Pitcher’s Duel For The Ages: Osterman vs Finch

If I lived in the Chicago area, I would have taken Wednesday off from work to watch the National Pro Fastpitch game between Chicago and Rockford today. Why? An epic pitcher’s duel between two of the best (if not the two best) pitchers in the world, Cat Osterman and Jennie Finch.

This was like watching Ed Walsh versus Addie Joss; Sandy Koufax versus Juan Marichal; Frank Viola versus Ron Darling; Jack Morris against John Smoltz.

Osterman and Finch lived up to the billing. The game went scoreless into extra innings, before Finch’s Chicago team scored the game’s only run in the bottom of the ninth. Osterman, the losing pitcher, struck out 13 and allowed only two hits. Finch struck out 18 and also only allowed two hits.

ESPN’s Graham Hays:

…these rivals possess a competitive chemistry that can turn an ordinary night into an unforgettable memory.

“What these young ladies will understand 10 years from now, 15 years from now, is this is like watching Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan go at it,” Chicago manager Mickey Dean said. “And that’s what it is. And just to be able to be a part of it, to watch it — 20 years from now, you’re going to tell your grandkids.”

I wish I had been there.

Have I Mentioned Cat Osterman Lately?

USA Softball has been having an easy go so far at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. Four USA pitchers combined for two no-hitters in their first two games. That might seem like a tough act to follow, but not for Cat Osterman. The Cat took the ball for the USA’s third game, and threw a near-perfect game, striking out 14 in a game shortened to 5 innings by the mercy rule. One batter walked, and the only other batter who did not strike out out popped out to the catcher. You go, Cat! I wish I could have seen that game. USA wins 10–0.

The Incomparable Miss Osterman

Cat Osterman is widely acclaimed as the best fast-pitch pitcher in the world. And what a treat it is to watch her pitch! Last night, in the Championship of the World Cup of Softball, Cat pitched another trademark gem. She struck out 13 batters in 7 innings, allowing only 3 hits (2 of them cheap hits), as she shut out the second best team in the world, Japan. Only one of Cat’s pitches was hit onto the outfield grass, and none of her pitches was hit hard. Just check out the video here on ESPN.com and watch how the Japanese batters flail wildly at Cat’s pitches.

Osterman’s victory gave the United States the championship in the World Cup for the second straight year (Osterman also pitched last year’s championship game). In the World Championships last year in Beijing, Osterman won both games of a doubleheader, allowing only one run, to give the USA the World Championship.

The USA this year has outscored its opponents 134–4, and dominates both in the batter’s box and on the mound and should be the favorite to win the gold medal in next year’s Olympics.

As a side note, ESPN did their typically excellent job of covering the World Cup, and my only complaint is that ESPN usually cuts away from one game almost as soon as it ends to go to their next show on the schedule. This isn’t just a problem last night, but it is a problem on most broadcasts in most sports. And because last night’s game ran long and ended with an unusual play, the USA didn’t get to celebrate as they waited for the umpire’s ruling. Viewers didn’t get to see the USA team celebrate, nor did they see Cat hoist the championship trophy. Fortunately, you can see a little bit of Cat lifting the trophy in the video. Also, ESPN has so many sports to cover that its amazing they can even fit softball into their schedule, so I’m very grateful that they covered every one of the USA’s games. SportsCenter is even more crowded, but Cat Osterman seems to be the one name from the world of softball that SportsCenter covers (they covered both of her wins in the World Cup) and Cat is the only softball player that makes it to the front page of ESPN.com.

Update (7/22): ESPN’s Graham Hays reports: “Television ratings [for the World Cup of Softball] in the United States grew 40 percent last year, topping out with a 1.1 rating for the 2006 final game between the United States and Japan (a rating comparable with the NHL Stanley Cup finals).”

USA Softball

A year ago, I lamented how every USA national team failed to make the championship game in their respective world championships — except for USA Women’s Softball, who won the world championships in China.

