Amateur Ballplaying
A while back, Bill James created a defensive spectrum. It looks like this…
DH [ - - 1B - LF - RF - 3B - CF - 2B - SS - C - - ] P
“The basic premise being that positions at the right end of the spectrum are more difficult than the positions at the left end of the spectrum. Players can generally move from right to left along the specturm successfully during their careers.” (Historical Baseball Abstract, 1988)
I think in amateur fast-pitch softball, the defensive spectrum might look like this…
DH [ -- 1B – 2B – RF – C – 3B - CF - LF – SS -- ] P
In slow-pitch, it might look like this…
DH [ -- C - 1B – 2B - P - RF - RCF – 3B - LCF - LF – SS -- ]
I dunno, just a hunch.
Having played both fast- and slow-pitch softball, I’ve decided I’m a softball snob. Since we’re on spectra, I present to you the Lyons Baseball & Softball Spectrum:
[Limited 12” Slow-Pitch Softball – 16” softball (this is always slow-pitch) - Unlimited 12” Slow-Pitch Softball – 12” Fast-pitch softball – Baseball]
On the right, we have baseball. The game with which most amateur softball players are a fan, and the game after which softball is mirrored. To move left on the spectrum to fast-pitch softball, we shrink the field, increase the ball’s diameter, and remove leadoffs. Not a large adjustment. The adjustments grow larger, though, as we keep moving left.
Pitching still actually matters in unlimited slow-pitch, but only nominally. Now we’ve also eliminated stealing and bunting. Many unlimited leagues play with 10 fielders, a reflection of the knowledge that the game is offensively-tilted.
The left-most half of the spectrum involves barely any pitching skill at all. Run prevention is entirely on the defense, so that choochy 10th fielder is always there (hi). At least in 16”, the game doesn’t quickly become home run derby. (I don’t know of anyone who can crank a 16” softball, those things are like cantaloupes!).
But in limited 12” slow-pitch, when hitters have any skill at all, the game is effectively home run derby. Home runs are not only possible, but also common for a good lineup. The pitcher can’t stop it, the defense can’t (not with a fence anyway or without a ton of luck).
Variations on the left-hand of my spectrum are growing in popularity, while versions on the right side are slipping. The only reason I can see this might be happening is the failure of amateur players to invest their talents into actual pitching. My fast-pitch league has five teams; our slow-pitch counterparts are much larger. I suspect that slow-pitch players wouldn’t mind bunting and stealing, but that they just don’t know enough folks who can pitch.
Personally, I’m holding out. Keeping my standards high for strategy and style, I’m hoping to learn how to fast-pitch a 12” softball. Hopefully, I can be a part of the solution to a trivial, though nonetheless shameful – situation.
posted by Lyons at
3:29 PM
4 Comments:
Finally something I can comment on as I played fast-pitch softball throughout my childhood & highschool-hood. The fast-pitch spectrum ought to be [--RF-2B-1B-LF-3B-CF-SS-C]. Still have to have a strong catcher because bunting is much more a part of the game and there is base-stealing (shorter base paths too). Our weakest player was always in RF because most batters are right-handed; thus, balls hit to right are not sharply hit. This is why the weaker players are all on the right side of the field.
The game really is all about pitching (much like baseball). Fastpitch uses the following elements much more than baseball: pitching speed changes (have you seen a change-up in softball?), bunting (drag bunting, fake bunt swing, bunting for a base hit--not just as a sacrifice).
I guess I don't see how baseball is more complex. Lead-offs just make the stinking game last longer. As do numerous pitching changes which you just don't have with softball (because the fast-pitch softball pitching motion is more natural I suppose).
I can teach you how to pitch--that would be fun.
9:22 AM
Unless you're a female under age 22 or an Olympic-caliber player, the idea of playing fast-pitch softball just strikes me as bizarre. No real reason other than that I have zero interest in ever trying it, mostly because if I wanted the challenge of hitting a fastball, I'd just play baseball. Personal preference I guess, but I don't think I'm in the minority in feeling that way.
I'd gladly join a baseball league that is casual and time-committment minimal. Thus far in my adult life, I haven't found one that is either.
And 16-inch softball just plain sucks.
That, my friend, is the superficial thumbnail explanation of why myself and the vast majority of ball-playing adult males play 12-inch slowpitch.
1:58 PM
"No real reason [for thinking that playing fast-pitch is bizarre] other than that I have zero interest in ever trying it, mostly because if I wanted the challenge of hitting a fastball, I'd just play baseball...[which I would if I could find] a baseball league that is casual and time-committment minimal."
Way to prove my twofold point.
Point 1.) You - the spectrum left side participant - don't care to hit a fastball.
You either:
a.) prefer the simpler, strategy-less play of the left-side of my spectrum (which I doubt), or
b.) you're lazy (possible), or
c.) you'd rather play a home-run derby/offensively-centered version of the game.
Nothing wrong with your opinion, it's just a preference. But fast-pitch brings more to the strategic table, and doesn't dilute run-scoring. Hence my preference.
Point 2.) Amateur baseball leagues that are non-competitive don't exist (on the right hand side of my spectrum). Do you know why? Because pitchers with actual pitching talent don't play in non-competitive leagues, making the game a slugfest. They play in more serious leagues if not semi-pro. Do you remember that baseball game we tried to organize the summer before we moved to college? ALL EIGHTEEN PLAYERS HIT HOME RUNS, and 90% of them didn't play high school ball. Why? Because we were hitting batting practice. (Actually, were you the only one who didn't hit one out?)
If you or I organized a "non-competitive baseball league," and expect actual pitchers to show up, we'd soon convert it to slow-pitch softball, because it would mirror Coors Field on Steroids in a Sandbox with the wind blowing out and Luis Vizcaino pitching.
2:47 PM
I mostly agree with your assessment. I would also point out that baseball (and, if I were inclined to play it, fast-pitch softball) require a substantial amount of regular practice to be even decent at, let alone good. I love baseball as much as I love any non-human entity, but I just don't have the interest in devoting more than an hour or two per week to it (that's partly laziness and partly a reality of being a grownup), and two hours just isn't enough to be at all competitive.
Unlike a lot of sports -- tennis, basketball, and yes, slowpitch softball -- hitting a fastball or any other decently thrown pitch is not something you can do without constant practice.
And the more simple point is, I much more enjoy going 4-5 every night than I do going 1-5. Slow pitch may have less strategy, but it's infinitely more satisfying.
3:38 PM
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