RallyNorth.net

MIAA changes softball rules for the worse

Wednesday, April, 09 By Dan Guttenplan
Sports editor

The hour and 20 minute softball game can be a beautiful thing.

Two opposing pitchers get locked in a zone and record strikeout after strikeout. By the third inning, everyone in attendance realizes the first team to score a run will likely win the game. Both pitchers look unhittable with each overpowering fastball. Finally, one team pieces together an infield single, a stolen base, a sacrifice bunt and a suicide squeeze to win the game, 1-0.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association took strides this offseason to make those hour-and-20-minute games a thing of the past. In hopes of swaying the competitive balance in favor of the hitters, the pitcher's mound was pushed back three feet. Now it stands 43 feet from home-plate instead of 40.

The rule change is a nice idea in theory. After all, it's a team sport, and too many games were decided by a one-on-one duel between pitchers. One person does not make a team. Thus, swaying the balance in the favor of a team of hitters appears to be the right move.

But the early returns are not favorable.

Amesbury coach Chris Perry, who has a career record of 442-78, feels the MIAA dropped the ball. Great pitchers, in his opinion, still have the decided advantage over very good pitchers. In fact, the margin may have increased as a result of the change.

"The best pitchers can pitch from 43 feet without much of a difference," Perry said. "It's the 95 percent of the players who don't go to college to play that will struggle with the change."

The MIAA hasn't completely settled on a reason for the change to date. Initially, it was pitched as a safety precaution. If the mound was further from the batter, it was thought that there would be fewer instances of batted balls hitting the pitcher.

"There's no statistical background to back that claim," Perry said. "That was a wash. The problem is that the MIAA pushed this change through the principals and (athletic directors). They should've addressed the coaches."

Next, the MIAA pitched the change as an opportunity to ease the transition from high school to college where mounds stand 43 feet from home-plate. Florida is currently the only other state in which the high school softball mounds stand at the same distance as college mounds.

So, in Mass., the best of the pitchers would appear to be more prepared for college. But Newburyport coach Peter Murray believes the rest will struggle to throw strikes.

"We haven't had the luxury of having one of those standout pitchers where the change wouldn't make a difference," Murray said. "This will hurt teams without a great pitcher. I think it really, really hurts our (junior varsity) team. (The pitchers) have really struggled to reach the plate."

If Murray's example holds true, it would appear the MIAA has indeed placed the advantage in the hands of the batters to the tune of more walks and passed balls. The scores will likely increase, and good pitchers may very well become average pitchers.

But if the MIAA made the move to ensure games will no longer be decided by one dominant player, they will find they have failed. A dominant ace will still be a dominant ace regardless of how far she stands from the batter.

The fallout may be the most evident at the freshmen and junior varsity level when 14- and 15-year-old girls are deciding whether softball is their particular sport of choice. Fewer and fewer of these pitchers will stick it out at that position for four years based on the frustration they may encounter as freshmen and sophomores.

If that is the case, it will most certainly beg the question: Were the hour-and-20-minute games such a bad thing?