Last year, in the World Cup of Softball (not to be confused with the World Championship), USA Women’s Softball outscored their opponents 59–3. In this year’s World Cup, USA Women’s Softball has outscored their opponents 17–1 in their first two games. In the first game, the top power hitter in the world, Crystl Bustos, hit a mammoth three-run homerun to lead USA to a 9–1 win over Venezuela. In the second game, the top pitcher in the world, Cat Osterman (pictured), was dazzling as she pitched a one hitter, striking out 9 in the five inning game (including the last 7 batters she faced).

Two more games are scheduled today, one more on Sunday and the championship game on Monday night. All games are shown on ESPN or ESPN2. Check out USA Women’s Softball, and scream your lungs out for the good old USA. You will enjoy it.

Belated Sunday Cat Blogging

After I was disappointed by Saturday’s events, I tuned in on Sunday to watch the Alabama–Tennessee softball game (the top two teams in the country), only to find out that no games had been played on Saturday due to the weather. So there was still a tie between Monica Abbott and Cat Osterman for the NCAA career strikeout record. Abbott was the pitcher, and Osterman was the announcer.

Shortly after the game started, Abbott struck out a batter, giving her the NCAA career lead, and Osterman congratulated her and was very gracious. In the post-game interview, Abbott was also very gracious to Osterman.

But as Osterman is relatively new at announcing, she needs to project her voice more. Her voice has a tendency to fall off, and that's what happened as Abbott struck out her first batter, giving her the record. Osterman was discussing something and as strike three sailed by the batter, Osterman said something but her voice tailed off and I didn’t quite catch what she said.

Despite her occasional vocal problems, Osterman certainly provided great insight into the game. She understands well what goes through a pitcher’s mind and communicated clearly. In fact, she provided interesting insights into all facets of the game. And after Saturday, when she sounded very nervous, I thought she might be one of those announcers that didn’t say much, but that was not the case. Osterman was a chatterbox, in a good and informative way. She didn’t start her comments with “well, you know”, which I think is a horrible habit that some announcers have. And kudos to ESPN play-by-play announcer Eric Collins for working smoothly with a relatively new partner (I have also enjoyed Collins’ work over the years).

And as an extra added benefit, Cat stars in an impressive commercial for Under Armour.

Saturday Cat Blogging

While there might be weightier issues in my life and in this country, I continue to be fascinated by USA Softball player Cat Osterman. This young lady currently holds the NCAA career strikeout record with 2265 (and she was the first player to record more than 2000 strikeouts). During her senior year, she averaged 2.2 strikeouts per inning, and she accomplished this not with a blazing fastball, but with such a huge variety of pitches and movement that batters regularly swung at balls and didn’t swing at strikes.

I didn’t expect to see Cat on the TV again until this summer when the USA Softball team would play some tournaments. And today, when I turned on a different softball game, there was Cat, as color announcer on ESPN. Her website doesn’t even mention that she is working for ESPN. Was it her first appearance? I think it was. I don’t know if she had done any announcing priort to this. She sounded very nervous, and sounded like she was reading a script. Other announcers sound much smoother.

The game I tuned in to watch, that Cat would announce, was between number 2 ranked Tennessee and number 1 ranked Alabama. As I write this, Tennessee’s star pitcher Monica Abbott was tied with Cat for the career strikeout lead. So Abbott’s first strikeout would have broken Cat’s record, and Cat would be announcing. What great drama and emotion! But it was raining cats and dogs, and the game had been rescheduled for later in the day on a different network: ESPNU, and I don’t receive ESPNU! Arrrggghhhhhh!

USA All The Way!

It has been a very rough year rooting for USA teams in international sporting competitions. We have such extremely talented players that I keep expecting overwhelming success, or even plain old ordinary success, and yet ...

• World Baseball Classic: USA finishes out of the medal round
• World Hockey Championships: USA finishes out of the medal round
• World Cup of Soccer: don’t make me laugh
• World Championship of Basketball (Men): USA loses in the semi-finals and wins the Bronze Medal. What a huge disappointment to see the most talented players in the world lose to Greece.
  
