Illegal pitch ?

[oppool]

High school game this week: Pitcher puts toes of her non- pivot foot on the pitching plate with hands together and pivot foot off of pitching plate. Before moving pivot foot to the pitching plate she seperates her hands then place pivot foot on pitching plate and begins taking her signs before bringing her hands together again to start pitch


Need to clarify if this is legal in FED and ASA.


Thanks

Don

[Roger Greene]

Sounds legal in Fed, Don.
Roger Greene

[CecilOne]

Th pitch starts when the pitcher separates hands with the feet in proper position (i.e., pivot contacting plate in NFHS, both contacting plate in ASA). So nothing in the motion before that can be illegal.

[WestMichiganBlue]

Th pitch starts when the pitcher separates hands . . . .

In ASA. In Fed the pitch starts with any motion associated with the windup after the hands are brought together.

But I agree that the pitching motion is goofy, but legal in both FED and ASA.

WMB

[CecilOne]

But both with the pivot foot in contact.

[Dakota]

Originally posted by WestMichiganBlue
In Fed the pitch starts with any motion associated with the windup after the hands are brought together.

The actual wording of the rule is

the pitch starts when one hand is taken off the ball or the pitcher makes any motion that is part of the windup after the hands have been brought together

Since in Fed (as in ASA) the "touch" or bringing of the hands together may be with the hands still or in motion, this little aspect of the Fed rule has seemed problematical to me.

For example, is this legal (it would be in ASA)?
Both feet on the plate
Hands brought together. Pause.
Hands raised (together) to chest level. Pause.
Separate hands to begin windmill motion.

A motion like this was described over on eteamz. The pitcher used this motion on every pitch.

Legal or illegal in Fed?

[Steve M]

Tom,
I see that motion as being part of her "preliminaries", so I do not have anything except a legal delivery for Fed - and everywhere else, too.

Don,
Your pitcher can stand on her head before she gets onto the plate to take the sign. In your example, she is legal because when she actually steps onto the pitcher's plate, her hands are separated - she takes the sign and goes from there.

Steve M

[Skahtboi]

...I had a varsity game last night where I called twelve, that's right, a full dozen illegal pitches. Pitcher for one team kept leaping about 8-12 inches on her delivery. I talked with the coaches after the first call (who were less than happy with me) about what she was doing wrong, and what she needed to do to correct it. It would last for a couple of pitches then she would leap again. Finally...by the third inning she starting dragging the toe on a regular basis. She actually pitched better from then on as well. What really amazed me, is with a week left in the saeson, the coaches from this team acted shocked that I had called her on this, and so many times. Makes me worry that others out there aren't doing their job!

Scott

[scottk_61]

Originally posted by Skahtboi
...I had a varsity game last night where I called twelve, that's right, a full dozen illegal pitches. Pitcher for one team kept leaping about 8-12 inches on her delivery. I talked with the coaches after the first call (who were less than happy with me) about what she was doing wrong, and what she needed to do to correct it. It would last for a couple of pitches then she would leap again. Finally...by the third inning she starting dragging the toe on a regular basis. She actually pitched better from then on as well. What really amazed me, is with a week left in the saeson, the coaches from this team acted shocked that I had called her on this, and so many times. Makes me worry that others out there aren't doing their job!

Scott

I had a game a week or so ago, where I called over a dozen illegal pitches in a row, amazing. I sent the catcher out after the first on, to have a talk while I "clarified" some lineup issues and she still continued. I called the coach out after the third one just to be sure she knew.....Coach just said, "stick her, she plays too much travel ball and needs to learn to do it right!" So I did.