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I am all for it. It only makes sense frm a safety issue. I have seen too many pitchers get beamed. I think the record books should now have a separate division for the 43 ft. distinction. It will definitely affect the game I am sure from both the pitcher and batter. I look forward to the change. I also think that the college rubber should be moved back as well. You shouldn't pitch from the same distance in hs and college.

And while I am at it I think the pros in basketball should have a 12 foot rim, and college an 11 foot rim for the men. The women should have 11 foot pro and 10-6 for college. LOL

Only works if the umpires choose to enforce the rule of a batter has BOTH feet in the box when the ball is hit. You already have batters extending the box towards the pitcher, how far will they go with another 3 feet? Reaction time will be extended, so you know hitters will push the limit. I would like to see the batter's box be set back, also.

I wonder which umpire will have the first 4 hour jv game good golly, it is difficult to find umpires wanting to do those games now, in fear of length of game due to a walkfest. The strike zone can only get so big. score may go back to 29-24 for the first year or so.

This will definitely favor the hitters but I've been waiting on this for a long time. Me being me, I'm even in the minority of moving the bases out (5') and the fences back another 10 to 20' but that's just me alone in my thoughts. We should see more teams playing less "small" ball with the distances moved back and with the "crow hop and slide" distance by the pitcher's being 3' less we should have more slaps and power hitting as the ball will be a little easier to pick up coming in with the extra distance some of the fielder's that haven't had to move that much in the past if you had a good pitcher better get ready to run down some balls in the outfield. I've seen some teams in the past that had such good pitchers that the outfield might see 1 or 2 balls all day if they were lucky. I think those days will be few and far between from now on. JMO

Pitchers with movement (Curve,Drop,Slider,rise) will be more effective @ 43'. Change-up will be even harder to hit. I think it will have little impact on the "good" pitchers. The "good" hitters, may get better. If it will help anyone, it would be the homeplate ump, who will have more time to "adjust" their strike zone.

I have no problem with the 43 feet.. If you play any Ky schools (which we do) they were playing at 43 this yr. My DD has played in several tournaments (travel ball) where they have been at 43 feet for a couple of years now.. It will be a hitters advantage for a while but after everyone is used to it it will be no different. The good pitchers are going to handle it just fine. And if the umpiring doesnt get better with them getting 3 extra feet then they need glasses or all new umps lolololololol

fast1 wrote:Pitchers with movement (Curve,Drop,Slider,rise) will be more effective @ 43'. Change-up will be even harder to hit. I think it will have little impact on the "good" pitchers. The "good" hitters, may get better. If it will help anyone, it would be the homeplate ump, who will have more time to "adjust" their strike zone.

There is a lot of truth in your statement fast1. I think the really good hitters will be able to handle the really good pitchers a little more but everyone else will be about the same. It is about time they adopted this change imo.

The 43 feet really doesn't change much. I have coached 18U the last two years and my pitchers pitch 40' in their high school season and 43' in the summer and they say their's not much difference. When OHSAA first started talking about implementing this into high school, I thought it was to get pitchers more ready for college, but the OHSAA's reasoning is to bring the defense more into play and to minimize dominate pitching. My experience with the difference in the distance with the pitchers I have coached it didn't minimize the pitcher's effectiveness, but we are also talking about pitchers that are throwing upper 50's - 62 mph. We don't hardly see that in Southeastern OH. Just my experience....

I like it