I still think there are some pitches in this pitching arm, so I will continue playing with USA Softball, but knowing that this could be the last time a softball player stands on the Olympic podium and has the opportunity of experiencing this – it was emotional.
I’ve got a fastball, change-up, forkball, curve, slider, knuckle-slider, knuckle-curve, I had about seven pitches I could have used at any time.
Americans aren’t good at accents, but the English are because their accents change. You go five or six blocks and the accent is different, so they are used to hearing different pitches. In America, you gotta travel maybe 10 states before you can really hear a difference.
Some guys, first pitch of the at-bat gets called a strike – maybe it’s a ball off or below their knees, and it gets called a strike – and then the next two pitches, they swing at balls in the dirt, and all of a sudden, they’re yelling at the umpire about that first pitch. You just swung at two balls in the dirt, buddy.
The Varzea is kind of like street basketball in America or like the semi-professional football leagues in Europe. The pitches are all dirt, and you’re playing against the marmanjo – the ‘hard men.’ It’s known for being extremely physical.
You’re just trying to go out there and give seven innings. Seven innings, 105 pitches, that’s a good outing.
Even if I was tipping my pitches, I could have thrown pitches good enough to not be hit.
When you play on foreign pitches, you get used to their conditions.
Rishabh Pant whenever he has got away from Delhi on good pitches, hard pitches where there is carry, he has been exceptional with the bat.
Sometimes you have to throw 120 pitches to figure yourself out.
After leaving ImageMovers, I sold two pitches to Fox Atomic, which I then wrote for them.
I’m a big guy, right? But I began to realize that by actually using my body like a big guy, I couldn’t control my pitches the way I wanted to.
I have toured Bangladesh plenty of times and the pitches were unbelievable.
Pitches are like pages of a book; they’re so important. The chess game; how I set you up early, and how I’ll do it differently later.
If you can get an out on one pitch, take it. Let the strikeouts come on the outstanding pitches. Winning is the big thing. If you throw a lot of pitches, before you know it, your arm is gone.
My love of running developed when I got older. At school it filled me with dread and the idea of running around the sports pitches struck me with a nameless fear.
I was notorious at NXT for having constant pitches and ideas. I was that girl who would come in every day to Dusty Rhodes with a 10-page pitch for characters and posters of character development.
You’re just trying to go out there and give seven innings. Seven innings, 105 pitches, that’s a good outing.
If you add up all the promises any politician makes, the math doesn’t work. Hillary Clinton’s math doesn’t work; Donald’s math probably doesn’t work. I think you have to listen to their campaign pitches more as symbolic, more as metaphors.
Disney usually doesn’t do pitches for original ideas.
A pitcher needs two pitches, one they’re looking for and one to cross them up.
People pitch me all the time. But hopefully, you’ll just go ahead and do it. We are trying to eliminate the need for pitches. I’d rather sit there and applaud. Customers buy products, not Powerpoint presentations.
Every social network on Earth pitches me, and I say no to nearly every single one of them.
A couple of Astros players told me I was tipping pitches, but now it comes out they were stealing signs. Was I tipping, or were they stealing?
In this country, since footballs made from pigs’ bladders were whacked into goals without nets, we’ve played on full-size pitches. Whatever our age.
In bowlers’ meetings we talk a lot about patience here in India. You need that more than anywhere in the world. Outfields are fast, pitches are slow, the ball gets soft. Bowlers are more crucial than batters.
I started to play football when I was about 10; my father brought me to one school because there were more pitches where we could play.
It’s tougher when you’re established. Before, I’d see 13, 14, 15 pitches that I could drive in a game. Now, I see one, two or three, so I have to be better.
Pitchers are going to break. You can limit their pitches and limit their innings, and they’re still going to blow out. Pitching is hard on the arm.
I still think there are some pitches in this pitching arm, so I will continue playing with USA Softball, but knowing that this could be the last time a softball player stands on the Olympic podium and has the opportunity of experiencing this – it was emotional.
Sometimes you go to home plate, and you have an idea, like a clear idea, of what they’re going to throw to you. I think that’s all: getting better pitches to hit, realizing when you hit the ball better, what pitch you hit, if you’re chasing too much. If you figure out all that, you can get a little better as a player.
I had a great time being a salesman because of the pitches that I gave when I was selling shoes. However, I don’t think I’m as well versed in shoes as I am in comedy. Being a salesman was all about being a people person, and I enjoy being around people. I also love talking to people – which is why I think I did so well.
When I went to Australia on the India A tour in 2014, I played on flat pitches against batsmen, some of whom were Test players. That experience taught me a lot, as I also was playing with a lot of Test players in our side as well, and I learned about being mentally tough.
From my vantage point as a catcher, those are tough lineups to face when guys lay off the tough pitches and work counts and still have the ability to drive the ball. It’s usually a recipe of some good offense.
If you can get an out on one pitch, take it. Let the strikeouts come on the outstanding pitches. Winning is the big thing. If you throw a lot of pitches, before you know it, your arm is gone.
When you prove you can hit, you get tough pitches to hit. And then you got to prove you can take them. And when you prove you can take them, they’ll give you pitches to hit. It’s back and forth, back and forth.
There are only so many pitches in this old arm, and I don’t believe in wasting them throwing to first base.
When you don’t have one that you throw for strikes – they are good hitters – they can cancel out one pitch and go to another. Now I have four pitches. If one’s not working, I’ve got three others. It makes the game totally different.
I’ve refined my mechanics, refined my pitches. I’ve gotten more confidence, and I’ve gotten more determination. I’ve got a better idea what I’m doing out there.
I was a contact hitter my whole career but I learned how to handle the ball inside. And Ted Williams played a big part in that. He gave me the advice on how to handle inside pitches.
I will say that I wasn’t susceptible to Tony Robbins-like pitches, even as a younger man.
All great pitches have a few things in common: the founder/team is wicked smart, the idea is big and a breakthrough, and the market is potentially enormous.
If I can execute pitches and keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, I know I can have success.
It is all right having Atletico Madrid and Barca at the top, but what about teams like Tenerife who play on such bad pitches? These little things need to improve, but media-wise, Spanish women’s football is a lot further along than in England.
If I keep taking my good swings, swing at the right pitches, good things will happen.
If I keep taking my good swings, swing at the right pitches, good things will happen.
I study pitchers. I visualize pitches. That gives me a better chance every time I step into the box. That doesn’t mean I’m going to get a hit every game, but that’s one of the reasons I’ve come a long way as a hitter.
The big thing is, it’s about learning which off-speed pitches to swing at. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, this guy can’t hit a curveball; this guy can’t hit an off-speed pitch.’ But it’s about swinging at the right one. Swing at the hangers. Swing at the ones you can handle.
I’d love to see pitches start very dry all over the world, which is good for batting but means there will be turn – a cricket match without spinners is like a chess match without two important pieces – a less interesting game.
When you’re more comfortable out there, you start seeing different things, relaxing more, being able to trust your pitches more and not try to overdo things as much.
My secondary schooling was at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, so I’m fond of that part of the world. It’s quintessentially English, with village greens, pubs and cricket pitches, and resonates strongly with me.
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