Problem with Softball!

Coach · June 4, 2006

Cat is still smoking hot though.

bigrobdsp · June 5, 2006

Doesn't that just mean you are the best at striking people out that there has ever been?
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yes. which is another way to say that you are the best pitcher ever.

on another note, if having the best pitcher made your team unbeatable Texas would have 4 national titles behind Cat. since they have 0 I think that the game is perfectly competitive, and I find no reason to change where the pitchers pitch from.

Edited June 5, 2006 by bigrobdsp

untgirl04 · June 5, 2006

yes. which is another way to say that you are the best pitcher ever.
on another note, if having the best pitcher made your team unbeatable Texas would have 4 national titles behind Cat. since they have 0 I think that the game is perfectly competitive, and I find no reason to change where the pitchers pitch from.
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Striking people out has absolutely nothing to do with being the best pitcher ever. Jamie Moyer, although definitely not a dominating pitcher, does just fine even with his below-average fastball by forcing people to hit into outs. If you ever played baseball or softball and pitched, you'd know your coaches tell you that while the strikeouts are nice, forcing the ball into play is not a bad thing. As a pitcher, your job is to get the ball over the plate. That's why you have a team behind you. They're there to stop the ball and get the out. Strikeouts are icing on the cake.

Btw, Cat Osterman is not the only dominant pitcher to play softball. Check out Lisa Fernandez. Having seen her play in person, I can tell you you wouldn't want to bat against her.

However, Coach is right about softball being a bit reliant on dominant pitchers. I don't know if the solution is to drop back the mound though. Honestly, when you have a girl who is 6' and with her pitching motion can leap halfway to the plate on delivery, it's hard to hit her no matter how far back you are. I think the problem of dominant pitchers is a natural one based on the mechanics of fast pitch softball. Even if you avoid crow-hopping (illegal in softball) then you can still get some good distance off the mound. I think honestly that the best solution is just to continue working on batting mechanics. Too many girls don't get the good instruction they need at the plate.

bigrobdsp · June 5, 2006

cat osterman is the only player that dominite. she has 2500+ strikeouts. no other player in history has 2000.
also everyone should know of Megan Willis, the catcher for Texas.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/imag...1&cop=&ei=UTF-8
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Lets all read my origional post again. It does not say that Cat Osterman is the only player to ever dominate. It says that she is the only player to dominate to the level at which she has. does anyone have any questions as to what I ment?...

OK now that that is out of the way, stricking out 18 fo 21 faced (UT's first game VS ASU) in the top level of competition is good pitching. maybe she should have thrown some more balls that could have been hit and hoped that she got players to hit into outs, but I am guessing that her coaches and team mates were happy to work with her 1 hitter.

No, strikeouts are not the only way to measure a pitcher, but they are a good place to start. Lisan Fernandez and Jenny Finch were great pitchers, but neither one hold a candle to Cat. Anyone who doesnt acknowledge that is wrong. I can also grow a better beard than all of you.

eeally · June 5, 2006

UT both men and woman are out.

Eagle1855 · June 5, 2006

Jennie Finch is the best softball player in my book. After looking over all of the various statistics and game film, my final decision came down to this:

user posted image

game, set, match.

June 5, 2006

From the 40s through the 70s, fast pitch softball was in its heyday. Commercial and church leagues operated six nights a week in cities and small towns across the country. With that many players, you can imagine that there were quite a few dominant pitchers around.

In the 60s my playing days were about done and I became an umpire in Garland. We had some fantastic teams from Dallas that played in the tournaments. One July 4th I called the plate when Weldon Haney and Ralph Ramos were pitching. Haney could throw more than 105 mph and Ramos wasn't far behind. The reaction time couldn't have been much more than a second from the time it left Haney's hand until ti crossed the plate. Yet, the batters were so good that many could make contact and he gave up several hits.

The point is, this is not a new phenomenon to softball and, as dominant as some pitchers are, good hitting will eventually adjust to outstanding pitching.

Another attraction during that era was the 'King and his Court". Eddie Feigner was the 'King' and he played and beat really good teams with just a catcher and two fielders. He did such tricks as pitching from second base and pitching blindfolded. In fact, it's my understanding that this is his farewell year and he's past 80!

These dominant pitchers did not change the landscape of softball and I can't see any present day pitchers changing it either.