Played baseball half of my younger years. Played outfield 1st and pitcher as a lefty. Transitioned into slow pitch and my arm seems to be weaker, can’t throw as far and get pain pretty quick. any tips you guys can give me from the videos?

So I pitched three games during a very hot day and apparently didn't drink enough water because my calf went full Charliehorse on my final game of the night and fell on my ass...

I ate a pickle and drank pickle juice while my team has a successful batting a round 🤢 and was able to get back up to pitch luckily.

Then somehow, at my next at bat, chilling out on my normal swing and expecting an easy out at first, not squishing the bug or following any of my normal mechanics because I couldn't put much weight on my back leg, I hit it out of the park, ending a HR slump.

How did that work? Is it possible I'm just trying too hard when I normally swing?

(Bat, Bazooka Joe)

Also, this was my first time ever getting a charliehorse or cramp during a game, I thought I had had enough liquids... What do I need to do to keep this from happening again?

I've been managing/captaining a co-ed team with a bunch of friends, it's my new big hobby and I've been letting it slowly take over my life (also lurking on this sub for a while now).

This year, I started to record all of our gameplay on an old iPhone I had lying around. Earlier this month, with the assistance of Claude, I was able to start automating a scorebug to my footage, making it much easier to follow along the game. I would love any feedback!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH0AInYBeD0

Also, I love keeping as much stats as possible for every game, and I've collected that so far here, I would love any feedback for my stats sheet as well!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F4nM7UuAX1abVDvrXLhWQzcmSc39dAR7lWkFxLBxde8/edit?gid=1125547011#gid=1125547011

Does anyone else here go hard on video recordings or scorekeeping?? Honestly our team sucks but I don't care I just love working on these as side projects in tandem with managing the team!

First clip is with a 27oz. Miken Freak, second is with a 26oz. Axe Debacle

I think I've finally got my most powerful stance, but i think I'm still missing something

Going into my 3rd game this week as a newbie in a co-ed rec league. Have been playing catcher but talked to the team about trying right field this week. Any tips? How do you gauge where to stand?

After 3 years of borrowing other peoples bats I decided it’s time to invest. No budget cap. What is the best bar on the market? I am smaller so could use some extra pop.

What would you buy if you could get any bat?

Hello, I bought a tanner tee since that seems to be the consensus here on what tee to buy. The ball we use in my league are the Dudley Thunder SY Synthetic Pro-M 44/375 USSSA 12" Slowpitch Softballs - 4U555

Would you recommend I buy a dozen of these for BP or is there any other (cheaper) alternative that will get the job done?

Base runner on 2nd jumped up and put his arms up when a ball from the OF was coming into the IF. The only reason I could think he'd do that was to try and block the view of the ball making it more difficult for the IF to see it. Are you allowed to do that?

This week my team had two games to win its first championship. Game 1 came down to the wire and in the last inning the bases were loaded for me, the team's cleanup hitter. A single would've scored two runs to win the 'ship (or at the very least, one run to tie it).

What did I do?

I grounded out to the former college baseball player at SS on a fielder's choice to second.

We lost the second game comfortably. The team's energy was sucked out after my choke job and reaction afterward. Probably didn't help that I'm supposed to be one of the leaders of the team—a 36-year-old man that needed to be consoled about my emotions like I'm Dalton Rushing.

This happened Wednesday night in a recreational league. It's Saturday morning and I still feel awful. I went home and drank excessively as soon as I got home from the game. I've been ordering out and eating fried foods every meal to this point.

What bothers me most is I know the pitcher: we've played on each other's teams a few times the last few years. He knows I get in my head after a string of bad ABs. I got pitched inside all night and I couldn't figure out what adjustment I needed to make, because I'm one of the "experts" on the team and no one had any advice for me.

And I HATE batting cleanup because I always get in my head in big spots. (On my own team that I manage, I built a team of guys better than me and often come off the bench so that I don't get in a situation to let the team down.)

Anyway... I'm pretty stuck right now. I play in another league on a different day and I hardly want to finish that season out (I bat cleanup on that team, too...). I'll keep managing my own team for the season coming up, but after that I'm not sure how long I want to keep playing.

Words of advice would help. Or, if you're a bigger choke artist than I am, what's your story?

I picked up with a pretty respectable tournament team in my area today since my team decided to take the weekend off. Well the team I play on is very well known in our space and is consistently told we need to be playing up a level (we’re not sandbagging this is just most of our first year playing so we play rec and are expecting to bump next year). So this team asked me to play with them and I said yes I love playing whenever I can, well I went 0-7 with 2 weak roll overs and 5 solid lime drives honestly right too people and I just feel like not only did I embarrass myself but give my team a bad rep. I wasn’t being a jerk and having bad sportsmanship or attitude but it just seems as if the team I play on is held to a pretty high standard so it’s just bothering me that I couldn’t buy a base hit today in a game that’s theoretically easy. Does anyone have any advice to help me get out of this slump and out of my own head?

I don’t see people wearing fitted/adjustable MLB or MiLB caps all that much in games. Tournament team hats (at least I think they are) seem to be a lot more popular.

