OK. This whole live pitching thing and the challenge and all that has slowly been gaining momentum, but it seems that only a few people are excited about the idea.
I wanted to check in with people to see how they felt. The plus side of playing this live pitching game is that its a new challenge, we can steal, pitch, and all that. The downside is that our group has been fun not only for experienced baseball players, but for newbies or less active players. In short, it's been fun for nearly everyone.
So, if we play this game, its going to take a lot of practice, and so forth. This will eat much into our play times. I am not sure about all of this, and how people respond to this post will decide that for me.
What I don’t want is to have this whole baseball group taken over by this single project, which will by nature exclude many of our players.
Q: Is it fair to ask those of us who aren't especially athletic/competative to take a chance at fast pitch every once and a while?
A: That would be no less fair than asking those of us who are athletic/competative to play down to the lowest common denominator week after week for years on end.
And as far as actually going through with the challenge is concerned, it's not exactly an issue that we need concensus on. As soon as my head count hits nine, you can bet your ass this game is gonna happen.
Thanks Peter for posting this. I was thinking of doing the same- but you beat me to it.
Scott (and others) have put forth alot of effort into making this pickup group the success that it is. I think it would be a big mistake to change whats working so well for most everyone. Especially for a transatory challenge like this. This challenege should not be allowed to interfere with or influence, in any way, with what we've been doing.
On the other hand, the appeal of something like this (and all that it entails) is certainly worth pursuing for many in the group as well.
What I suggest is this... Keep things the way they are now (including the double-hitters ), AND either play a third game game with defensive pitching, or play games with defensive pitching on Saturdays (or some other day).
Also, it will probably be neccessary to schedule practices in preparation for this challenge. These should not interfere with our regular games, and even though its understood that many of us are not suitable to play in this challenge game, everyone in the group should be invited and encourged to participate in the practices in order to build up our skills.
TheLegend wrote:Q: Is it fair to ask those of us who aren't especially athletic/competative to take a chance at fast pitch every once and a while?
A: That would be no less fair than asking those of us who are athletic/competative to play down to the lowest common denominator week after week for years on end.
I guess it's just a matter of how you look at it.
Ken, what you're missing is why people joined. Consider the type of group this is. Where else can advanced players play? Many opportunities (although, not all are free) But where can average people play? Here.
Ken, if you don’t need consensus, then you don’t need the whole group. Until a majority of people really wanna do this, time should not be taken from the rest of the group.
Rob C wrote:Thanks Peter for posting this. I was thinking of doing the same- but you beat me to it.
Scott (and others) have put forth alot of effort into making this pickup group the success that it is. I think it would be a big mistake to change whats working so well for most everyone. Especially for a transatory challenge like this. This challenege should not be allowed to interfere with or influence, in any way, with what we've been doing.
On the other hand, the appeal of something like this (and all that it entails) is certainly worth pursuing for many in the group as well.
What I suggest is this... Keep things the way they are now (including the double-hitters ), AND either play a third game game with defensive pitching, or play games with defensive pitching on Saturdays (or some other day).
Although that would be the ideal situation, the chances of us getting 18 people for a game (which is how many we would need to go live) at any time besides sunday morning (which, by the way we've been struggling to do anyhow) are extremely low. Sunday morning is the time I keep open for baseball and I know a lot of others are the same way. So if we're going to have a live game situation, it will have to be on a Sunday. And it wouldn't work as the second or third game of the day as we always have many people leave after the first game.
4, and I vote. BTW, Ken: I heard you and Scott were putting together a potential line-up. I am already practicing signs. What I really need is someone to give me some pitching pointers if you need me as a reliever. Oh, and a catcher's mitt (left-handed) would be required if I'm to keep all my fingers. So it'll have to wait until I get my tax return. As far as I'm concerned, this is happening one way or another. Like you said, as soon as the head count reaches nine it's go time. Well, you Scott and I make 3. I'm sure Pat would be interested. There's 4. I heard mention of Carlos, 5. William has semi-pro experience, 6. Dorian would most likely jump on a scenario for real ball, 7. That leaves 2, maybe 3 if Carlos doesn't want to play. So you're at least 2/3 of the way there already.
I intended to write something to remind everybody of my superior prowess.
Ken,
Just had a thought....If the main difference between "going live" is the defensive pitching vs the teams pitching to themselves, one compromise (for the purpose of preparing for the challenge) could be to use defensive pitching but allow the batter to determine the speed of the pitches.
I for one don't really want 50+mph pitches pitched at me (yet). Thats because my batting skills aren't yet up to it, and (hope Im not insulting anyone here) there's only a couple of guys that Ive seen that Might have sufficient control over thier pitches to avoid hitting batters on any kind of regular basis. As for leadoffs and, stealing, etcc.. that would be fun.....
Rob, I think that's a great compromise. I for one can recall nearly striking out the side with slow and slooowwwer pitches. A 10MPH change-up can still force a swinging third strike. and if the K-zone counts, location is more important than speed anyway. I think we can all have fun that way. Nobody risks getting hurt either... unless they want to.
I intended to write something to remind everybody of my superior prowess.
Ken & whoever,
Count me in for the challenge. As far as practice during the week on Mon, Tues, or Weds after 6pm I would be interested in practice in Berkeley or Oakland. We could practice pitching and the other stuff that we will have to work on in order to play "live".
Sorry I haven't been in this discussion until now.
I hear people on maintaining the type of baseball that we have here.
I also am excited about the upcoming Challenge, and I'm excited to participate.
I think we need to do both, so that means maintaining what we've always done, yet also preparing for the upcoming Challenge. Thus, I think we need to do our practices on non-Sundays, or after the regular game on Sunday. Having said that, I also like the idea of having 1 of our games a month be "live", as an experiment. Remember the challenge game is only like a month away, this experiment could be temporary.
As for Rob's idea of having the batter determine the speeds of the pitches, I don't like this. I need to throw heat to offset my slider, plain and simple. If a batter can just sit on the slurve, they can crank it opposite field.
Also, we are going to have batting helmets. There's no way I'd let someone step in to face live pitching unless they had a batting helmet on. Getting hit by a pitch is not bad, it's just a bruise. It's certainly not a lost front tooth, Rob! All you do is turn away from the pitcher so it catches your back or shoulder. Never turn into a pitch that's going to hit you, but of course that's natural to just turn away, so no need for me to point out to do this. Don't forget, none of us can throw that fast (65 mph tops probably), so this isn't a speed at which damage beyond a bruise can occur.
Last but not least.................... to do any practice, honestly we need an umpire. I don't want to paint the corner and not get credit for it. We have to have called strikes in a "live" practice with hitters. Otherwise a batter could just take pitches until a fastball came. I'd be happy to umpire behind the plate during our practices when I'm not pitching, hitting, or on base. I hope everyone agrees on the need to have an umpire during these practices.
So, to repeat & summarize, we should have a principle of maintaining our oldschool style of no pitching, no steals, no leadoffs. But we should also engage in an experiment of having a "live" game once a month where we try using these things. On those occassions we should have a home plate umpire. And I don't like the idea of batters determining pitch speed because it defeats the purpose of practicing real pitching.
"Baseball is like church, many attend, few understand"
