I'm not going to disagree with your points, I would certainly tend to agree with you 100% on likely all of them.
Problem is though, a lot of people still won't care to try it.
For coed, likely makes my significant other completely obsolete to be rather frank.
In mens, many of my buddies straight up wouldn't play over the challenge of the game and lack of fun with crushing lobbed balls.
Positionally I completely agree. But many will argue this takes away to openess of the Rec Level game of Slo Pitch.
There's a few leagues locally, and I do have some friends that play(ed).
The thing is, as you likely know, when it comes to playing tournaments nothing will trump the way Slo Pitch rolls events and etc for adults. So in terms of popularity in comparison, this was the basis behind my post.
Aside from the local modified leagues my acquaintances play in, if they ever talk about going to tournaments, it was with a Slo Pitch team.
FWIW I would love to pitch in that as I used to close games coming in from 1B in fastpitch as a teen, but my fat arse would be useless to most teams on base.
While I am positive i'd shake the rust off at bat and get back to my old teen fastpitch form fairly easy. It's the base running and emphasis on being able to steal etc that would render me useless in that format possibly.
Otherwise, I'd be ok to play I think.
I do agree that it would make for more possible defensive plays than in Slo Pitch.
One of the best times I've had defensively in the last few years of Slo Pitch was in a wood bat tourney Coed playing 3B. All of a sudden very few had the exit speed we are used to and grounders and liners were fieldable.
In my coed and mens Slo P leagues, the defensive game is pretty laughable. 65% at least of hits just zip through a well placed gap and the games are ever high scoring. Most times, with male hitters and a good majority of experienced former fast pitch female players, the ball just zip right through the IF or beats the OF in a gap with ease. It is just lob ball as you say.
Funny you mention fastpitch players not being too keen on Slo Pitch. Worked with 3 new girls fresh off a University team last year looking to join up our team(s) with hitting. They couldn't figure out why as a pitcher I had their number all practice or game long. They went in the box planted looking to hit waist high strikes. Had to teach them the Slo Pitch stride technique and to learn to cut into a higher pitch with forward momentum. They were coachable, but i've seen some give up or get ticked off quickly with it. I know my first exposure was pretty rough. No longer did simple connection on a pitch make for easy out of the park or big scoring hits. I had to work for those now using my full body and hand eye.
Each version of the game has its pros/cons. But my post was more based on local popularity going the way of Slo Pitch for the masses here and the modified game dying. A lot of leagues are losing full teams or struggling to keep afloat as many flock to more competitive and bigger slo pitch leagues.
I get what you mean about age. Same reason there was a time after 21 where I kept playing Field Lacrosse, while having quit indoor Box Lax, since field was a version of the game with some contact and hitting but not the full on rough indoor version and not converting to the dull contact free "Masters" version of the game right away. Even to this day, I think the Masters version of Box Lacrosse is stupid. Probably why half our old junior team is together playing Slo Pitch and no longer into Lacrosse now. LOL
I find it totally different than slo-pitch, for a number of reasons, and I much prefer it. Here are a few:
- The pitcher has a lot of impact on the game, but not too much like you might find with windmill. If you can pitch fast, mix speeds, and hit corners, you can make batters way more uncomfortable than slo-pitch, but can't take the bat out of peoples hands completely.
- I find it way more fun defensively than slo pitch. Specifically because people don't have as much control when hitting. You take away the guys that can just sit on a slo pitch and hammer it out of the park every time, or hammer it through the infield so hard that infielders don't have a chance to react, or guys that can simply place the ball anywhere on the field at will. This results in way more ground ball outs than I see in slo pitch. Batting averages for my league are closer to .500, where it is much higher in slo pitch. We also play in a smaller park (250 - 280 ft fences), with 9 men on the field.
- All positions matter, including back catcher. If you try to hide a weak player behind the plate, people will steal bases on you all day. You really can't hide a bad player anywhere.
- You get to steal bases! This is a big element of the game that you can't have in slo pitch.
Why don't we just play fast pitch or slo pitch? Because when you are older than 25 and younger than 60, I think modified is more fun by far.
- You throw a good 19 year-old fast pitch pitcher at most slo pitch and modified players, and they will dominate. There is no fun in that.
- Ask someone who played baseball or fast pitch their whole life to play slo pitch, and they will probably hate hitting a ball dropping straight down.
Modified is just the right mix for me, and I can continue playing it until I'm 60. Shoe, I'll text you to come check out one of our games this summer.
