I have never pitched to a batter in softball. I was enthralled by the pitching of Wayne Widdig in the great post WW II district tournaments in Mound Park in Portsmouth, Ohio. I dreamed of giving his windup and slinging the ball at around a hundred miles and hour as Wayne did. I did not give it sufficient practice for anybody to want me to pitch in a fast pitch game. I spoke with Anne Marie and Eddie Feigner- playing wife and great pitcher of the "King and His Court" traveling softball team by phone a few times.
My son, Jay, has always been a fine athlete and he could easily drive a slow pitch softball out of any park he played in. He played no fast pitch softball that I recall; however he has caught nearly a quarter of a million pitches in practicing his fourteen year old daughter, Tobey, in softball pitching.
My good friend, Dick Klitch, from Mound Park childhood and on throughout our lives has made a successful career from his professional tennis teaching. Dick calls his "meat and potatoes" tennis teaching. So many Columbus, Portsmouth, and Columbus area students have benefitted greatly from Dick's "nuggets". Dick's dad, Herman was also a "meat and potatoes" kids' baseball teacher in Portsmouth. The spinning tennis ball also does similar or crazy things when it hits the court. He made a fool out of several adversaries in his early days. Anyway Dick is a master of spinning the tennis ball by hitting it with a racquet.
Spinning the ball is the art of making it do things as it wings through the air. If the racquet or hand causes the ball to rotate counter-clockwise it will curve away from a right hander. If the spin is left to right it will move towards the right hander. If the ball is rotating downward, the ball will drop and if spinning upwards it will rise. Speed and location, getting the ball quickly to where you want it to go, is where practrice develops the player's skills.
Basketball passes can circle around a defender but I have not known of quarterbacks benefitring by spinning the ball except that the perfect spiral is a thing of beauty.
I am a pro at nothing but metallurgical engineering, years of amateur softball playing, and writing. I have never volleyed a tennis ball. But I admire the great athletes I see spinning the softballs and tennis balls and Jeanie and I love to watch our Tobey and Ida Scout as they and many girls have taken over in playing softball.
I am hoping to have Tobey take a lesson from Dick in tennis this coming weekend so that at least she can not be too embarrassed in playing her boyfriend, Charlie, when he returns from camp next Sunday.
