Holy Cow!
Hello Fastpitch fans.
On April 16th, Madison West, after losing 56 straight games, beat Sun Prairie to end the streak. Sun Praririe was at the state tournament the past two years mind you. Tonight, West upset Madison LaFollette with and All State and Gatordade Player of the Year in the circle for LaFollette.
Dennis Semrau is a favorite sports writer of mine and a pretty fine wiffleball player too. Here is a great recap column he put together recently. I think you too will enjoy the reading.
Here are a couple of situations for you to ponder tonight. Unfortunately I fear there are not too many umpires who read these bulletins.
In a game last week in the southern third of the state or course, a pitcher did the following: She took the signal from the catcher while legally on the pitcher's plate. She started her windup and wound up with the ball and her pitching hand in the glove on her throwing side hip. She then raised her arms as if to go up above her head. While going up she lost control of the ball at hand separation and the ball went up in the air. It went straight up in the air above her head. It went four to six feet straight up. After reaching it's highest height it fell back toward the earth where it was caught by said pitcher. There were no runners aboard at the time. The call?
What would have been the call had there been runners aboard?
Situation #2
A slapper slaps a ball just to the left of the third sacker who was playing close to the bag. The ball struck the end of her glove and rolled out toward the outfield grass between here and the shortstop. The very speedy slapper sasw the ball get past the third sacker, smoked it to first and rounded the bag, perhaps thinking about going to second. When she arrived at first base the first sacker was set up as to take a throw on that play. There was no throw or attempted throw to first. A collision of sorts occurred. Not a violent collision but there was contact caused when the batter-runner, reaching first was watching the ensuing play in the hole deep between that third sacker and the shortstop. After the half inning was over the base umpire informed the assistant coach of the slapper that her player had actually committed an unsporstsman-like act by causing the contact on the inside of the bag at first base. There was no throw. The first sacker did not have the ball nor was she about to atch a thrown ball. The coach of the slapper said that the batter-runner simply displayed some moxie by knowing that the ball was tipped and could have possibly presented a chance to get to second. The coach said that by overunning first base on such a play demonstrates little understanding of the little nuances the game provides to player who possess the moxie watch the ball and be a step ahead of any coach screaming, "Go!"
The coach said that over-running first base on that play would be poor baserunning. The umpire was firm the other way and said that because the ball was still in the infield there remained a chance for a play at first base.
The shortstop had picked the ball up at about the very moment the contact occurred at the bag.
It's another case of what I always tell people, "If you don't go to the ball yard you stand a great chance of missing something you've never seen happen before."
Tonight in a game I was coaching a player hit one of those little flairs that lands about four or five feet behind the bag at third and about one foot fair. The third sacker, unable to get to the ball as she was playing in for the slap just looked at me and said, "I hate those kinds of hits." As a third sacker myself I understood her angst.
Here is a play that occurred in a game last night. This is the way it was explained on the team's FB page:
A great 8-6-2 relay play from the fence in leftcenter (closer to center than left) to the cutoff then to the plate to cut down a would-be run trying to beat two perfect throws. In order to make that play at least 11 things had to go correctly 1) Somebody had to sprint to the ball 2) that somebody had to pick it up as she has been taught (one hand), 3) turn and face the left field foul line 4) snap her head to the left to get the relay/cutoff person in focus as she was starting her throwing motion 5) start throwing on her way up instead of standing up and then throwing 6) she needed to make a perfect initial throw to the cutoff 7) the cutoff needed to realize who was making the initial throw and gauge her distance between the thrower and home plate accordingly 8) the cutoff needed to catch the ball 9) the cutoff needed to think about turning and facing the left field foul line all the while screaming something like "right here, right here, right here) 10) she needed to catch and throw a strike to the plate with tremendous velocity 11) the catcher needed to catch the ball 12) the catcher needed to apply the tag to a sliding runner and not drop the ball. Most of the people watching would never have broken the play down into such a complicated sequence but the three players did 11 of the 12 things perfectly -- the only mistake being that the shortstop turned the incorrect direction before throwing her perfect throw to the plate. A 63 mph throwing arm allowed her to still make the play. The entire sequence just amplifies the importance of FUN--Dah-- Mentals! So as they hear all the time -- Proper, Prior, Practice Preparation, Prevents, Poor, Performance! The 7 Ps to success. So the girls wearing #1 (senior centerfielder), #10 (freshman shortstop) and #44 (junior catcher) all were in on the successful sequence.
It's getting late. That is about it for tonight.
The Poynette Jamboree information can be found on this website under the High School Header and as a separate tab named Poynette Jamboree. Have a look!
Have a great tomorow!
Keep it Rising!
Bob
Tag(s): Bulletins
