WCWS so far

[AlwaysImprove]

It aint that way in baseball anymore. When they started coming down on the "cowboy blues" with their own zone all those shenanigans stopped.

Bull! All the softball whiners have been complaining about for years was not calling the strike zone by the book. However, they want to continually point to baseball where they haven' called a book strike zone for 50 years.

Talk about consistency

All fine. Umps have their own zone. You have this reality in softball that makes the whole thing goofy. Umps calling strikes 8 inches off the plate. Pitchers using this ultrawide strike zone to hide from batters. Batters toed completely up on the plate with 34" bat and no way to reach the pitch that is a called strike. Defensive coach barking about getting the kid off the plate. Offensive coach barking about getting the kid on the plate.

Tell me how calling that Bull is whining? It straight stupid.

There needs to be some reality about the outside edge of a reasonable strike zone. Leaving it open ended has created the comedy show we now get to watch on a regular basis.

[freetacos]

mtr, your comment about my tacos was totally out of line and I demand an immediate apology!! My tacos always have the best and freshest ingredients available.

foul play dude

ft

[ajaywill]

It aint that way in baseball anymore. When they started coming down on the "cowboy blues" with their own zone all those shenanigans stopped.

Bull! All the softball whiners have been complaining about for years was not calling the strike zone by the book. However, they want to continually point to baseball where they haven' called a book strike zone for 50 years.

Talk about consistency

All fine. Umps have their own zone. You have this reality in softball that makes the whole thing goofy. Umps calling strikes 8 inches off the plate. Pitchers using this ultrawide strike zone to hide from batters. Batters toed completely up on the plate with 34" bat and no way to reach the pitch that is a called strike. Defensive coach barking about getting the kid off the plate. Offensive coach barking about getting the kid on the plate.

Tell me how calling that Bull is whining? It straight stupid.

There needs to be some reality about the outside edge of a reasonable strike zone. Leaving it open ended has created the comedy show we now get to watch on a regular basis.

Let's see....we have a batter toed up to the plate...the plate is 17 inches wide, let's add another 8 inches that you claim is being called...that's 25 inches.....

Sounds to me that if the batter swung that 34 inch bat that the contact with the ball would be right near the sweet spot on the barrel.....

[jonriv]

mtr, your comment about my tacos was totally out of line and I demand an immediate apology!! My tacos always have the best and freshest ingredients available.

foul play dude

ft

Who cares what's in them- they are FREE!!!!

[MTR]

It aint that way in baseball anymore. When they started coming down on the "cowboy blues" with their own zone all those shenanigans stopped.

Bull! All the softball whiners have been complaining about for years was not calling the strike zone by the book. However, they want to continually point to baseball where they haven' called a book strike zone for 50 years.

Talk about consistency

All fine. Umps have their own zone. You have this reality in softball that makes the whole thing goofy. Umps calling strikes 8 inches off the plate. Pitchers using this ultrawide strike zone to hide from batters. Batters toed completely up on the plate with 34" bat and no way to reach the pitch that is a called strike. Defensive coach barking about getting the kid off the plate. Offensive coach barking about getting the kid on the plate.

Tell me how calling that Bull is whining? It straight stupid.

There needs to be some reality about the outside edge of a reasonable strike zone. Leaving it open ended has created the comedy show we now get to watch on a regular basis.

This reminds me of the alleged Clapton fans who complained when he did his blues-only tour.Told everyone exactly what he was going to play, what he wasn't going to play, told folks if that didn't suit them, not to come. But, of course, they still bought tickets and then complained about the set list.

Umpires have been telling coaches for years what they are calling and why, but some softball people choose to ignore that pertinent information. Why? Could it be because it makes for a convenient excuse?

And even though being told this is exactly what the umpires were instructed to do, it continues to be a constant complaint. BTW, the umpires didn't make that decision, that is what they were asked to do. Yet, when an umpire calls the zone "by the book", the whine changes to squeezing the pitcher, the comments of the postage stamp strike zone, shoe box, etc.

Its a lot like the NCAA umpires being told they need to make that IP call by the book and when they did, were the coaches and pitchers blamed? Hell, no, it was the umpires who did no more than exactly what they were instructed to do.

