JC#1fan

JCHS's senior catcher hung a cleat trying to stop in a run down(not sliding). Result. Torn ACL! out for season and may have ended her career as she was being looked at by several colleges and was not yet signed. Also Jchs's other catcher trying to stop while contemplating stealing third on a passed ball. Result. Possible broken ankle! Is anyone getting the picture yet! This happened in a tournament all in one day!

TSSAA did not have to ratify NFHS's ruling, so how where they opposed to it?

Baseballs and 12" softballs weigh the same (6 ounces), the obvious difference is the size of the impact area. 90 mph is 90 mph(had to be one ksgovols three hurlers /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" /> ) and 60 mph is 60mph, 90 hurts more and is the speed associated with a baseball here and it also has a more concentrated impact area.

Don't know where the information comes from, but TMSSA allows metal cleats in middle school ball starting this year same as high school ball. This is one of the first questions I asked the regional umpire supervisor this year and she said they are allowed same as high school. Middle school baseball has allowed them for years and it has migrated to softball. This is one of the worst decissions that TSSAA has made in years (referance the other metal cleat post on this forum). Adding metal cleats which are dangerous while not requiring other safety issues is ridiculous (double first base, break away bases, required face and heart protection for pitchers and the "hot" corners, etc.). Unfortunately though, there is nothing to report on the athlete that is wearing them because they are now legal.

Hadn't heard that Blanken was hurt. I hope not, great kid great athlete. I heard Kayla Johnson was having MRI Tuesday and won't know until later this week, but Dr. said he thought it was torn ACL. Cosmo's ankle is not broken as the trainer thought in Kingsport, severely sprained ankle. I guarantee if she has anything to do with it she won't be out long. Congrats East, big win!

IMAC teams looked great this weekend at Eastman. Four teams entered in a 30 team field, all four made it to the final 8 on sunday and all finished in the top 7 including M West winning it all. #1 M. West #4 JCSH #5 M. East #7 Greeneville. West beat East and JCHS in eliminations or they both finish higher. I think this goes to show that the IMAC can hold their own in upper East TN. Congrats M. West on winning it, looked rough for you guys early, but hey thats why you have to play good late! Congrats East, if not for that tough loss to West in the last inning it may have been you in the winners circle! Congrats JCHS, what a performance, put up 35 runs to the competitions 4 in pool play! JCHS would have been in championship game if not for losing to comeback artist M West Congrats Greeneville, put 31 runs on the competition in pool play until they ran into Unicoi going 3-1 in pool play and then beating Science Hill in eliminations to move on and capture 7th. Awesome! If Cocke County and Cherokee would have entered this tourney might have been all six teams in the final 8! /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

Jeff County vs Elizabethton not a forfeit. Jeff County won 5-2. Elizabethton bowed out after loss to Jeff. Also solo HR hit in M. West vs Unicoi hit by "Hefner". Put on a Great tournament.

Understood catsbacker, I, in my personal opinion do not think our pitcher was intentionally trying to hit the batter, just intentionally trying to back the batter off the plate and hit a player who was intentionally crowding the plate. I do not condone "head hunting" or intentionally hitting a batter to hurt them in any situation(like the one described earlier with a team trying to put the other teams only pitcher out of the game) Apparently the pitcher wouldn't hit the other batter and should be commended for doing so. Any coach intentionally "head hunting" or intentionally trying to injure another player should be ejected and then taken "outside"(if you know what I mean). With that said, there is a correct way to do things, you can intentionally hit a batter without intentionally trying to hurt her.

