laughed and I told them that these $200 devices often times are off a lot, or even a few miles per hour.
That leads me to this -- I have seen pictures of pitchers holding a Pocket Radar that is owned by whomever they are paying to workout with. Those pictures usually show a speed of 3-4 mph faster than what the device normally displays. So, when you hear stories of the kid who is throwing at unusually high speeds or see the same pictures on social media I see - just say, "O really” then subtract a few mph.
Lift! It's a term we men’s' fastpitch players use when talking about pitchers in that aspect of the game. Some call an "up" while others call it a raise. Some just simply says rise.
Dr. Robert Adair who wrote the book "The Physics of Baseball" stated in his first edition that people in the fastpitch softball world who claim that there are pitchers who can make a ball defy gravity are wrong. Adair, in that first edition teaches about gravitational force and teaches us about Magnus force. So we have gravitational effect and Magnus effect. In his revised edition of the book he tells us that he was wrong in the original text. He agreed after watching some guys throw pitches that were pretty flat but suddenly "lift" a bit into that soft area just above those spinning seams.
How fast does a 12" softball have to travel to be somewhat flat then suddenly rise above a bat intended to crush it? How fast does a 12" seamed sphere have to spin to get that "lift?”
I faced some of the greatest pitchers to ever toe a pitcher's plate just 46 feet away from the apex of home plate. Those guys, according to my expensive, tuned at 77 mph devices were throwing drop balls that were traveling up to 86-88 mph and "lifters" traveling 83-85 mph and changeups that froze the world's greatest hitters at 62 mph. Have you ever heard of Michael White? How about Peter Meredith or Mike Piechnik, David Scott, Paul Algar, Loren Algar, Joe Lynch, Brad Underwood, Gerald Muizelaars or Darren Zack? I could go on and name dozens more.
Have you ever watched my friend Jeremy' Spear's movie "Fastpitch, The Movie"? Search around and find it and watch it (parts are may be X rated due to language) but once you are past that you can gain an understanding for this game.
I often traveled to watch parts of the ASA Women's Major National Championship tournament where the greatest female fastpitch players gathered each year to battle for the title of National Champions. There were some amazing lifters there as well. There were great crowds and great fan interest. Alas, that tournament, like most of the adult women's fastpitch in this country died a quick death once women’s fastpitch got included in the Olympics. A good fastpitch friend of mine from California who manufactures uniforms for the Hollywood movie scene sponsored one of the greatest Major Level women’s teams. He sponsored them for only one more year after the Olympic program started and said, "This is enough. I am not spending this kind of money on one tournament per year." So his, and all the other women's major level teams folded up shop. See, the Olympic program forced the program’s top list of players to commit to an international program that did not allow for the type of events that had kept the game alive for females into adulthood. Those ladies were could not get away to play those invitational women's major level tournaments.
They say the men’s' fastpitch game is dying. The truth of the matter is, men’s' fastpitch is still alive in many places whereas the adult women’s game where there were leagues in many cities and small towns and tournaments every weekend for women who still really love the game is pretty much gone. The Badger State Games had a great women’s tournament included. There were tournaments around the state and nation. Some of the finest female high school coaches in this state were tremendous fastpitch players in the women's game after their collegiate careers ended.
I hurts to see great, young fastpitch players announce their retirement from the game at the age of 22. Two of the best we have ever had here just recently did just that -- said goodbye to our game, their game. They would have so much to give back to a game that gave them so much. Oh the stories they could tell the young kids who love this game the way they did at that younger age.
We have a female fastpitch league in the Madison area. We call it the Capitol Area Fastpitch League. Teams are based out of their individual towns but the players can be of any age as long as they are a female. We've had middle school players excel in the league and we've had players in the 30s and even 40s play in some games and they shine still. We have 12 teams ready to go beginning June 23rd from DeForest, Marshall, Lodi, Poynette, Middleton, Baraboo, Reedsburg, Portage, Deerfield, Oregon, Waunakee and Stoughton. They play two games every Wednesday evening for seven weeks.
That's it for tonight! Have a great day tomorrow and a tremendous Memorial Day Weekend. Travel safe, maybe watch some fastpitch.
Until the Next Bulletin,
Keep it Rising!
Bob
Tag(s): Bulletins
