No more BallySports OK

[WichitaSooner]

I am biased because my daughter played college softball but, in my opinion, women's fastpitch softball is a far superior sport to baseball or women's basketball. It's fast-moving and the players are exceptionally skilled.

After about the fifth time a guy throws over to first base to "hold a runner on" I'm grabbing the remote to see if someone has filmed grass growing so I can watch something more exciting.

Both sports have their pros and cons. College baseball coaches overmanage and the game drags. Softball is faster paced, but I can’t stand the substitution rules and sometimes even the best teams run the bases like a bunch of tee ball kids who don’t know the rules. But for people who don’t like baseball just because of the time element, just remember that college football games are worse than any other sporting event. I’m amazed more people don’t complain about that. The NFL does a lot of things wrong, but one thing they do well is get their games over in a three-hour window more often than not.

 

[steverocks35]

Both sports have their pros and cons. College baseball coaches overmanage and the game drags. Softball is faster paced, but I can’t stand the substitution rules and sometimes even the best teams run the bases like a bunch of tee ball kids who don’t know the rules. But for people who don’t like baseball just because of the time element, just remember that college football games are worse than any other sporting event. I’m amazed more people don’t complain about that. The NFL does a lot of things wrong, but one thing they do well is get their games over in a three-hour window more often than not.

It's not the length of time it's all the empty time. If there is some kind of action taking place then the length of the game doesn't bother me.

 

[skyvue]

I think OU actually runs the bases pretty effectively. They occasionally get caught, but overall, I think they do a good job. I think because of the shorter distance, taking risks on the basepaths pays off more often, but of course there are also more times when it doesn't.

I think Coach Gasso has her players take chances on the basepaths frequently in an attempt to put pressure on the other team and hopefully get them to commit errors. And it often works. But that kinds of gamesmanship happens much less often in baseball.

 

[WichitaSooner]

It's not the length of time it's all the empty time. If there is some kind of action taking place then the length of the game doesn't bother me.

Agree. But there is definitely lots of empty time in college football, too.

 

[steverocks35]

Typically in fastpitch softball the base-running is very aggressive. You want to put pressure on the defense and score by any means possible because it's a very defensive game.

If I was the Sooners coach however, I would never want to have a runner thrown at a base that could have been driven in by an all-American hitter.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Typically in fastpitch softball the base-running is very aggressive. You want to put pressure on the defense and score by any means possible because it's a very defensive game.

If I was the Sooners coach however, I would never want to have a runner thrown at a base that could have been driven in by an all-American hitter.

yep

 

[NickZepp]

I have't had anything with Ballysports for years so this is great. ESPN+ was pretty easy fore to use for the basketball games plus no longer having some convoluted way to watch the ppv. It'll be way cheaper and easier.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[BCSooners]

with the 3 batter min this no longer happens

Made it better, but the 6-9th innings are still taking a lot longer than the 1st 5.

 

[WTSooner]

You "fan" in a very unusual manner yourself. I'll just leave it at that.

"Bandwagon" fans happen in every sport, in every city, in every state. Success always breeds interest. I'm not old enough to state it as fact, but I'm confident that OU football since Bud Wilkinson arrived in Norman has garnered much wider interest than it did before Bud. And if our down period of the '90s had extended into the 2000s and beyond, we'd have seen much less interest in Sooner football. It's human nature.

With softball (and other women's sports), it's been a different, bigger challenge. OU hasn't played the sport for even a half-century yet, and for many of those years, VERY few people cared or even knew much about women's sports. TV coverage was almost nil and people were still getting used to the idea of women's sports being an viable option for their viewership and support.

It's delightful to see young girls at OU softball games and basketball games be as thrilled to watch the Sooner women as I was at their age to watch the men. It's not that these fans are fairweather fans; they're brand new fans. That's a very different thing. We're watching a collegiate sport explode before our very eyes, with OU leading the way. And many of those young fans who are falling in love with the sport now will continue to support it for years to come.

Using OU football is a poor example. Yes, there are some bandwagon fans I suppose, but OU had incredible fan support even through the Blake years. Let OU softball fall to those levels and see what happens. Hint, it won't mimic what happened with OU football.

 

[WTSooner]

I am biased because my daughter played college softball but, in my opinion, women's fastpitch softball is a far superior sport to baseball or women's basketball. It's fast-moving and the players are exceptionally skilled.

After about the fifth time a guy throws over to first base to "hold a runner on" I'm grabbing the remote to see if someone has filmed grass growing so I can watch something more exciting.

I just don't base my interest on a sport by how fast paced it is or isn't. I can equally enjoy an up and down basketball game and a game played at a much slower pace.

The skill shown in baseball far exceeds the skill shown in softball. My opinion of course. That is why it's (softball) played on a shorter field with shorter bases and a bigger ball. I've played a lot of sports. Hitting a round baseball being thrown 90+ mph with movement with a round bat is the hardest thing I've encountered in sports. It's tough. Like, your brain has 0.25 seconds or something to see the ball and decide if you are going to swing tough.

 

[steverocks35]

I just don't base my interest on a sport by how fast paced it is or isn't. I can equally enjoy an up and down basketball game and a game played at a much slower pace.

