White pitches in to help revive Kiwi hurling stocks
Top New Zealand pitchers were once a dime a dozen but the production line has slowed. Mike White, one of the Black Sox’s best hurlers, tells Tony Smith how Kiwis can rule the mound again.
Former Black Sox ace Mike White says New Zealand’s male pitchers have ‘‘raw talent’’ but need to improve their control, but there is a lack of depth among women’s hurlers.
White - head softball coach at the University of Oregon, one of the United States’ top college programmes - is back home to run a series of pitcher and catcher clinics for Softball New Zealand.
In his prime White - whose pitched at the highest level from the late 1970s to the 2004 world championships - was ranked alongside Kevin Herlihy and Bill Massey as New Zealand’s greatest male pitcher.
He threw a perfect game - no hits, no walks, no runners on base to lead the Black Sox to the 1996 world championships grand final and collect his second career gold medal.
Few team sports rely on an individual as heavily as softball leans on its pitcher.
New Zealand once possessed a proud pitching production line each year class containing gems such as Herlihy, Massey, Owen Walford, White, Steve Jackson, Peter Meredith, Paul Magan and Chubb Tangaroa through to Marty Grant and Jeremy Manley.
The women’s game had its own golden lineage - Cheryl Kemp, Debbie Mygind and Gina Weber, who helped the White Sox become one of the world’s best teams from the late 70s to early 90s.
But, in recent years, the seemingly incessant flow of quality Kiwi pitchers has slowed to a comparative trickle - hence Softball New Zealand’s desire to pick White’s brain and stimulate a revival.
White - who signed a six-year $US 1.4 million ($NZ 2 million) contract extension at Oregon in 2015 - has held clinics in Auckland and Christchurch and is set to run sessions in Wellington this weekend.
He says softball has had a boost with the sport’s return to the Olympic Games programme and he feels it is ‘‘important come down and improve New Zealand softball if I can and help give back’’.
White’s ambition to become a pitcher was ‘‘tweaked’’ as a schoolboy while watching the classical 20-inning pitching duel between New Zealand’s Kevin Herlihy and the United States’ Ty Stofflet at the 1976 world championships in Lower Hutt.
As he made his own mark on the mound, he had plenty of pitchers to look up to - including Herlihy and his Miramar clubmate Kevin Henderson, ‘‘who was the first guy who showed me how important location was’’.
White’s not sure contemporary Kiwi pitchers have as many mentors. ‘‘I asked some of the guys in Auckland and several had role models, but they were all hitters.
‘‘We are known for our hitting now, not our pitching.’’
But the New Zealand men’s game still has ’’some really good talent’’.
‘‘There are big strong guys that spin the ball and throw hard with good movement. The physical abilities are there, I just don’t think they’ve been keyed on locations and how to get hitters out.
‘‘I wasn’t known for blistering pace, but I think I was very good at picking apart hitters’ weaknesses and really analysing how I could get people out. That’s what made me somewhat I consistent - I didn’t have to have my great stuff to be effective, I could use off-speed pitches, locations and just try to outfox [hitters] a little bit.
‘‘I’ve talked about the three tools we have, as pitchers, to get hitters out. One is speed - both fast and slow - another is movement, with spin and everything, and the third component is control.
‘‘I really think that’s what’s hurting us right now - from what I’ve seen on tapes I’ve been sent - is our control. It’s not where it needs to be.’’
White says ‘‘control is what made Herlihy great’’ - and other Kiwi pitchers, including Grant, Jim Wana and White himself also had it.
‘‘Right now, with the new style of pitching - the leap and the push it’s a little harder to develop that control. Some of these guys have been trying to find consistency of release. It’s kind of a like golf swing - if you have three different swings, or three different timings, it’s hard to be consistent.
White believes the solution is plenty of practice to perfect the art.
When he first broke into premier softball in the 1970s, ‘‘we would only play two or three games a week, if we were lucky, and then the other days were practice’’.
The current generation are playing more games and are ‘‘just throwing and throwing’’ but aren’t ‘‘spending the time to develop their craft’’.
White says the top New Zealand White Sox pitchers - Rita Hokianga, Taylor Paige-stewart and Courtney Gettins - have good skills, but he senses a lack of pitching depth in the women’s game with young hurlers ‘‘struggling a little bit in the three components’’, including velocity.
‘‘Some of it is to do with mechanics, not being taught the right mechanics - body posture, strength and positioning - to be able to throw. There’s some work to be done there.’’
White says with more American college and international softball on television young Kiwi female pitchers have more opportunity to develop role models.