Quote:
Originally posted by Skahtboi
...really chaps my butt when I hear it.
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My view, also, Scott. If I am not mistaken, this shaving of the rules if there is no advantage gained is a baseball tradition, and you will find it applied to situations other than illegal pitch -- see the discussion earlier about obstruction and blocking the base.
On the crowhop, however, I can't see how this "no advantage" claim even holds up (assuming the tradition was valid). How is it not an advantage to pitch from 6-10 inches closer to home?
IMO, the various bodies that sanction fastpitch need to either get tough with umpires on the crowhop / leap rule, or they need to modify the rule to line up with how it is being called -- see Mike's comment about Cat. Here the premier pitcher in arguably the premier sanctioning body for 18-23 yo fastpitch is (according to many) not pitching according to the rules. Wonderful.
(I don't mean to start something here on NCAA v ASA - it's just that the college game is a lot more visible than the adult fastpitch level of ASA, except during Olympic years).
To continue to have a rule that the majority of umpires refuse to enforce (for whatever reason) or don't know how to enforce is not good, and hurts the integrity of the game and the officials.