Female Pitchers

[mboostedt]

Any advice on how to not let the superiority complex get to me?

[Zita Carno]

Female pitchers? You're talking to one.
Many moons ago I played---yep, the real thing, pitching distance 60'6", bases 90 feet apart, and I played with a very good team that might well have been called semipro if only everybody had gotten paid. The manager was a former semipro infielder (second base) with good baseball savvy, and we played major league rules all the way which pleased me very much. I was one of those exasperating, infuriating natural sidearmers who used the crossfire a lot---not much on speed but with a very good arsenal of snake-jazz, and I would start some games and relieve in some others. I'm happy to say that I never lost a game.
Unfortunately, I had to stop when I was in my mid-30s, when my work schedule caught up with me and I lost my free weekends---but I had great fun, especially with old Filthy McNasty (my slider).
What I can say, in response to your question, is just this: don't even think about it. If you run into a female pitcher who knows what she's doing on the mound, let her pitch. It's as simple as that.
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"Goddess of the Slider"

[mboostedt]

I'm aspiring to be a female pitcher. I currently manage my high school team, and although I haven't played ball in many years, I really want to get back into it. I figured out it's the one place that makes me extremely happy. The males on my team tend to have a large superiority complex with it, so it's not something I can talk with them about or have them help me with. I can't even really talk to my coach, because I don't want to deal with, "You're 5'4" and 93 lbs, do you really think you can play?"
I'm starting training within the next month for next season, and I study the game more than I ever have.
Thank you so much for the confidence that females can be just as good, if not better than a male pitcher.

[Zita Carno]

High schoolers, huh? I got news for you. This so-called "superioruty complex" is just a fancy name for "smart alecs who think they know it all". Among adults who think in those terms, it's fear, pure and simple---they don't like the idea that a female can be as good, or even better, and it scares them. So you have the upper hand.
I will never forget the day I got into playing the game. I was fourteen and getting ready to enter the tenth grade (sophomore year in high school). One day I went out for a walk---the Yankees were on the road---and I found myself gravitating toward Yankee Stadium. At the time there were two large parks near there---they have since been swallowed up by the construction of the new Stadium---and as I headed for one of them I saw two teams on one of the diamonds, warming up for a game. While they were whipping the ball around the infield, the third baseman on one of the teams threw wild, and the ball came skittering in my direction. I picked up the ball---and I don't know what got into me; I went into a full windup and threw a curve ball in the direction of the catcher. He caught it, but instead of throwing it back to the third baseman he came running in my direction and wanted to know what that was I had just thrown! Then the manager came running up, and he wanted to know if I could stick around and pitch a couple of innings late in the game; his starter had to leave at the end of the sixth inning to get to work. (The players on that team were all 18 and older.) So I said sure, just let me borrow a glove, and I pitched three scoreless innings. Next thing you know, we won 5-2, and the manager was asking me if I would like to play regularly with them. And that started it. There I was, a 14-year-old, 5'4", 125-pound sidearming shrimp, playing real honest-to-goodness baseball!
Two years later I had the good fortune to meet up with one of the Yankee pitchers---a lefthander named Ed Lopat who was one of the team's Big Three---and he became my pitching coach and mentor for almost four years. He was the kind who would work with anyone who was interested, who wanted to know, and who was willing to work at it, and it started when I told him I just wanted to ask him about the slider. He showed me how to throw a good one---and because I wanted to know and was willing to work at it, he had no hesitation about teaching me a lot of advanced stuff he felt I needed to know. He helped me become a better pitcher than I had been, and I enjoyed some eighteen years of making the opposing batters look very, very stupid with my arsenal of snake-jazz.
In any event, I say, go for it. If you feel you need some advice, I'll be willing and able to help as much as I can---and if you can find a good pitching coach, maybe one with pro experience, that will help too. And as Satchel Paige once said, "Throw strikes. Home plate don't move."
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"Goddess of the Slider"

[mboostedt]

Thank you so much for that. I'm extremely determined to do this regardless of what everyone says.

[Pustulio]

All I can say is work hard, you know, if you work harder than everyone else and you show some ability they can't reject you regardless of gender.

There's a team in Rawlins, Wyoming that has had three females on their team at times and they almost always have at least one. Granted they are a bit of an odd team they also have midgets and kids with down syndrome on their team.

I don't think you're gender should have anything to do with your ability if you can be effective you should get a shot. At your weight (you said 93 pounds right?) you may not be able to generate a ton of velocity so if you need any pointers on a knuckler just let me know. lol

Just to clarify even though I'm posting in this thread I am not a female pitcher. lol

Anyways if you want to develop a knuckleball like Anabelle Lee (only pitcher with a perfect game in American Girls Professional League history) I can give you some pointers and give you some places to go to learn and even suggest a book, but I need to know you want to be a knuckleballer first.
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"If the world was perfect, it wouldn't be." - Yogi Berra.

[Zita Carno]

A note to mboostedt: My friend Pustulio is the Master of the Knuckleball on these boards, and he's a good one to listen to, so if you're interested in learning that pitch, you can talk to him.
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"Goddess of the Slider"

[UndersizedRHP]

In a sport that glorifies velocity beyond comprehensible measures sometimes i see (amongst my own teammates even) players equate mph with skill and look down upon pitchers with low velocity even when the pitcher is good.

All i can say is don't let what other people say stop you from achieving what you set out to achieve.

If I quit playing ball everytime someone told me I wouldnt go pro because I am "undersized" Well....id be out of ball awhile ago. Fortunately for me i never gave in, got myself into a good college and I have a chance to play pro ball after this season.

Likewise don't let anyone tell you that because you're a female you can't play ball.
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If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base.

[mboostedt]

Pustulio, I'd love to learn how to throw a knuckleball. I need everything I can get to help me out, and I know that no pitcher on our team throws one. Thank you so much!

UndersizedRHP and Zita Carno, Thank you so much for the support, it means a lot and it's driving me to do more.

[UndersizedRHP]

[mboostedt]

That's amazing!!!!

Ahh, I'm so excited about this!

[Roger]

Another article plus video:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Eri-Yoshida-is-headed-to-America-with-big-league?urn=mlb,209527