A rare birth defect also gave him a gift: a nearly impossible-to-hit curveball

The Washington Post ^ | May 25 at 10:09 AM | Jacob Bogage

[TBP]

Growing up, Dylan Rosnick just wanted to play baseball, a simple enough request for a child growing up in the Loudoun County exurbs.

He wanted to tie his shoes, too, and hold a pencil the right way and button his shirt and brush his teeth. There’s not a lot of guidance, though, for a child with Proteus syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects fewer than one in 1 million births worldwide, according to the National Institutes of Health.

It causes overgrowth in bones, skin and other tissues. Those organs grow out of proportion with other tissues in the body.

For Rosnick, the most obvious features impacted by the condition are his fingers. Three on each hand are overgrown, maybe six inches long and the width of an extra-wide thumb. Great pitchers are often defined by one dominant pitch developed over years of trial and error. Take Mariano Rivera’s cutter, Randy Johnson’s fastball, Roger Clemens’s splitter.

Rosnick has that, just not by choice. His fastball tops out at 65 mph, well below what high school hitters are used to seeing, because his fingers spend more time wrapped around the ball, reducing his velocity. But when Rosnick uses those larger fingers to apply a little pressure to either side of the baseball, it causes it to dance across the plate.

“When we saw that, it jumped out at us,” Champe Coach Joe McDonald said. “And not in a bad way. We thought, what could we do with that?”

[Jane Long]

Both of those are awesome...the curve AND the amazing knuckleball.

Thanks for posting.

[apocalypto]

It sure is!

[boop]

I am absolutely floored that a knuckle ball *could* be thrown at 80+ mph

A Phil Neikro knuckler was very slow, think in the 60s- 70s mph range.

Velocity comes from the stretch and legs, and with a big part the wrist snap.

Plus long fingers that can put that edge on the throw.

I am amazed that a human could throw a knuckler at that velocity.

Hell, I thought 80 mph was fast without any movement

For reference just go to a batting cage and try to hit the ball.

No wonder Dickey is unhittable.

[Ransomed]

Well, he was pretty unhittable in the stretch when that gif was taken, 2012. The Mets traded him to Toronto after his cy young year where he never recaptured his success, but was serviceable and pitched a lot of innings. Maybe the difference between the NL east and AL east. He is 42 or 43 now I think.

FReegards