The skill shown in baseball far exceeds the skill shown in softball. My opinion of course. That is why it's (softball) played on a shorter field with shorter bases and a bigger ball. I've played a lot of sports. Hitting a round baseball being thrown 90+ mph with movement with a round bat is the hardest thing I've encountered in sports. It's tough. Like, your brain has 0.25 seconds or something to see the ball and decide if you are going to swing tough.

Yeah I'd like to see you step in and try to hit a 70 mph rise-ball thrown from 43'. The reaction time is actually less than a 95 mph fastball thrown from 60' and the sweet spot on a softball is actually harder to hit because the ball is bigger.

 

[skyvue]

Using OU football is a poor example. Yes, there are some bandwagon fans I suppose, but OU had incredible fan support even through the Blake years. Let OU softball fall to those levels and see what happens. Hint, it won't mimic what happened with OU football.

I have always been impressed by Sooner fans' continued support in the '90s, but on the football boards, many posters tell a different story, of a much bigger drop-off than I perceived from my distant vantage point (I moved to NYC in 1982). But either way, had the failures of the '90s continued into the 2000s, the support would have continued to dwindle.

But my real point is that Coach Gasso has been building a hugely successful program where there was none, much as Wilkinson did (Coach Owen enjoyed some success, but that was an entirely different time, and in any case, his success didn't remotely resemble what Bud built). Do you look down on the people who became season ticket holders in the 1950s? They were every bit as much "bandwagon fans" as today's softball fans are. And there was a dropoff in support in the 1960s after Bud left. I know because I went to games then and you could get endzone seats for next to nothing. And I would put Coach Gasso right up there with Bud as a top five all-time coach at OU. She takes a backseat to no one.

 

[sunnyjim48]

Joan Joyce, the Florida Atlantic softball coach who recently died, once struck out Ted Williams and Henry Aaron in an exhibition. I think softball players display an astounding level of skill. How skilled is Grace Lyons? The catch that Jayda Coleman made against Iowa State is as good as any catch I've seen by most major league plsyers.

 

[TarheelstateSooner]

The increase in the popularity of collegiate softball is not a matter of opinion; it's a documented fact. To name just one example: Last year's Women's College World Seri9es drew 59% more viewers than the Men's College World Series did.

https://sportsbrowser.net/most-popular-sports-in-america/

https://playersbio.com/most-popular-sports-in-america/

I get it. You're an OU softball fan. But it's not even top 12 in most popular sports in America. Badminton is more popular. So I think the talk about how it's gaining more steam in popularity is overblown. It's not even top 12 on the American sports landscape.

 

[WTSooner]

Joan Joyce, the Florida Atlantic softball coach who recently died, once struck out Ted Williams and Henry Aaron in an exhibition. I think softball players display an astounding level of skill. How skilled is Grace Lyons? The catch that Jayda Coleman made against Iowa State is as good as any catch I've seen by most major league plsyers.

Link to the Coleman catch?

 

[WichitaSooner]

Joan Joyce, the Florida Atlantic softball coach who recently died, once struck out Ted Williams and Henry Aaron in an exhibition. I think softball players display an astounding level of skill. How skilled is Grace Lyons? The catch that Jayda Coleman made against Iowa State is as good as any catch I've seen by most major league plsyers.

Well, it’s not exactly surprising that guys strike out when facing a style of pitching they have never seen before. I’m guessing they would probably fare ok if they spent a meaningful amount of time training against softball pitchers. There is no question that the elite softball players are skilled, but this isn’t really the best way to show that. And as good as they are, they aren’t nearly at the level of big league baseball players. In some ways, I think softball is easier to enjoy when you just accept the fact that it is a very different sport than baseball.

 

[MsProudSooner]

Link to the Coleman catch?

I think the catch referred to was the NCAA Softball play of the week earlier this spring. Go to the bottom of the article to see Coleman's catch.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/softball/article/2022-04-26/watch-full-extension-grab-oklahoma-center-fielder-leads-ncaa-softball-plays-week

 

[skyvue]

I'll never forget Mackenzie Donihoo's amazing catch in last year's WCWS. One of my favorites.

 

[steverocks35]

Well, it’s not exactly surprising that guys strike out when facing a style of pitching they have never seen before. I’m guessing they would probably fare ok if they spent a meaningful amount of time training against softball pitchers. There is no question that the elite softball players are skilled, but this isn’t really the best way to show that. And as good as they are, they aren’t nearly at the level of big league baseball players. In some ways, I think softball is easier to enjoy when you just accept the fact that it is a very different sport than baseball.

Nobody who knows anything about fastpitch would say that it’s like baseball. It IS a very different sport. I find it much more watchable and enjoyable but I realize I’m biased.

 

[AdaSooner]

Nobody who knows anything about fastpitch would say that it’s like baseball. It IS a very different sport. I find it much more watchable and enjoyable but I realize I’m biased.

Agreed. You’re not alone in your bias, though. I would rather watch an OU women’s softball game than any sport (amateur or pro) on television, except Sooner basketball and football.

I don’t like it when I have to pay extra to watch a game on a streaming channel I don’t have access to on a regular basis, but I do it because I’m an OU softball fanatic. Sooner softball is the most exciting sport on television right now!

There, I said it! Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it!