Posted on 10/14/2010 3:40:23 PM PDT by bunkerhill7
Breaking curveball too good to be true
Curveballs curve and fastballs go really fast, but new research suggests that no pitcher can make a curveball “break” or a fastball “rise.”
(Excerpt) Read more at rdmag.com ...
(( ping ))
While in the army from '69 - '72, I played fast pitch against several semi-pro softball pitchers from the south who had been drafted.
They had absolutely everything in their pitching arsenal, and from approx. 45 feet a fastball at about 90 mph. was an unseen missle.........
While I was a great fielder, I was a lously batter. The only noteworthy hit I can remember was a triple down the first base line. And that was only because I was so late swinging at the fastball that I accidentally made contact with it.........LOL!
I’ve never understood this controversy. Just mount a camera with tracking software on the roof of a domed baseball stadium for a few games and capture the trajectory of the ball from an objective point of view. Problem solved. No physicists needed.
Of course, that parabola can begin later rather than sooner. A hard slider has a relatively short "parabolic path". Also, the researchers didn't seem to bother much with the knuckleball, which can indeed "break", sometimes more than once during a single pitch.
Excellent post.
Bowling balls, too, if you can throw them.
It’s like half curve/half fastball. Its break is less than a curve, the deepest part is right up by the plate idealy, like you said. I think most people consider it a type of breaking ball, but it usually is a heck of a lot faster than the standard curve.
Freegards
Don’t want to brag, but I can, on demand, hook into the woods, slice into the water and sky off of the tee box.
In an exhibition of trick shottery, I have even nailed a tee ball no more than 3 feet in front of me off of a tee.
Never seen a bunch of middle aged white guys move so fast with that last trick. :)
Besides the knuckler, they also didn’t look at a good split finger fastball. Those thing drop right off the table up at the plate.
Freegards
Took a curve ball from a southpaw to the arch of the foot. Who gives a flip if I got to take the base. Had to have a pinch runner. Man, that sucker hurt. Some things you just never forget. LOL
Well, as Will Sonnett was fond of saying, “No brag, just fact”, I once sent a ball off of the tee at a driving range about 3 foot out, and down about 15 boxes. Talk about people un*ssing real estate.
Most of my shots look like they came out of a rifle. About 3 feet off of the ground for about 100 yards, aka “worm burner”.
One of my uncles pitched fastpitch softball. And he did it using both arms (one at a time, of course). His windup was so clever that the batter didn't know which arm he was going to use at any particular pitch.
You are correct. This professor is a stooge.
Re your post 49, I thank you for a clear description of the slider. Now I understand.
In my 40s I once had the experience of batting against an aging former major league pitcher (if the OP’s memory was worth a damn I could give you the name...but alas). He threw me an assortment of stuff (probably included the slider) and I trudged back to the dugout.
That’s a cool story. You are one of the few who knows what it’s like to face really good pitching. I could never get past fast stuff, it just looks like aspirin tablets going past. I never saw good breaking stuff, I’m sure I would have been diving out of the box.
Freegards
***Don’t want to brag, but I can, on demand, hook into the woods, slice into the water and sky off of the tee box.***
Shucks, I can do that without a demand. It’s a natural part of my game.
Of course it moves. But for it to actually "break" would require the ball to suddenly change its rotation somehow -- doesn't seem like that could happen on its own. It's probably more a matter of how we perceive the motion of the ball as it follows its (real) curve.
Excellent point.
Additionally, "cut fastballs" can get quick late movement. I watched Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz take a 105 mph fastball from the Reds' Aroldis Chapman into right field for a double a few days ago. That was a "flat" fastball, straight as an arrow. Good pitchers can throw in the low 90s but get "movement" on their fastballs that make them difficult to hit. There is nothing "parabolic" about a moving fastball.
FRegards,
LH
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