By BOB PUTNAM, Times Staff Writer
Published June 18, 2005
All season, Palm Harbor University's Dani Hofer kept hearing trash talk from baseball players at her school.
They were certain they could get a hit off her. But the battle lines never were drawn.
"They kept talking," Hofer said. "I said, "Bring it on.' It never happened. Maybe they were scared."
Imagine then, how unwelcome an opposing softball player must feel when batting against Hofer.
The hitter sees the kick of Hofer's shoe, the splaying of her linguine-long locks, the flinging of her right arm, then maybe - maybe - she catches a glimpse of a 65 mph rise ball that just might whistle past her ear. Always by accident when it does, of course.
But Hofer is not all fire and spirit and malevolence. She goes about her business with precision, not angst. She deceives. She fools.
One pitch sets up another pitch. And another. And another.
Her dominant pitch, for goodness' sake, is the changeup.
Hofer developed the pitch this year and added it to an already lethal repertoire.
The key to the changeup is throwing it with the same arm speed as a fastball but with reduced velocity - not dramatically reduced, but a speed at which the ball reaches the plate just late enough to foul up a normal swing at an anticipated fastball.
This was the pitch that helped the 5-foot-11 Hofer go 25-0 and finish with 404 strikeouts as she led the Hurricanes (31-0) to their second straight Class 5A title and the state's first unbeaten, untied season in more than five seasons.
Her changeup also received national attention after it was shown repeatedly during a highlight reel on ESPN2's Cold Pizza last week. Jay Crawford, the show's host, even commented it was "nasty."
During the live segment on Cold Pizza, Hofer also was named the Gatorade national softball player of the year. She is the first from the East Coast to win the award.
Hofer will need her changeup, along with a few others, when she heads to Louisiana State in the fall.
"I know it's going to be a little different, and I'll need to develop a few more pitches," Hofer said. "But that's okay. I'm always trying to get better."
As for the baseball players who wanted to dig in the batter's box against her? Hofer's still waiting.
"It would have been fun," she said.
Almost as much fun as playing when it counts.
DANI HOFER: BY THE NUMBERS
1,163: career strikeouts
404: strikeouts this season
68: career wins
58: career shutouts
24: consecutive batters she struck out in the 2004 season
