It has become my personal opinion that if the NCAA wants softball to grow in popularity, they need to take steps to create a more offensive game. The WCWS has been a pitcher dominated event and for the uninitiated spectator, it is boring. (Not me, I watched every game)
There are good defensive players that don't get a lot of opportunity and the good hitters are rendered ineffective by a pitcher that gets to pitch every inning.
What are your thoughts about:
1. moving the pitcher's plate back another 3'
2. Putting a limit on number of innings a girl can pitch

I was also wondering what UCLA would have done if Jelly got hurt. Dodd, their other pitcher played first base. I thought that was risky.

as a fan, yes, more offense is needed .............. as an umpire, its fine the way it is!

As a fan, I love it. As an umpire, I hate the present game. It bores the tears out of me which is one of the reasons my primary is SP.

Move the PP back 6' and let them do anything they please as long as they begin their pitch from a stop with one foot having some contact with the PP.

I don't see what the problem is with Dodd playing 1B as playing another position used to be the standard for NCAA pitchers. So, Jelly gets hurt and Dodd comes into pitch and someone else plays 1B. I don't see the problem.

I agree...I've rarely watched the game but to have everything so slanted in favor of the pitcher is ridiculous. The last game I saw featured a pitcher who had an ERA of 0.50...that's ONE EARNED RUN EVERY TWO GAMES.
Most of the girls can't even take a full swing when they get up there. Is that how they want the game?

IMO, in the upper levels of female fast pitch (HS and above, 16U and above),at the elite level, the pitcher's dominance is so complete the game needs some adjustment.

However, I do not favor any articicial "balancing" rules, such as inning limits on pitchers. That is for the rec leagues.

I also do not think the upper levels should have the rules changed in multiple areas at a time to try to deal with this.

Some things that could help:

1) How about actually enforcing the leap and crow hop rule for once? I heard there were a few crow hop IPs called in the recent WCWS, but I don't recall hearing about any leaps being called, and that is the predominate pitching violation the top picthers engage in. ("heard about" because I do not have access to the broadcasts.)

2) An experiment with moving the plate back would be worthwhile to try. I think 6' would be enough to give the batters just a bit more of a timing edge, and would be far enough to require the pitchers some significant readjustment in their pitches.

3) If the experiment works, then (a year or two later) drop the leap rule. Simplify the wording of the crow hop rule to merely outlaw pushing off from anywhere other than the plate or pushing a second time and change the name - no more "crow hop" - just call it an illegal push.

4) Widen the plate to 30" and then get serious about calling being out of the width of the plate.

JMO.

[Edited by Dakota on Jun 9th, 2005 at 10:22 AM]

Actually, 0.50 is 1 run every 2 1/2 games. ERA is still divided by 9 even though softball is a 7-inning game. So 0.50 ERA is 1 run every 18 innings (2 4/7 7-inning games to be exact).

Yeah, incredible athletes, great risers and changeups, batters beating out bunts, catchers throwing out runners on steals, strategy, runners stealing, fielders thinking and communicating are all definitely more boring than endless home runs, endless errors and ego/beer-driven arguments.

Without getting into the boring v. beering argument, I personally find it very enjoyable to be behind the plate calling the game with a couple of top notch pitchers. OTOH, I find it not nearly so much fun to be on the bases in such games.

Not trying to be argumentative...
 

Not trying to be argumentative or belittling, so please don't take it that way...

1. I love the fastpitch game.

2. IMHO, move the PP back to 43 for Gold, and change the college rule to the same as men's (keep your toe pointing somewhat down, and please have contact with the PP at some point between when the catcher throws you the ball and when you pitch it back toward said catcher).

3. I would almost rather work the bases than the plate (I said ALMOST) in a good FP game, because I know every call I make will be crucial, and I trust my judgement.

Yep, once again demonstrating your knowledge of all levels of the different games. And, yes, that comment is dripping in sarcasm!

And I deserved it, but I'm not going to pursue it further, just apologize for the levels available here.

I personally love working a game with great pitching behind the plate... on the bases it can get a little slow, but you have to focus more because one call can make a huge difference. Fast pitch softball is a pitcher's game, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Trying to change rules just to have more offense is comparable to the MLB. They're always trying to create more offense. I also don't think the point of the rules should be to attract more fans. Then it's like MLB, NBA, etc., who change the rules just for entertainment. And I'm not a fan of that approach. If people want to appreciate softball for it's merits, fantastic. If they want to watch an offensive shoot out, change the channel and watch some baseball. Personally, I didn't think the WCWS was boring. I loved watching some of those pitching duels, but maybe I'm just weird. I only wish we could have seen a Tenn/Texas match-up.

OTOH, the game would even have less runs if the umpires, would call the
batter's out for being OFBB on a lot of the slaps. If you taped some of
the games, play it back in slow-mo and look.

Agree with moving PP back at least 3' and calling some of the leaps and replants.

Not according to the NCAA rulebook. ERA is calculated by number of earned runs multiplied by 7.0 divided by innings pitched.