Clipping:Twist pitching 3
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| Date | Saturday, April 19, 1873 |
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| Text | A great deal of stress has been laid on the necessity of imparting a bias to the ball in pitching, as if it were just as important an element of success as it is in bowling in cricket, whereas the fact is it is more of a detriment than otherwise. In pitching, in baseball, the only rotary motion the pitcher can import to the ball in delivering it fairly to the bat is to the right or to the left, the movement of arms, in delivering a fairly pitched ball, entirely preventing any forward rotary motion being imparted to the ball, as in the case of a “follow-shot” in billiards; and it happens that this forward rotary motion is the only “twist” the ball can receive that would be of any assistance in causing the batsman either to “tip” balls or to hit them directly up in the air. It will be readily seen, therefore, that the effects of twisting the ball either to the right or to the left is only to cause it to rebound from the ground at an eccentric angle, instead of with a direct rebound, as from a ball having no “twist” given it. The result of this is to bother the catcher, and to make passed balls very frequent, besides increasing the difficulty of stopping grounders and bounding balls sent to the infield. The fact is, all the results of curved lines and good judgment in pitching have hitherto been erroneously attributed to “twisting” the ball, and hence we see pitchers wasting their time, and sacrificing their accuracy of aim and command of the ball, in useless efforts to impart a twist to the ball, the only result of which is to fatigue and annoy the catcher, who is puzzled in his efforts to be ready for the eccentric rebounds of the “twisted” ball; and to make errors in the infield ten times more frequent than they would be were no bias imparted to the ball. |
| Source | New York Clipper |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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