{"id":31539,"date":"2017-08-30T13:50:20","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T20:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=31539"},"modified":"2017-08-30T13:50:20","modified_gmt":"2017-08-30T20:50:20","slug":"blue-springs-doug-middleton-inducted-into-softball-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=31539","title":{"rendered":"Blue Springs\u2019 Doug Middleton inducted into Softball Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/sports\/article170014842.html\" target=\"_blank\">From the Kansas City Star<\/a><br \/>\nBY JOSH TOLENTINO<br \/>\nBlue Springs native Doug Middleton was inducted into the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>He kept his induction speech short, no longer than six minutes. This was fitting, given the type of player Middleton was.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pullquote\">\u201cHumble \u2026 so, so humble,\u201d said Denny Bruckert, former coach of the USA Softball Men\u2019s National Team.<span class=\"pullquote\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Bruckert, who said he could spend hours talking about Middleton, spent decades coaching against Middleton\u2019s St. Joseph team as an opposing manager for a team in Decatur, Ill. He recalls him as one of the best pitchers to ever throw a softball.<\/p>\n<p>Bruckert also had opportunities to coach Middleton at the national level before the two joined forces in 2002. That\u2019s when Bruckert\u2019s Decatur squad disbanded and he became the new St. Joseph manager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI sacrificed a lot,\u201d Middleton, 54, said. \u201cBut it\u2019s something I really enjoyed doing. I had passion for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Middleton enjoyed a storied softball career. He was a member of USA National Team in 1992, \u201996, and \u201998 and was named the recipient of the Herb Dudley Award for the sport\u2019s outstanding pitcher at the 1998 ASA Men\u2019s Major Fast Pitch National Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Middleton\u2019s best pitch was the dropball, which is similar to a curveball in baseball. His dropball reached speeds in the mid-80\u2019s, according to Bruckert, who compared that to a 100 mph fastball. Middleton had two other pitches, a riseball and a changeup, but the dropball was what most vexed the batters he faced.<\/p>\n<p>Bruckert doesn\u2019t remember a season in which Middleton pitched an ERA higher than 1.00.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pullquote\">\u201cIt was amazing how good his dropball was,\u201d Bruckert said. \u201cDoug was a big-time pitcher. The bigger the tournament or game was, that\u2019s when Doug was outstanding.\u201d<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/sports\/article170014842.html\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to continue reading at The Kansas City Star.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Kansas City Star BY JOSH TOLENTINO Blue Springs native Doug Middleton was inducted into the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame earlier this month. He kept his induction speech short, no longer than six minutes. This was fitting, given the type of player Middleton was. \u201cHumble \u2026 so, so humble,\u201d said Denny Bruckert, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,19,61],"tags":[800,125,801],"class_list":{"0":"post-31539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured","7":"category-players","8":"category-usa-softball","9":"tag-dougmiddleton","10":"tag-usasoftball","11":"tag-usasoftballgreat","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31540,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31539\/revisions\/31540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}