• World Championship of Basketball (Women): I thought this was the team that would go all the way, as they hadn’t lost in international competition since 1994. The result: same as the men, a Bronze Medal, a few months later. What a huge disappointment to see the most talented players in the world lose to Russia.
• Ryder Cup (Golf): not even Tiger Woods can save the Americans

Thank heavens for Cat Osterman and USA Softball, the only USA team in a team sport (that I follow) to win a Gold Medal in the world championships this year. I’m glad I took the time to watch on the Internet, but the broadcast ended with the last pitch, and I didn’t get to see the celebration.

Sunday Cat Blogging

I was eagerly looking forward to seeing Texas’ Cat Osterman pitch today, even if it was via a crappy internet video connection, from a stadium in Austin with only one camera. But even so, I was treated to a memorable performance — Cat didn’t disappoint. Utah batter after Utah batter came up against Osterman, flailed wildly at Osterman’s pitches, and then headed back to the bench. Osterman struck out the first 14 batters of the game, allowed only one base hit, and finished with 18 strikeouts (out of 22 Utah batters). A spectacular performance, made all the more remarkable by my sense of disappointment when the one Utah hit happened in the fifth inning — there would not be a perfect game for Cat today.

What makes Osterman so special is that she doesn’t have a blazing fastball. Instead, she has mastered every other pitch in the book — the curve, the rise, the drop, the screwball and the change-up. They break so much that batters cannot tell what pitch is coming until it is too late, and it is a characteristic of Osterman’s games that batters don’t swing at pitches in the strike zone, and flail wildly at pitches out of the strike zone.

Babe Ruth Bunts

Baseball fans sometimes debate the topic: when, if ever, should Babe Ruth bunt? The answer, of course, is almost never. However, last night, when USA Softball coach Mike Candrea called for the softball equivalent of having Babe Ruth bunt, it worked out disastrously, and led to USA Softball losing a tournament for the first time since 1997.

Trailing 2–0 to Japan in the bottom of the fourth, USA Softball had runners on first and second with no outs, and Stacy Nuveman coming to bat. Nuveman holds the NCAA career record for homeruns, and is still one of the world’s best power hitters. In the tournament, Nuveman had two homeruns in five at bats, so she was swinging a hot bat. She was in the lineup for her power. Candrea is normally a very aggressive coach, but for some reason, he chose to take the bat out of Nuveman’s hands and have her bunt. Nuveman probably isn’t one of the best bunters on the team — her bunt was too hard and right at a defender, who threw to third for a force out, and then the follow-up throw to first beat the extremely slow Nuveman by several steps. Double play!

The next batter, Kellie Wilkerson, singled and reached third on an error by the Japanese outfielder, scoring one run. Had Nuveman done anything else — even strike out — the United States would have scored two runs on that hit by Wilkerson and error by Japan, and the game would have been tied, runner on third, one out.

The USA wound up losing 3–1, as starter Cat Osterman uncharacterstically gave up 3 hits and allowed two runs in the second inning. Osterman was sharp otherwise, but the damage was done. (But we still love you, Cat!)

Go, Cat, Go!

Cat Osterman has been called “electrifying”. And I just can’t turn off the TV when she pitches. I was supposed to go out for karaoke last night, but with Osterman on the mound on ESPN, I just had to watch. When Cat is pitching, you never know when you are going to see a no-hitter or a perfect game. Osterman pitched a 1-hitter, allowing only a squib infield hit. She struck out 14 in 7 innings (she averages 2 strikeouts per inning over her college career) to lead USA Softball over Australia in the World Cup of Softball. It was a much needed victory for USA Softball, which lost to Canada the day before, their first loss in 85 international games.

Osterman dominates with an amazing assortment of pitches. Her fastball isn’t the fastest, but rather her pitches break so sharply that batters have no idea what is coming and often take poor swings at the ball. When Cat Osterman is pitching well, the batters watch strikes go by and swing at pitches that should be balls.