Clipping:Pitching versus throwing
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| Date | Saturday, August 5, 1865 |
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| Text | Considerable discussion has been going on in base ball circles of late, as to whether the style of delivering the ball adopted by one of the pitchers of the Mutual Club is a legitimate pitch or an underhand throw. Messrs. Samuel Yates, of the Empire Club, and P. O’Brien, of the Atlantic, both experienced ball players, pronounce the deliver in question a throw, and the former decided it to be so in one match. As the rule governing pitching in base ball simply requires that “the ball shall be pitched, neither thrown nor jerked,” without defining a pitch, it is of course left to the individual opinion of each umpire in a match to define the delivery of the pitches. If he considers it a throw, all he has to do is to call a baulk on every ball he thinks is thrown, and the pitcher will either have to deliver the ball fairly, or in penalty thereof each player making his first base will be sure to secure his run; besides which, as every thrown ball is certainly an unfair ball, every three balls so delivered will entitle the striker to his base; so that it is in the power of the umpire to give the game against the club who has the pitcher who throws instead of pitches, and this power, too, can be legitimately exercised. For instance, the striker comes to the bat and the first ball he receives is from an underhand throw; all the umpire has to do is to first warn the pitcher to pitch the ball fairly; if he does not do so, then let the umpire call balls on him until he does and when the striker reaches his first base on balls, then call baulks until the ball is pitched fairly. This plan will of course have the effect either of changing the pitcher or stopping the throwing. In the next convention a rule ought to be introduced, so worded as to inflict this penalty by the letter of the rule, as it can now be done by its spirit. |
| Source | New York Clipper |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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