California Aces

My mom always told me she thought softball pitchers were a different breed. She thought we had to be crazy having to deal with the intensity, the concentration and the drama of it all. As a softball pitcher for the past 12 years, I have learned that maybe moms do know everything. For me, the intensity, the concentration and the drama, game after game, inning after inning and pitch after pitch is what I thrived on.

Imagine this: You’re pitching in the bottom of the 7th, your team’s up by 1 run. The bases are loaded, and their best hitter (who has already gotten 2 hits earlier in the game) is up. Somehow the count has gotten to 3 balls and 2 strikes. You're about to throw the next pitch. What is that saying again? "No Fear". Well there is definitely no room for fear in the pitcher's circle. Who wouldn't thrive on that?

Pitchers need physical strength and mental strength to be at the top of their game. I’d say that about 75% of a pitcher's effectiveness depends on how mentally tough they are both in practice and in game situations. I have seen some of the best skilled pitchers struggle to get through a season, and I have seen other pitchers who give up more hits and have fewer strikeouts, be considered the best pitchers in the country. For most of my pitching career I was the latter. I relied on location more than I dominated with speed. Most of the outs I recorded were groundouts, not strikeouts. In the many years that I was a pitcher and faced pitchers as a batter I learned three important things: Location is more important than speed, practice really does help make perfect, and the catcher is the most important player on the field.

Perhaps the most important of the three was that location is much more effective than speed. Too many times kids grow up learning that they have to throw hard. They focus on what the speed gun reads, not where the pitch actually went. I learned to pitch from a man that I would describe as nothing less than brilliant. His name was Leroy Zimmerman and he gave free pitching lessons in his backyard. The only thing he asked in return was that you practice in between visits. He taught me three pitches and refused to teach me any more. He wouldn’t let me be clocked for speed because he said it didn’t matter. I learned the drop ball first. He didn’t believe in fastballs, curveballs or screwballs. He said any pitcher could be great with only two pitches and he was a stickler for spin and location. Every pitch needed the correct spin and every drop ball should be at the catcher’s knees. It became no surprise that I lived and died with my drop ball.

People were always surprised to hear that 85% of the pitches I threw in games were drops. As a pitcher I could never understand why I didn’t give up more hits. I felt as though everyone knew that they were going to get 3-5 drop balls in every at bat depending on the count. That’s when I realized just how important location was. I was able to throw my drop ball anywhere on or off the plate and usually threw 3 straight outside drop balls that moved an inch outside with everyone I threw. Pitch selection was my favorite part of the game. Being able to decide what pitch to throw in what situation, keeping the batter guessing with every pitch and setting them up by moving the pitches around is what really made my position fun.

Obviously there are many different successful techniques to pitching. Every pitcher does something different to help them be successful. My technique is by no means the best, but it was the best for me. Because of the way I was coached I learned that practice really does help make perfect. Let’s be honest, it’s hard practicing everyday for 3-4 hours. As a pitcher that usually means an extra 30 minutes to an hour of practice. I was a very fast worker, able to get through an entire workout in about 15 minutes. I would practice all of my pitches and practice actual at-bats. I would work the count with certain situations and would usually visualize facing the batters I had trouble getting out or batters I would be facing in the upcoming games. Of course, I always struck them out in practice and repeated that visualization so I could remember what it felt like when the actual game came around. Every pitch I missed in practice I repeated until I threw it exactly where I wanted it to be at least three times in a row. When I was in the actual game I could visualize the pitch location and I repeated the process pitch after pitch. When the tough batters came up, you know… the ones I struck out in practice… I had confidence that I could get them out.

Finally, behind every great pitcher is usually an even better catcher. Nothing helps a pitchers game more than having a great working relationship with your catcher. Spectators can often be in awe of a pitcher’s strategy or performance, but they also often forget that in many cases the catcher is calling the game and setting up the batter. Catchers are easily overlooked which is amazing because many people don’t realize that a good catcher has the ability to make a pitcher look better than she is or worse than she is. If you have a catcher that can call a great game and can work the count and set up the batter, and the catcher has a pitcher that can throw every pitch where the pitch is called, that is a tough team to beat. I grew up throwing to the same catcher until we both went to different colleges. We worked great together and were in sync with what pitches to throw in what situations. 9 times out of 10 she called the exact pitch I wanted to throw. We were a great team and I don’t think I fully realized that until I couldn’t throw to her anymore. In college I had a different catcher every year. While all were good catchers, every year began with the same process of them getting to know me in game situations and me getting used to their style as well. Having a catcher that you can work and communicate well with, helps make pitching easier.

I truly loved pitching. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have picked any other position and probably would’ve worked even harder to be the best I could be. I was fortunate enough to get to experience just about everything there is to accomplish in softball. I was able to learn from the best, play with best, and was even considered one of the best by some. My intensity and love for the game combined with my competitive spirit helped to make me the pitcher I was. Now that I am no longer playing I find that the intensity, the concentration and of course the drama I experienced on the mound is what I miss the most. I thrived on the adrenaline of being in the bottom of the 7th, up by one, bases loaded and a full count on the opposing teams best hitter, I mean who wouldn’t? For me, that’s exactly what pitching was all about. Ok so maybe mom was right. Maybe pitchers really are a different breed.

Amanda Scott

A former editorial and production intern for WomensSportsFoundation.org, Amanda Scott has an undergraduate degree in Communications from California State University, Fresno. At CSU Fresno, Scott was a four-time first team All-American in softball, a recipient of the NCAA Top VIII Award, and led her team to the National Championship in 1998. She was also a three-time member of the U.S. National Team and an alternate on the 2000 Olympic Team. Scott plans on pursuing a career in communications while staying involved with athletics. She has worked as a softball analyst for ESPN radio and AT&T/Media One Television, has had numerous public speaking engagements, and has appeared in televised public service announcements aimed at reducing teen smoking. Currently, Amanda is an assistant softball coach at Michigan State University.