The last couple of post are correct. As an old time umpire once said to me "Go down to Wal-Mart and buy a bat with a pair of hands on it" The question is not just about the hands. If a batter attempts to make contact and the ball hits any part of the batter it is a foul ball, not just the hands this is also applicable if the hands are considered in the strike zone. If a batter is hit anywhere(including the hands)while attempting to avoid being hit they are to be given the base. Most of the time this comes down to umpire judgement and why you see called differently so much. Different umpire, differeent judgement. This is unforunate as the rules are pretty straightforward, but this happens so quickly and it is not the first thing an umpire is looking for.

catsbacker are you just looking for something to argue about. From every post I see you comment on it seems that is your intention. I'm telling you if she "intended" to hit her the first pitch would have got her, no doubt. It doesn't matter where the pitch is if you run into it, now does it. If a pitcher allows a batter to dictate where the pitches will be, the battle is already lost. My logic is if you challenge a pitcher you know what you are asking for. and when it comes high and tight you have 2 choices get drilled or get out of the way.PERIOD!!

If she was trying to hit her in the head she would have done it on the first pitch. Actually, the batters head was across the plate and should have not gotten the base. She don't miss her spot very often. If you have any knowledge of the game you know the way you back somebody off the plate is high and tight.

I think you would probably be taking that back pretty quickly. I can think of five pitchers in our conferance alone that would get close enough to your challenge to make you think. Instead of a window pane would you be willing to stand in the box, now that would make it interesting. Additionally, if you are at the high school level and can't hit your spots (or batters /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" /> ), you will not be very successful. Remember a 14-18 year old starting high school pitcher has probebly been throwing for 6-10 years.

I saw this post and the Ks this young lady has put up is amazing. Also a young lady pitching in Jefferson that is a seventh grader that has 47ks, 3 walks and only 6 hits in 19 innings pitched in varsity games (four games (two five inning and one shortened to 3 inning because of slaughter rule, 16 Ks in one six inning game), the season has just started here)and she just turned 13 a couple of months ago. Throws consistanly in mid to upper 50s and change up that will break your neck(really more of an off speed drop ball, but it looks like fast ball til about four feet before the plate and then it just falls out of the air) These young ladies are the future of this sport, but I feel the post was about current high school players. Any body have any who qualify as top players.

I agree robotman. Its part of the game. Last year our starting pitcher (a freshman who throws low to mid 60s) was challenged by a senior lead off batter for our biggest rival. The lead off was a slapper and the umpire was allowing her to practically hang her toes over the plate(not exaggerating). The first game our pitcher allowed it to happen and threw away from the batter and the senior slapper went 3 for 3 that night. After the coach talked to her freshman pitcher about not being afraid to challenge a batter who is trying crowd the plate and force her to throw the pitch that the batter wanted, the two teams met a couple of weeks later. First pitch was chin music, not close enough to hit the batter, but just close enough to let her know what she meant by that pitch. The senior batter turned and looked at her as to say "Do that again and I'm comin out there" The next pitch was right in the facemask, she reached because of being hit, but never touched a base off of this pitcher again that season and they faced each other two more times. I don't believe our young pitcher intended to hit her with the second pitch and definately do not condone hittng any player near the head, but she was sending a signal that if your going to crowd "my" plate I'm comin at ya! This is just as much the part of softball as baseball, Don't let anyone kid you. Hitting a player just because they are your only pitcher is a cowards game, but if your daughter crowds the plate you better be ready to be mad cause she is going to get "plunked", its just a fact.

03,04 hits the ball 15 to 20 feet further. Cost are high for these bats, but it is coming down(these bats even if in wrapper have no warranty). Unfortunately, most of the 03, 04 Rocket techs now available on ebay are in the 33 inch 24 ounce size not the most popular size of 32 inch 23 ounce this meens your daughter better be stout because these bats are extremely end loaded which is why they are so hot. Have had players swing bats including 03,04,05-07(nobody I am involved with swinging 08)Rocket techs, Catalyst(yellow, light blue, and dark blue),and Synergy(gray with orange and gray with dark blue trim). All of these bats listed perform extremely well and girls that are smaller probably will do better with the Synergys, but nothing out performs the 03, 04 Rocket tech. It isn't even close. I have heard that the Rip-it bats are pretty good, but have yet to see one in use. Worth Mayhem bats pretty good also, but have reliability issues. I have heard of several of these "exploding"

