Illegal pitch?

[David Emerling]

Originally posted by WestMichBlue
I think the oddness of her pitching motion offends the eyes and simply LOOKS wrong. It's the type of pitching motion where you can see the *something* is wrong ... so you look closer. Then you see it!

That is the point, David - it looks wrong! But unless you slow down the video you cannot find the illegal action. I think that it might be very difficult for the umpire on the field to call IP because something "looks wrong!"

Do you remember what you said to the umpire two years ago? Was it "her hand is outside her elbow?" Or simply "she's pitching sidearm?"

I would reject the "sidearm" description, even as you use it today. Her elbow is tucked in to the body and her hand is below the hip (satisfying the other part of that pitching delivery rule). With a baseball type sidearm delivery the elbow would extend out from the body and the hand may or may not be above the hip.

Actually, most FP pitcher's hands are going to be outside the elbow on many pitches. With this girl it is just a little more pronounced.

The original FP rule (hand below the hip and not more than 6” from body) was written to prevent the baseball style sidearm delivery. Eventually the 6” part was eliminated in favor of the “not further than elbow” requirement. (Probably to help umpires that do not carry tape measures! )
I think this girl probably satisfies the “intent” of the rule.

Besides, as a coach I would never challenge this pitcher. With that delivery she cannot throw any changeups, risers, etc. And most pitches are going to slide away to the outside. I would simply teach my batters to “sit on the fastball” near the middle of the plate and “tee off.”

WMB

We had watched this girl pitch against other teams prior to playing them and her pitching style just looked so awkward.

And then, as we watched a few more pitches we noticed what it was. Her arm is extended much further out to the side than we are used to seeing. And then, as we watched even more, it became completely obviously what was so odd ... her wrist is nearly A FOOT AND A HALF away from her body! Whatever the length of her forearm was, *THAT* was how far her wrist was from her body. We considered it excessive.

What you say is true - her elbow actually is tucked in close but her wrist/hand is WAY out there, in a sidearm-like motion. Very unusual.

Although, some pitchers "cheat" a little bit when they throw a curveball and deliver the ball with their wrist a little further out then their elbow. But this girl does it on every pitch.

* * *

The way we handled it was as follows.

1. The other team was the Home team. As they took the field in the 1st inning, and while their pitcher was taking her preliminary warm-ups, we approached the umpire to inform him that it was OUR OPINION that the pitcher had an illegal delivery and that he could expect us to challenge it as soon as she threw a strike or retired one of our batters. (Also, the reason we did this was to give the umpire the opportunity to observe this pitcher during warm-ups and, perhaps, decide at this time if she was pitching illegally.)

2. The umpire basically gave us a shrug of the shoulders.

3. The first pitch of the game was fouled off. We requested time.

4. Our head coach approached the PU and asked for a ruling on the legality of her delivery, claiming that she was essentially "throwing sidearm" and that her "wrist was further out than her elbow."

5. The umpire did not engage in any lengthy discussion and simply said, "It looks fine to me." And that was it.

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

[Edited by David Emerling on Nov 7th, 2005 at 10:53 AM]