California Change-up

[Skahtboi]

Originally Posted by IRISHMAFIA

Had a nice discussion with a young lady who has been instructing some youth pitchers.

She was telling me that she had a serious argument with one of the "daddy" coaches concerning this pitch, insisting that it was totally legal and this girl had no idea of what she was doing when she disagreed.

As shown to me, it is a ball which the pitcher releases back-hand the first time past the hip and then continues with another revolution.

I suggested she have the daddy read 6FP.3.M which forbids a revolution of the arm after releasing the ball.

Before you start talking about "two revolutions", remember, this is post-delivery, not part of it. The pitcher can follow through after the pitch. However, as demonstrated, the pitching arm continues in a revolution again coming back past the hip, not just dropping down to the side.

Now, here is my question for you FP maniacs, which umpire is going to make that call? With the ball in flight, I could see where the PU may not notice the pitcher's arm after the release.

I have actually made that call before. It was in a tournament a couple of years ago, 18U or 16U, I don't recall. Anyway, we had been discussing that in the umpire camp previously, and had looked it up. So, I had a heads up that there was pitcher who was doing this, and as luck would have it, I was the one to get her next. There was an argument with the Coach, who I am sure was the dad, complete with all the usual rhetoric of "nothing wrong with it" and "no one else has called it"...etc. I think the thing that most amazes me or that stands out about this incident is the fact that later in the game she tried it again. Yet another conversation ensued with coach which resulted in the famous phrase "you just need to let the girls play," and a warning from me that our conversation about this pitch was over.