If you had a nickel for every time someone told you they had a player on their team or that their kid ran home to first in 2.6 seconds or faster, you would be a very rich person. Now this is one of my biggest pet peeves because if you look at the split times from Olympic class male and female sprinters the times we often hear people claiming on the softball field would make all these softball players, not just fast but world-class fast.
One of the great things about the pandemic this year was the number of games that were broadcast during the Athletes Unlimited season. And with the games being broadcast there is an indisputable file of video clips of some of the fastest softball players alive working their magic on the field. And we all know a picture is worth a thousand words well so video evidence of these players is worth a great deal more.
Tom Nelson posted a video of highlights of the slappers from Athletes Unlimited on Facebook where the digital stopwatch is started when the ball touches the slappers bat and stops when she hits first base. What we see is pretty telling, and remember we are talking about some of the fastest softball players alive.
Kylan Becker – 2.87
Victoria Hayward – 2.77
Aubrey Leach – 2.94
Morgan Zerkle – 2.67
AJ Andrews – 2.84
Janie Reed – 2.77
Jazmyn Jackson 2.84
All of these are really fast players who have made their games based on their speed no doubt. And there is some slight variation from at bat to at bat but the point is a simple one, the fastest time recorded, DIGITALLY, was 2.67 seconds.
Yes, there are a lot of really fast softball players, but the next time someone tells you they have a player who is 2.6 or faster you might want to question either their ability to operate a stopwatch or how many times they have seen Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster.