I'm not a big fan of extremely wide zones, but I do believe the complaints are as much, if not more, an exaggeration than the strike zone of which the complaint addresses.

[freetacos]

mtr...dude you have your head so far up your ... about ump importance that you have lost your grip on reality. I don't care if you have been umping since the VMary was playing catcher. The game would be so much better if bitter, resentful asses like you would just go away.


ft

[MTR]

mtr...dude you have your head so far up your ... about ump importance that you have lost your grip on reality. I don't care if you have been umping since the VMary was playing catcher. The game would be so much better if bitter, resentful asses like you would just go away.


ft

I'm neither, just have a problem with ignorance and stupidity.

[AlwaysImprove]

It aint that way in baseball anymore. When they started coming down on the "cowboy blues" with their own zone all those shenanigans stopped.

Bull! All the softball whiners have been complaining about for years was not calling the strike zone by the book. However, they want to continually point to baseball where they haven' called a book strike zone for 50 years.

Talk about consistency

All fine. Umps have their own zone. You have this reality in softball that makes the whole thing goofy. Umps calling strikes 8 inches off the plate. Pitchers using this ultrawide strike zone to hide from batters. Batters toed completely up on the plate with 34" bat and no way to reach the pitch that is a called strike. Defensive coach barking about getting the kid off the plate. Offensive coach barking about getting the kid on the plate.

Tell me how calling that Bull is whining? It straight stupid.

There needs to be some reality about the outside edge of a reasonable strike zone. Leaving it open ended has created the comedy show we now get to watch on a regular basis.

This reminds me of the alleged Clapton fans who complained when he did his blues-only tour.Told everyone exactly what he was going to play, what he wasn't going to play, told folks if that didn't suit them, not to come. But, of course, they still bought tickets and then complained about the set list.

Umpires have been telling coaches for years what they are calling and why, but some softball people choose to ignore that pertinent information. Why? Could it be because it makes for a convenient excuse?

And even though being told this is exactly what the umpires were instructed to do, it continues to be a constant complaint. BTW, the umpires didn't make that decision, that is what they were asked to do. Yet, when an umpire calls the zone "by the book", the whine changes to squeezing the pitcher, the comments of the postage stamp strike zone, shoe box, etc.

Its a lot like the NCAA umpires being told they need to make that IP call by the book and when they did, were the coaches and pitchers blamed? Hell, no, it was the umpires who did no more than exactly what they were instructed to do.

I'm not a big fan of extremely wide zones, but I do believe the complaints are as much, if not more, an exaggeration than the strike zone of which the complaint addresses.

Did you watch any of the Texas game? Did you watch any of the WCWS last year? There has to be some outside edge to the zone. I mean we are not asking for much. Let's call the farthest out 33". Those pitches were 4"'s or more in the the other batters box. It looks goofy to anyone that knows the sport. All you are left with is a 40 year old, discredited camera angle argument?

As far as IP's last year, umpires definitely created that wreck. Half choose to largely ignore the guidance to call IP's. When the umpires show up on TV, regionals/supers/wcws, then they start calling all the IP's.

Clearly teams had been playing with a lot of umpires that had not been calling them. Lesson there is to make something a point of emphasis, you had better work on calling it in a broad fashion in October, or by March at the latest. Waiting until regionals/supers/wcws and it looks goofy.

[Trophy Hunter]

The floating strike zone and IPs not being called are the bane of softball. People who know the game can't seem to agree on what should be done. People who don't know the game think it's stupid and stop watching.

Nevins is illegal on about half her pitches vs Oklahoma right now. Why is she even pitching if she can't pitch within the rules? Pitchers that throw more than 5 illegal pitches in a game should be ejected. And if it happens more than 5 times a season the coach should be suspended too. Just get rid of them. It distracts from the game. It is once again already the #1 topic of discussion with the announcers on ESPN. Every year it's the same BS and nothing ever gets done about it.

[jonriv]

She had a number of illegal pitches against Hofstra- commentators made a big stink, but she was clearly leaping

Not sure why they put the chalk lines down- they never seem to make that call-no matter how far the pitcher's leg stray. Was at a conference playoff game this spring and the one pitcher was over the line 1 out of 3 pitches