Tuesday, August 24, 2004
The Most Difficult Thing to Do In Sports...
...is to hit a softball!
So why is hitting a softball so hard?I coach my ten-year-old daughter at softball and there is one pitcher in our league that is completely dominant throwing much harder than anyone else. My daughter is really nervous when facing her - it's probably the same feeling these hitters in the Olymics have facing Jennie Finch.
Distance, time, and uncertainty. In international competition, the pitcher's plate (or "rubber," as baseball fans know it) is only 43 feet from home plate. What's more, thanks to liberal rules, softball pitchers release the ball from even closer than that, slightly less than 40 feet—about 20 feet closer than a baseball pitcher. Top softball pitchers like Jennie Finch can throw roughly 70 miles per hour, the equivalent of a low-90s fastball thrown from 60 feet away. There are, of course, many hundreds of human beings who can hit a low-90s fastball. But most of them play professional baseball, and nearly all of them are men. And anyway, fast-pitch pitchers don't just throw fastballs. They keep the batters guessing with rise balls, drop balls, curves, and in-shoots. Pitchers with speed and a varied repertoire—like current U.S. Olympians Finch, Lisa Fernandez, and Cat Osterman—make life almost impossible for even the best hitters.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home