Wow, sounds like you’re not having much fun out there, Stinkpalm. If your rec league is causing you such heartache, might be time to think about a less stressful activity.
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- You AREN’T Barry Bonds so stop swinging for the fences! I swear, every person, EVERY person, feels the need to try to hit it out of the fucking park on my team. Then, since there are 4 outfielders, it’s fly out after fly out after fly out. Just get on base dude!!!
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Most of the people on our team are pretty well aware of their capabilities, and think about that in their hitting. I’m not a very strong hitter, and i know there’s no way i can get it over the outfielders, let alone over the fence, so most of my swings are at about 3/4 power, dropping the ball between the infield and the outfield. I’m also pretty good at pulling it down the left field line.
We have a couple of guys who have real power, and they often swing really hard. While they do fly out on occasion, they also often drive very hard shots to the gaps, leading to a lot of doubles and triples. Sometimes they do get it over the fence. One of them is also very good at going the opposite way, which can be a great advantage in a rec league where many teams put their weakest fielder in right field.
[QUOTE=Stinkpalm]
2) Don’t swing at the first pitch!!! No matter now big of a meatball it may be. Let it go by. In our league the count starts at 1-1 so make the pitcher pitch to you instead of swinging at the first pitch and flying out to LF. If it’s a strike then so be it, it will be easy enough to hit the next pitch. It’s slow pitch softball dude. I see other teams get 6-7 walks off our pitcher almost every game but our team NEEDS to swing at the first hittable pitch because THEY ARE GOING TO HIT A HOMER!!!
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I’m only partly on board with you here. One reason might be because i tend to swing at some pitches that i shouldn’t, although i have gotten better at leaving the bad ones alone. I actually walked twice this season, which is probably a record for me.
But, even though i appreciate the logic behind letting the bad pitches go, i also think (and most people in my league are of the same opinion) that the idea of a slow-pitch rec league is to put the ball in play, not win with walks. I’m not saying that people should swing just for the sake of swinging, especially if the ball is well outside the strike zone; but if the ball is somewhere around the zone then i think it’s more fun for everyone if the batter tries to put it in play.
My biggest fault has been swinging at very low pitches, even ones that are going to hit the ground in front of the plate. Part of the reason, i think, is that i grew up playing cricket, where a ball that bounces just in front of you is often perfect for smashing. Getting used to hitting softball-style rather than cricket-style took some time.
I know walks and OBP are important in the majors, but i think a bit of free-swinging is fine in a rec league.
[QUOTE=Stinkpalm]
3) Umpire, I know you are just doing this part time and are not a paid professional but what is your strike zone? Do YOU even know? And can you please keep track of the # of outs. Thank you.
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Our umps vary from OK to pretty damn good. We had one last Fall who was fucking hopeless. Had no clue about the infield fly rule, and fucked up a bunch of obvious calls. I don’t mind if it’s a close call and the umpire makes a decision i disagree with; they’re only human. But when they fuck things up because they don’t know the rules, then i get pissed.
[QUOTE=Stinkpalm]
4) The field is SO hard. Like concrete. But concrete with little potholes in it so the ball jumps up at the worst times.
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Our infield gets pretty hard in summer, but this year it was reasonably smooth. There were a few bad hops, but not many.
[QUOTE=Stinkpalm]
5) I’ve got 2-3 guys on my team that think they are coaches. Always criticising and “advising”. Just STFU and let us play ball. If the grounder got thru my legs I know why it did, I don’t need you to groan and yell GET YOUR GLOVE DOWN!!
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One thing i love about the team i’m on is that everyone is very supportive and no-one gets down on people for making mistakes. The only thing that people get criticized for is lack of hustle, especially getting to first base. If you just jog to first and fail to beat out a double play when you might have been safe if you sprinted, you’ll get some shit.
[QUOTE=Stinkpalm]
6) Base coaches don’t take any risks. Our guy holds up the runner coming into 3rd when the ball is just being thrown from Center. The catcher (normally the worst player on the team on most teams) only catches the ball 1-9 times so the odds are in your favor. RUN!!!
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Yeah, you definitely need to be aggressive when coaching third, unless you’re behind late in the game and base runners are better than risking outs. Although, in our league, a couple of teams have very good pitchers who cover home plate and always catch the ball, so you have to be careful.
[QUOTE=Stinkpalm]
7) Coach, stop playing people at critical positions (3rd, 2nd and LF) just because they SAY they are good. Let the guys who ARE good play those spots and rotate the rest around.
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We’ve pretty much fallen into a routine as far as positioning goes, although we all have more than one position. I throw left, so i often play first, but i also play left field and sometimes even third base.
[QUOTE=Stinkpalm]
Anyone else have any gripes or beefs with their softball league. My team is .400 and we lost 21-16 last night.
Well?
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We just finished our regular season, and we topped the league with a record of 17-3 (.850). Our one-day playoff tournament is in a couple of weeks.
The funny thing is, we had almost exactly the same team in our last Fall league, and came near the bottom, with a record of about .400. And the opposition wasn’t really any better. We seem to play much better in the daytime (summer league) than under lights (fall league).
