Pitchers no longer rule Ann Arbor fast pitch softball...and some say the game's more fun

Pitchers no longer rule Ann Arbor fast pitch softball...
And some say the game's more fun

ting the pitching."

now playing-manager of Wolverine Supply.
"There is no pitching and you can only go
as far as your pitching takes you. That's
the game of fastpitch softball."

While virtually all fastpitch players
agree that the pitching here is far from
what it used to be, not all feel that th
tion is as grim as Morrison maiiUriiiia..
Morrison's son, Mike, is among those play-
ers with more optimistic assessments of
the situation.

"WITH PITCHING not as big as it once
was, the c"'""^ of the teams is not what it
used to b s Mike, a pitcher for the
Jiffy Mix city-league fastpitch team. "But
I don't think that will stop any teams from
going big again. I think with some of us
younger kids coming up, including myself,
we've got a start again."

The younger Morrison, who "grew up in
the game," remembers some big arms and
in fact learned his trade from one of the
best.

"I started out as a shortstop," says Mike.
"But we were friends with Bud Corwin, so I
was always trying to pitch. One summer, I
said to him, 'Show me how to pitch.' And he
did."

Morrison, whose ERA was 1.70 last sea-
son, has mastered the staples of fastpitch
- the riser, the drop and the changeup,
and plans to move to the Ann Arbor Major
League next year.

John Strong, another young Ann Arbor
pitcher with fastpitch in his blood, feels
that the game is still alive and fairly well
here. A pitcher for Chelsea Big Boy, he's
the son of Jim Strong, who helped pitch
Ann Arbor's former national caliber team,
Lightcrete, into National competition in
1972 and 1973.

JOHN, who served as batboy for Light-
Crete and P & R Tool, rem' l the tail
end of big-time softball in A ; i )or, and,
like Jimmy Morrison, laments its passing.

"Softball definitely ompete now
(with what it was),' ^ ..ays. "It's the
pitching, I guess, - not enough young
pitchers. Around the state it's not too bad,
but around here nobody's getting into it."

While John shares in the elder Morri-
son's assessment of Ann Arbor's pitching,
he is not so pessimistic in his overall view
of fastpitch as a sport. "I don't want to put
the sport down at all. I'd just like to find a
way to build more pitchers. We do have the
ballplayers to put a (national caliber)
team together here. Its just a matter of get-

"Getting the pitching" has been the con-
cern of Ann Arbor's fastpitch p* for
the past decade. The elder Stro, ..»is
pitcher and pitching coach for Chelsea Big
Boy, cites this void as the culmination of
trends that started even before the birth of
Lightcrete.

"We always picked up pitching help for
the Regionals and Nationals, because
though our pitching was adequate, but we
didn't have the 'big arm."'

Ironically, Jim, who played backup for
Corwin in his early days and thus has seen
Ann Arbor pitching at its best, does not
mourn the passing of the pitchers.

"I HAVE A bias against the big arm,"
explains Strong. "The team tends to re-
spond to one big arm — no one seems to re-
alize that one big arm gets tired. When I
was growing up, all they looked for was a
pitcher. The pitchers were often the only
athletes on the field. Now the teams are
much more balanced.

"I remember 18-19 innings in a 1-0 game
watching big arms. I do not consider that to
be exciting softball. I prefer the brand of
softball we have now. When I was coming
up, any time a team gave you a two-run
lead you felt the game was over."

NtWt fHUIUlKH.K i-ltUtK

Although the senior Strong does not miss
the pitchers' battles of yp ->y, he
shares in the concern that s ^ utchers
aren't being developed. He feels that hav-
ing at least two or three competent pitch-
ers in the bullpen is preferable to having
one superstar, and that strategy can com-
pensate for a lack of power.

lohn Strong: Young hurlers needed

BySUEWICTON I ^

2

NEWS SPORTS REPORTER

I

The history of f(stpitch softball tradi-
tionally has been the history of its pitchers,
from the earliest mashbali hurlers through
legendai rbor pitchers such as Bert
Beaudoi. ' •"••'ers"n, Bud Corwin and
Bonnie ^ tth the demise of
the "big arm, mat's changed, and fast-
pitch players are not sure where that will
leave the game.

In the heyday of fastpitch, extra innings,
one-hitters, no-hitters and games with no
•""'k? w-r? ^hr rule rather than the excep-
'•r worse, that era is over:

Fastpitch score rr ften in the teens,
walks are not un> in ;iand powerhitters
are able to do their thing.

Some players enjoy the change, and feel
that the improved baserunning and long-
ball hitting make for more exciting softball
than the old pitchers' battles. Other play-
urn the passing of the old day s as the
: ::g of the game.

*'There won't be another national team
in Ann Arbor," predicts Ann Arbor major
league softball fixture Jimmy Morrison,

Strategy, however, is borne of exper-
ience, and there is the rub: Many boys>do
not have the opportunity to play fastpitch
until they are through with high school and
no longer have the opportunity to play or-
ganized baseball. By then they've already
missed some valuable years of training.

Since the differences in the pitching tech-
niques of softball and baseball are so pro-
nounced, it's not surprising thst former
baseball players who wish to e fast-
pitch hurlers often find the transition
tough.

Both the Morrison and the Strong duos
maintain that fastpitch clinics and high
school level intramural programs are
needed to sal vag' ? of pitching under-
handed for men, miu cite the success'of
women's programs as evidence that good
pitchers could be made great if they start-
ed learning the craft at an earlier age.