[BluesDuke]

How's about it, folks? Shall we bring back the spitballers, if not exactly the spitter? (I mean, on the one hand, I think it was ridiculous to outlaw the pitch. On the other hand, like I said - it is fun watching the outlaws trying to outfox the judges!)

[Texaggie79]

Where were all you people when I was defending baseball on the cricket thread? I don't even like baseball, but I had do defend the American pastime over lame @$$ cricket.

[BluesDuke]

A bump in honour of the K-Y kid!

[altair]

What is true is that the hitters rule the roost, and too many people whose love of the game goes no deeper than a Bob Uecker long ball are bent as best they can on keeping the hitters in power.

"Uecker, Uecker, Uecker, Uecker's his name; should be in the Hall Of Fame. It's the Bob Uecker show."

[BluesDuke]

A bump for hitter hydrophobia!

[Enterprise]

"Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, or Pedro Martinez, either"

Johnson won his game against San Diego 2-0, Maddux was pulled because of a sore butt, but Glavine got the win, Clemens lost against the ORIOLES, and Boston lost but Pedro managed not to get the loss.

[E Rocc]

How's about it, folks? Shall we bring back the spitballers, if not exactly the spitter? (I mean, on the one hand, I think it was ridiculous to outlaw the pitch. On the other hand, like I said - it is fun watching the outlaws trying to outfox the judges!)

Hell yes.

Of course I'm biased. I grew up an Indians fan in the 1970s, when Gaylord Perry was the ace of our staff (he won 21 games and threw 28 complete games in 1974), he wrote a biography where he admitted throwing the spitter and gave some basic instructions on how to throw it.

After reading it I saw him at a personal appearance and asked him about the technique I developed. He gave me a couple pointers and I ended up developing a truly evil spitter. One time when my brother was playing catcher he reached up for a high pitch and the damn thing hit him in the toe.

When Perry would throw it, particularly at the free-swinging As, the results were often hilarious. Of course that changed when the rules were revised so the umps could call an "illegal pitch" based on the flight of the ball (before they had to discover something on the ball). It was totally the "Gaylord Perry Rule". >:(

So yeah, I'd like to see it back.

-Eric

[Dales]

I blame the hitting explosion on global warming.

You are probably right that the spitter would even things up a bit, but frankly, I would rather see teams teach a good changeup. Changing speeds screws up a hitter more than movement does.

[conserve-it]

By all means, bring back the "spitter"!! The Barry Bonds-types will still hit plenty of homers what with their short fences, and pumped up bodies. One of my favorite times was watching Gaylord Perry pitch. Ya never knew what he would throw, and the drama (high comedy) was merely the "anticipation" of his next ploy.

The funniest thing I ever saw in baseball was when a Pirates pitcher was getting hammered, and Andy Van Slyke came out to the mound wearing a master carpenters belt, loaded with every illegal pitchers tool imaginable!!