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Pitching Grips
The raised seams on a baseball give the pitcher something to grip when he delivers the ball. When the ball is in flight, the 108 stitches serve to disrupt the flow of air shooting past it. By skillfully manipulating the way he holds and releases the ball, a pitcher can throw a pitch that moves fast, slow, up, down, inside, or outside. This is the essence of pitching, the essence of baseball.
If a baseball were a smooth object like a billiard ball, the game would be totally different. Without spin, fastballs wouldn't be very fast. Because a smooth ball doesn't have seams to disrupt the airflow, there would be no curveballs, sliders, knuckleballs, screwballs, or splitters. A pitcher can't do anything to a seamless ball to make it follow a different path than the one gravity and inertia takes it on. There probably wouldn't be any home runs either, because a normal baseball hit 400 feet would only travel 300 feet if the ball were smooth.
And when a ball breaks: Spin Doctors
THE SLIDER is usually gripped like a curveball, but the pitcher doesn't snap his wrist. The wrist is stiff. Upon release, he puts pressure on, or "cuts," the ball with a finger to give it sidespin like a spinning bullet. The slider release has been compared with passing a football. The pitch doesn't break as much as a curve, but it starts its break closer to the plate. Thrown by a right-hander, sliders dart away from right-handed batters and in on lefties.
THE CURVEBALL With a good wrist snap, it is possible to spin a baseball at 1,800 rpm, which means it would make about 15 revolutions on its way to the plate. According to a study by Lyman J. Briggs of the National Bureau of Standards, a baseball can curve as much as 17.5 inches and the most effective velocity is 68 mph. The human wrist is constructed so it is easier for right-handers to twist their wrists clockwise and left-handers counterclockwise. So a right-hander's curve will move away from a right-handed batter.
THE SCREWBALL is thrown by twisting the wrist in the opposite direction it twists naturally. The pitch, therefore, curves in the opposite direction of a curveball. So a right-hander can throw a screwball when he wants a pitch that will move away from a left-handed batter. Screwballs are difficult to throw and put a lot of strain on the forearm and elbow.
Special Deliveries
Until 1893, pitchers were restricted to a 4-by-6-foot box in which they would run forward like a javelin thrower, gathering momentum for the pitch. Once the pitching rubber replaced this large box, it became necessary for pitchers to develop a "windup," essentially using the limbs of the human body to create that same momentum while keeping a foot planted in one place. The body mechanics of this windup are the keys to velocity and control.
Because body shapes and styles are different, there will never be a pitcher who has a delivery with "perfect mechanics." Tom Seaver would scrape his right knee against the mound upon releasing the ball. Juan Marichal kicked his leg high in the air. Walter Johnson barely lifted his leg at all. Hideo Nomo swivels his body around toward second base. Each of these great pitchers spent countless hours figuring out the best way to use his body to propel a baseball sixty feet and six inches.
The pitch Trajectory
THE FASTBALL seems to travel horizontally, on a perfectly straight line. In fact, the pitcher must throw the ball at a slightly upward angle to avoid throwing every pitch in the dirt. All objects are powerfully attracted to the Earth by the force of gravity and fall with a constant acceleration (32 ft/sec/sec). A 100-mph fastball will drop about two feet and two inches in the approximately .4 seconds it takes to get to the plate.
THE SLIDER is thrown harder than a curveball, but not as hard as a fastball. An 85-mph slider will drop about two feet and seven inches. The ball breaks down and sideways (the "slide" in slider) five to ten inches. It is sometimes called a "nickel curve" or "the pitch of the sixties." Steve Carlton is often credited with having the deadliest slider.
THE CHANGE-UP is thrown the slowest of all, about 20-mph slower than the pitcher's fastball. Naturally, it spends more time in the air than other pitches, and has a pronounced arc. No batter is ever "overpowered" by a change-up, but it is still a very effective pitch. A good change-up keeps the hitters guessing, gives the pitcher the element of surprise, and makes his fastball seem faster by comparison.
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