Post on Another Board

[whiskers_ump]

There is a post on the Fastpitch boards about Cat O, and her
Crow Hopping. Poster also claims she is a National Disgrace
for performing this "illegal" act.

I called Cat in HS. Saw plenty of leaping, but no crow hops.
Not saying she does not now, but did not back then. If called
she normally went legal. Playing for USA Team, it may never get
called, but to call her a National Disgrace is going beyond the
limits.

The post has 153,242 viewers and 125 replies.

http://www.eteamz.com/fastpitch/boar...cfm?id=1019935

[oppool]

Some people are just not too smart to put as nicely as I can. I have never had the chance to see Cat pitch in person but have caught many games on TV and see no more illegal pitches out of her than I do any pitcher at this level. The guy complaining probably doesnt even know what a true crow-hop pitch is. What he is probably seeing is the sliding of her foot across the PP and somehow believes that is crow-hopping.

BUT you did hit on one of my new pet peeves and that is pitcher who go out and pitch illegal on purpose until they get called. Make you want to wait till they get runners on before you bang em!!


JMO's

Don

[TexBlue]

The post I liked best was the one that said her computer almost melted down, when she started reading the posts.

However, I did learn a few things:

Blues are cheaters, along with Cat
Coaches are cheaters, along with Cat
Blues and Coaches both are uneducated
Blues are spineless for not calling it
etc
etc
etc

Now, I have a question in theory. Is it really cheating to leap, if the umpire allows it? Or is it just defining the limits of the umpires? We all know the rule, but is my leap your leap? Shouldn't the good pitchers try to find out what my limits are in regards to pitching mechanics or strike zone? For example, would it be cheating if I blew a call and declared strike! instead of ball! and the pitcher didn't call time and let me know she disagreed with the call and it should have been a ball?

I also learned that most of the posters on that thread can't spell worth a durn.

[IRISHMAFIA]

I raised this issue last year on FPF & eteamz and again this season on eteamz. Her father, Gary, takes part in FPF, but not sure about the eteamz board.

In the Big XII playoffs last years, ESPN showed a slow motion clip of Cat in an effort to demonstrate how wide open she gets during her delivery.

During this clip, being the anal umpire that I am, I concentrated on her drag which looked pretty good. Then I noticed a spray of dirt kicking out back toward the PP. Well, this could only happen if her pivot foot dug in somewhere along the way. I watched her the rest of that tournament and NCAA's last year and have yet to catch it again a real speed.

I don't know if it is intentional or a fluke or whatever. The post was not, nor was it meant to be demeaning to the Ostermann family, coaches or team. The point I was making at that time was that the umpire cannot see every little tiny thing on the field with the naked eye.

I then took a blasting about how this is only because umpires are lazy and don't want to make the tough calls, yada, yada, yada....

Maybe someone should just tell that poster that they are right. It is a conspiracy to allow pitchers do totally dominate the game and put the bat companies out of business as they will never get used because the umpires allow the pitcher to cheat. Maybe they'll be satisfied with such an admission and go back into their shelter and put their protective alluminum foil hats back on so the gamma rays will not get them.



[Edited by IRISHMAFIA on Jun 13th, 2004 at 09:56 AM]