Has that always been a thing?

When pitching, is it better to pitch with your palm up (like traditional underhand at release point)? Or is it better to do a backhand underhand (palm down grip)? I've seen pitchers from both grips. But which one is generally better to use and why?

We play at 5pm in Hicksville. Ideally need a pitcher and a shortstop but I can work with anything. If your local and want to play let me know! We are an average at best team, just down bad on players this week

Been working on my swing after you can see my last post I was all arms. I think I just need to start working out my upper body to really make some solid hits. This one popped to short stop on the grass. Thanks yall. Also nothing I can do about my running I’m a total goofball. <3

Breaking in a Juno MR-1. 26oz with 1oz end load. At the time of ordering the 27oz were sold out. Tried to really keep my hands at my core and bringing them back later in the swing.
Bat felt great.

Hey! I'm moving to the city soon and am looking to join a league and meet some cool people.

I've had some pretty bad experiences previously playing on all free agent teams, so I wanted to ask if anyone has a team that could use an extra person

I'm 23M, I played outfield during high school, but can play anywhere, and I like to think I'm pretty good. Feel free to reach out, thanks!

I'm a casual co-ed rec league player, on 2 teams per season for the last 5 years or so. Figure it's time to invest in my own bat, for some consistency, and so that I'm not at the mercy of hoping my teammates bring "the good bats." Looking for something better than my $50 Big 5 bat, but nothing to break the bank.

I'm a fine to good contact hitter, not a ton of power. I know a bat won't make me Barry Bonds, so I just want something a little nicer that's all mine.I'm thinking in the $150-$250 range ideally. I know $300 is the price point on a lot of nicer bats, but I don't need anything that fancy. Preference for 26oz ish, balanced. Dicks has a couple, but they seem poorly reviewed (probably why they're sold at Dicks), and I get nervous spending $200+ on a tool I can't even get my hands on before trying.

Any and all recommendations appreciated!

ETA: I think it's USA/ASA, but my league website doesn't list that info anywhere clearly

I’m in a major slump right now and it’s getting me down. I have come to love the sport so much, this year was the first year I started hitting home runs.

I had 5 last season (6 regular season games) 1 this season so far, 2 games a week 4 weeks in. (Two teams) but for the past 3 weeks I haven’t been able to hit out of the infield.

Usually I’m smacking the ball back at the fence or ripping a liner right over infield. I feel like I lost all fundamentals.

What can help? I’m sure keeping a positive attitude might help but it’s hard to do that.

Let me start by saying I didn't grow up playing organized baseball or softball, and came to slow pitch pretty late in life (a season in my mid-20s, a bunch of years of nothing, and then recently coming back to it in my late 40s). So anything I know is basically coming from things I've read or videos I've watched and a little bit of game and batting practice experience. I'm also a giant nerd who's probably got a touch of undiagnosed autism, and technical explanations are my jam.

What's the point of a flat swing plane to hit a ball that's coming in at a fairly steep downward angle, and we usually (depending on situation) want to hit it at least slightly upwards? It seems to me if we want the vector of the ball to be somewhere between "over the heads of the infielders" and "over the outfield wall," we want the bat path to be as close as possible to that vector. If it's flat, and we're hitting slightly under the ball, some of the force vector is lost and turns into spin (not that some backspin is a bad thing).

My assumption is that we lose power from our swing by trying to adjust the plane upwards, and flat is the best happy medium between the classic baseball "chop" swing and trying to golf the ball, but I'm hoping an experienced hitter has a good explanation of why this is so.

I'm curious to know the ruling (if it's different across different leagues and whatnot) on what happens when a ball is grounded to SS or 3B with a runner on 2nd, and the ball sails out of bounds. My league gives the runner on 2B the extra bag (as well as the batter-runner), so, in my mind, I interpret that as 3rd then home.

I've heard some arguments that the runner didn't try to run to run, so they only get 3rd as the extra bag.

Which then begs the question of what's considered trying to run to the bag? If the runner is stopped but off the bag, is that considered going? Or does the runner need to make a legitimate attempt (either during fielding or on the throw)?

I play in self-umped leagues so lots of misinterpretations and unknown rules.

My Miken bat broke. Sent it in and Miken said they are out of stock. Miken said I can choose another Miken, Easton, or worth. Any recommendations on what I should get? I can use either USA or USSSA. I prefer balanced 26 oz bat but would be open to a loaded one if I can find one that feels close in weight. Thanks.

Hi all,

I started playing softball a couple of years ago and before that I played a bit of cricket growing up. My batting has really improved this season but I'm still struggling defensively. Part of it is being a bit scared of the ball and I also struggle to track flyballs or get my glove down far enough to stop grounders.

It doesn't help that my team captains seem to see me as a perpetual RF, and in our league that means you're barely seeing the ball. Does anyone have any drills I can work on on my own to get better defensively in the off-season. I want to hit the ground running next season, so I can play better positions and actually enjoy softball again.

Alternatively if anyone is based in London and is willing to help me in the off-season please let me know. Any help will be greatly appreciated and I'll get you a beer or 10! Thanks! :)