This is part of the game, just like like in baseball ksgovols. To brush a player off the base will happen every time and the batter knows it. DO coaches call for a batter to brushed off the plate "ABSOLUTELY", however to throw at a player intentionally because she is the only pitcher is unehtical! A player that intentionally cleats, throws at a player, or crowds the plate knows it is coming. On the other hand a good pitcher knows 3 things also. 1st where do you hit another player? A pitcher intentionally hitting a batter will try to hit in the hip area, this achieves the goal without hurting the other player (nine times out of ten the player turns away from the pitch and takes it in the buttocks) and 2 the pitcher knows if they step in the box its coming at them, 3 you just put a runner on base and softball games are usually low scoring events and you can't afford a runner on for free.(probably why the picher wouldn't do it if she was there to win). Unfortunately, This is part of the game and is not going to go away. More times than not this happens and nobody ever knew it was intentional.

TSSAA will recieve complaints, it does not have to be organized by or from the coach. The "parent" can take it in their own hands. Another suggestion, all umpires have supervisors. This may be an exception, but our local umpire supervisor will listen to every thing any one has to say. They will then evaluate and correct any problems, if needed. I have seen them sit outside the fence where no one knew they were there and evaluate umpires. I have never seen them intrerupt a game to correct a problem, but boy the butt chewings after. The umpires repspect and "fear" that they are being watched so they try to get it straight. All supervisors should do their job so well. You know who I am talkiing about mtwfan.

Evidently not copied from anything mtwfan, due to typo in last part of rule. It sounds exetremly familiar though, almost a direct quote from the "little league" rule book. I think a little more investigation needs to be done into this thread. By the way great job last night, your girls are really hitting the ball. Maybe we'll see you again this weekend at Eastman. If not hopefully in the IMAC championship game.

Great game last night mwtfan. I only wish it ended in favor of my PATS! Gilbert was throwin hard, we just couldn't catch up to it. She had a bunch of Ks. Hill is getting close to being back to her normal form, not as many strikeouts as she is used to, but keeping the ball down and causing a lot of bloopers to be hit. Both pitchers were good last night. Defense on both sides of the ball was excellent, Nelson did make an ESPN highlight play, laying out to get one drove up the middle and then throwing the runner out at first off of her knees. The game was decided in the sixth though, 3 consecutive errors loaded the bases with no outs, all routine plays I personally think the plays were to easy(you know how that can be an issue and once it starts its hard to stop the bleeding), but Hill pitched well and the defense got out of the inning only giving up one run, thats pretty impressive to recover from bases loaded no outs against Cherokee. I hope tonight is the night we get over the hump against M West, I know you hope we don't mtwfan. See ya at the ballpark. Go Lady Pats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Solution! Have a parent record games, including any conversation with the umpire (from outside the fence) and send it to TSSAA! If they don't give you an answer it will at least send a message to the umpires in question becuase TSSAA will contact them.

This is exactly why we don't need mwtal in high school. Imagine this is your child, and all you get to here is about sliding correctly.The point I have been trying to make is that these are adolesants, children that will bear these scars for life. GOOD POST SWINGAWAY

As a coach what you are saying is a strategy to win a ball game and all good coaches are there to win, but this is not like asking if a batter broke their wrist in a swing or if a player had control of a ball on a tag or if a runner missed a bag while going around the bases, these are appealable calls and have to be asked before ruled on. In other words its not something that has to complained about before it is called, it is a rule that is supposed to monitored by the umpires. An illegal pitch is supposed to be called every time it is thrown. I see an umpire giving a warning and calling the coach over to discuss it, but after that it is supposed to be an illegal pitch and any runner on base given an extra base. PERIOD.

I agree catsbacker it does seem hard to believe that the cleats penetrated the bag, but several newspapers have reported that way,

If you would read the article it says her cleat "hung" on second base while doing a pop up slide which requires that your foot touches the base as it does if you want to be safe in any type of slide. Why should concerned individuals be "quiet" about htis when there are still girls going to the hospital every week.

Most organized high school teams require the girls to wear the same cleats so if the team your kid is zoned for requires them then your decision comes down to whether you play or not, not if you wear them.