The crow-hop

[Dakota]

Originally posted by greymule
In fact, the Fed interpreter in New Jersey says that the pitcher's foot can lose contact with the ground if the gully gets deep, as long as the foot does not rise above the level of the surrounding ground! Well, these are prima facie contradictions of the rule book.

ASA states directly in the rule that the pitcher's foot may lose contact with the bottom of the hole as long as it does not go higher than the level plane of the ground, so I would consider this a reasonable interpretation of the rule for Fed.

If, as stated in the thread about Cat (can't spell her last name), the top pitchers have developed a crow hop that is too fast to see without slow motion replay, well, good for them. But, when it is seen, it still isn't called at the NCAA level. Can anyone remember a crow hop being called ever in a Div I NCAA game? They can't all be invisible.

Fortunately, I deal with considerably less skilled pitchers, and their leaping and slipping off the front of the plate to push off 3-4 inches in the dirt is much easier to see. I rarely see a true "hopless" crow hop. Leaps, mostly.