Young players don’t want to fail or strikeout that’s why the play slow pitch and are content with hitting four long fly balls, drinking 3 beers, and losing 27-23 at the end of the day.
Young pitching? Forget it, the old timers and veterans chased us all away. There’s constant bitching and moaning about legalities of pitching, (even when 99% of the people doing the bitching don’t know the rule) you all talk so much trash, and there’s so much testosterone involved in every game that it just becomes not worth putting up with. Every advantage in modified is geared toward the hitter whether its small strike zones, loaded or composite bats, the pitching rules. But that doesn’t stop whack jobs who fly off the handle at the slightest disagreement of either their bat, or an umpire’s zone or the perceived slight lifting of a pitcher’s foot.
I started playing fastpitch when I moved away from the Northeast because there’s no modified anywhere and it was the best thing I ever did. There are many of the same problems as modified but there isn’t as much testosterone because everyone ultimately respects that a 70 mph fastball to the ribs is a great equalizer.
I agree with Joe to a point, you want to play bowling style go play slowpitch, at least hitting it off a 12 foot arc requires some skill, basic bowling style is slightly ahead of golf on the hitting spectrum. I aim that response more to the Class A guys going to those tournaments, than I do those who already play it. You guys who already play it, keep playing it, its your game. I don’t say that as an elitist, I say it as someone who wants to challenge myself constantly. I started in bowling modified, moved up to open, and now windmill, I imagine as I get older my career may swing back the other way but for those who don’t want to challenge themselves to see how far they can go, and are content hitting pus, well that’s your prerogative.
As for enforcing illegal pitches, put the blame on the umps in league play if you want, but the reality is they aren’t calling 49 illegal pitches on a Tuesday night game for $30 a game. For one it’s gonna take 3 hours to play, and for two it’s going to spark a whole lot of controversy and make for a heated game, who the hell wants that headache? One of the biggest problems in our game is the best umpires want no part of umpiring men’s games because the attitudes are out of control.
The biggest reason sponsors are gone is the fact its not a tax write off to sponsor a team anymore, and the cost of traveling to these games.
If you want to promote the game to young people, it starts with leagues. You have to put ads in newspapers, online, and anywhere else to try to get new young people to play. They aren’t going to just willingly travel without ever playing, but once they get a taste of it they usually want more. The other thing is put them on an equal playing field, by either giving them a pitcher, eliminating composite bats they might not be able to afford or immersing a few with veterans. The last one works best, the veterans I played with an against helped get me to where I am now as a player and more importantly as a coach, and made my experience far better than playing with a bunch of rookies, which I did when I first broke in and got my ass kicked all the time
