narcosis wrote:Sam wrote:Anti-Clone wrote:Sam wrote:The real issue is that the morons running college softball, the coaches, changed the rule to allow for more base runners who don't have to earn their way on base. They know that the strike zone is 4" off of both sides of the plate......because that is the zone THEY have mandated the umpires call. So the pitcher isn't missing the zone by 10"......they are missing by 2"......The rule was fine before. Our fine friends in the college coaching profession again manipulate the rules to make up for their inept coaching "ability." Recruiting, the strike zone, leaping, towels,HBP, hot bats that make everyone a HR threat,.....what's next?
The umpires have no say......their bosses, the guys who cut the checks, are ruining the game....dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator.....down their level.
The rule is a good one to anyone actually invested in the game. It eliminates the old line of bull$hit you used to hear like, "Your runner isn't getting the base, she didn't try to avoid getting hit" when the ball split the batter's box and drilled the batter at 65 MPH. It also eliminated the arguments that SOFTBALL coaches simply couldn't get (baseball coaches have understood it for decades) that a batter may try to roll back away from the ball, actually causing or increasing the likelihood of getting hit. Batter's aren't required to predict with pinpoint accuracy where they are going to get hit or if the ball will miss them by a fraction of an inch. Coaches would argue, "She turned into it" which is absurd. A batter has the right to choose to get drilled in the small of her back instead of her ribs or shoulder blade rather than her arm.
The solution is to throw the ball over/near the plate.
You are arguing that it fixed a non-existent problem.
Now.....can a RH hitter with an open stance, back foot on the back line of the box at the corner nearest the plate, get hit by a curveball from a LH pitcher that catches the front corner of the SZ but ends up hitting the batter's back foot with the ball completely within the batters box? Strike or HBP?
Next these guys will get rid of the IF Fly rule. It requires some semblance of judgement also.
HBP. Ball came into BB and hit batter. Same as a fly ball and two players call for the ball then watch it hit the ground and batter arrives at 1b safe. You score that a hit...not an error.
Really? It was a strike, long before it hit a batter.
If this actually ever happened I would be fine if blue just called out "Holy $hit, did you see that?" at that point.