Nitpick It’s not 18 inches and I don’t think it ever was except back in the 19th century before it’s height was regulated. It was 15 inches when I started watching baseball in the 50s and lowered to 10 inches after the 1968 season when Yaz won the AL batting title with a .301 average, Gibson had a 1.12 ERA and Denny McLain was the last pitcher to win 30 games. (I think that’s all correct.)
Okay, something to clear up here. There are slow-pitch and fast-pitch versions of softball.
The slow pitch version requires the ball to follow an arc of minimum height. I forget the analysis of why it makes it harder to judge the speed and path of the ball that way. Also the spin makes it more difficult to get the ball in the air that way from anything but dead center contact with the bat. But slow pitch is generally considered easier to hit.
In fast pitch, a windmill pitch is used to throw underhand at high speed. A softball is larger than a baseball, and more off center spin can be put on it, the spin can make it rise, and it still tends to go down unless you hit it dead center.
Eddie Feigner used to pitch from second base on a softball field, which is closer than second base on a baseball field. He probably could pitch from second base on a baseball field though, his right arm was huge, it looked like it was twice the size as his left. He could do this because an underhand pitch is much easier on the joints than an overhand pitch, even with the weird motion he could put on balls.
Back to your regularly scheduled program.
Well, it was 18 inches when I played and if you want to be picky it’s actually 10 and 1/2 inches.
The point is the mound is raised in baseball and not in softball. Whether it’s 10 or 110 inches is not the point.
According to Major League Baseball rules, the peak of the mound (where the pitching rubber sits) must be ten and 1/2 inches above the level of home plate (MLB Rule 1.04). The degree of slope from an area six inches in front of the rubber is one inch to one foot (this is in the direction of the plate), and must be uniform. The pitching rubber is legally defined in the rules as the “pitcher’s plate”.
Moving to the Game Room from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Not much of a stunt. When they appeared at a school in my neighborhood about 50 years ago, I batted against Feigne, he was at second base. I still remember the break on his curve. I dove like I was going to get hit and heard the catcher catch it across the plate. I promised myself i would dig in . He got me on a similar pitch again. I was not going to let him do it the third time. I managed to wave at the 3rd pitch weakly. I was so overmatched. The ball was not like a hardball, the break and the drop were far beyond anything I had ever seen.
I was kidded by all the kids who did not have the balls to stand in. They all thought they could have done better.
Welcome to the Dope. Here, nitpickery is a way of life. It’s part of the culture of this board. When someone nitpicks you, they’re not looking down their nose at you, they’re helping you out. Our motto is “fighting ignorance”, and nitpicking unimportant facts is part of that.
Sounds like a hell of a stunt to me. And at least you can say you matched up against one of the true greatest of all time players in any sport.
Whoa, you must be really getting up there.
And, on an unrelated note, I think this is the first time a thread I started returned to life with a taste for brains!
I think I would have had a permanent 000 batting average.