[scrabblehack]

It’s a lot easier to hit a fastball out of the park than a slowball.

I don’t remember...is the distance from the mound to home plate 60’ 6” in high school? Is the mound the same height?
I’m thinking the constraint is that the ball, if thrown too slowly, will be below the knees by the time it reaches the plate.

[adorno]

It’s a lot easier to hit a fastball out of the park than a slowball.

I have to kind of agree with that.

My son played pony baseball and then high-school baseball.

He had a strong arm, where he could throw very hard, and at times, when playing right field, could throw a baseball from close to the wall to almost all the way to the plate. However, that strong arm didn't translate to a strong arm when pitching. His pitches almost always ended up being quite slow, but he did have a very accurate pitching arm, where he could pitch a strike almost every time.

The problem for him was that, he traded strength for accuracy, and wasn't known for being a fastball pitcher at all.

But, with his accuracy and his slow ball pitching, he ended up with some games where the opposing teams could not hit baseballs out of the infield, and in a couple of games, he went 8 innings with no one in the outfield being involved with getting any outs, since they didn't get any chances for catches or line drives or ground balls sneaking out to the outfield. His slow pitching baffled the hitters, and he actually would have a lot of strikeouts from people chasing the low slow balls.

Then, he decided to chase his bigger "dream" more than baseball, and chess took him away from continuing his HS baseball career. But, his slow ball pitching along with his ability to throw strikes, still baffles me a bit.