In high school I was scouted by a couple MLB teams. Both scouts said I threw a "big yakker," i.e. a slow big breaking lateral curve like Mike Boddicker of the Orioles. If I aimed it at the hitter, the batter would bail out and it would bend over for a strike. If I threw it down the middle of the plate, the batter would miss it by two feet. My catcher, the umpire, spectators, scouts swore it usually broke at least 2 feet so I'm always a little skeptical when I read a curve is basically an illusion pitch.
I've also read a knuckleball is also just an illusion pitch, but my catcher always claimed my knuckler bobbed up and down all the way to the plate. When I've caught a knuckleball pitcher I saw the same thing.
Curveball
Moderator: Global Moderator
Re: Curveball
I played high school ball with a guy who threw a nice fastball in the low 90s. He was a big guy and had a really intimidating windup that made it look like every pitch was going to be a fastball.
But he had this changeup that was impossible to detect from his windup and it was absolutely amazing the way it would seemingly float out of his hand and seemingly take forever to get to the plate. The fact that it had a strange slow spin on it just made it that much more surreal. Almost impossible to hit.
I also played with a couple of guys who threw a decent knuckleball. A good knuckleball can't be hit by anyone reliably. It's just too hard to make solid contact with it. It may or may not be moving around as much as it seems from the batter's perspective, but there is something about seeing a pitched ball coming at you with virtually no spin on it that never stops looking very bizarre.
Words don't really capture how strange it is to see this sort of thing. Notice how even the catcher cringes because he isn't sure it's going in his mitt.
And of course no discussion of crazy pitches is complete without a nod to Randy Johnson's "bird shredder" fastball. Please consider for a moment the odds of this sort of thing happening. Amazing!
But he had this changeup that was impossible to detect from his windup and it was absolutely amazing the way it would seemingly float out of his hand and seemingly take forever to get to the plate. The fact that it had a strange slow spin on it just made it that much more surreal. Almost impossible to hit.
I also played with a couple of guys who threw a decent knuckleball. A good knuckleball can't be hit by anyone reliably. It's just too hard to make solid contact with it. It may or may not be moving around as much as it seems from the batter's perspective, but there is something about seeing a pitched ball coming at you with virtually no spin on it that never stops looking very bizarre.
Words don't really capture how strange it is to see this sort of thing. Notice how even the catcher cringes because he isn't sure it's going in his mitt.
And of course no discussion of crazy pitches is complete without a nod to Randy Johnson's "bird shredder" fastball. Please consider for a moment the odds of this sort of thing happening. Amazing!
Q: “Do you have funny shaped balloons?”
A: “Not unless round is funny.”
A: “Not unless round is funny.”
Re: Curveball
To me the change-up really is an illusion pitch. There is a lot of art involved in throwing a change-up. I learned a lot about changing speeds playing semi-pro ball in Oklahoma City. The older pitchers (30-40 years old) survived by constantly hitting spots and changing speeds. The young fireballers (90 mhp+) who weren't able to change speeds that well or didn't have good breaking stuff were constantly getting 400+ foot shots slammed out.TennPaGa wrote:
I don't think the authors are saying that a curve ball doesn't actually curve.
But the "illusion" (which I interpret as the mismatch between reality and the expectation of the eye + brain) is an important part of its success.
The same is true with MT's high school teammate's change-up. If he threw his change with a different motion (and it didn't have the illusion that it was going to be a fastball), it wouldn't have been nearly as effective.