Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-06-16
SOME DOPE ABOUT
STYLES OF PITCHING.
Will Educate Americas Fans
About How it is Done.


as the fast one and the curve. Upon
the speed of the fast ball and the
sharpness of the curve the success of
the pitcher usually depends.
But there are more varieties of fast
balls and more different kinds Of
curves than tL(re are shades of
green, says writer on the subject in
the American Magazine. The major
ity of pitchers, when they start their
careers, have only speed and a curve,
possibly half-trained slow ball.
They usually are successful for a
few games After that not one in a
hundred is successful until by expert
ence he has added to his pitching re-
pertoire.
Shere is only one kind Of a ball
that no pitcher can throw, and that is
a straight" ball Ghis regardless of
the class fication of the fast one" as
a straight ball'O. They can make it
curve in any direction, even slightly
upward in defiance of gravitation, or
prevent it from revolving, but not one
of them can make it go straight.
Pitching Fast Ball.
The fast ball is sheer speed and it's
success depends entirely upon the
velocity it attains, 1t is pitched with
the sphere grasped with two fingers
and the thumb, and is thrown with
the full force of the body and arm be-
hind it, either underhand or overland.
Pitched directly overland, leaving
the finger tips with the fingers on top
and with the thumb under, the ball
goes as straight to the plate as it can
be made to do in any way, the angie
and speed alone preventing the batter
from hitting it hard
If the course of the ball from the
hand to the plate is the natural angle
it is called 'the groove ball" as It
follows the most natural lines, and
when tie ball comes lin the groove"
long hit usually results.
Pitched with the hand held side
ways, the ball, tax ng friction from
the finger tips, swerves slightly from
its course and breaks in toward the
right-handed batter and away from
the left-handed one. If the ball is
gripped tightly with the finger tips at
the moment it is released from the
hand it takes an eccentric jump Just
before passing the batter, darling in
the direction in which the pressure
was applied
Real Wonders of Scientific Pitching.
The curve ball is held in the same
way as the fast one. but is released
over the side of the first finger. The
urye depends on the manner III
which the ball is gripped in the
fingers at the instant of release, upon
the way the wrist is turned and upon
the amount of power applied.
After these elementary principles OF
pitching come the real wonders-the
slow ball, the change of pace, the
fadeway, the knuckle ball, the hook,
the spit ball, the palm, the high float
er, tie fast fader, the thumb jump
the crossfre. And to tell how those
things are done it is necessary to tell
who does them and how.
The first curves discovered were If
the variety now known as the barrel
hoop or round house" 1t WAS slow,
twisting curve, pitched underhand
with the hand swung low, almost to
the knee, and with the fingers down
ward and the wrist held almost at
+ ght angles with the arm AS the
arm swung the wrist was jerked
sharply and the ball described a slow,
wide arc
Modecai Browns hook curve is the
highest development of the fast over
hand ball which curves down and
out. Brown has but two entire fing-
ers on his right hand. His first finger
is cut off short and the middle finger
is badly wrecked. Perhaps this is the
secret of his curves. Brown can by
regulating the point where he releas-
es the ball make it describe a wide
fast arc or after travelling so feet
break suddenly at a sharp angle.
Most players who have faced
Browns curves concede them to be
the greatest of all But no member OF
the Detroit team who batted against
Overall in the worlds championship
series of 1903 will acknowledge that
Brown is better.
The slow ball is one of the para
doXes of the game The object was
to pitch with full force with tile exact
motion used in pitching fast ball
and yet make the ball travel slowly.
It was found that if the ball was held
far back in THE palm OF the hand
with the little finger and the thumb
clenched on opposite sides of it or
with the third finger on one side and
the thumb on the other and with the
other fingers not touching the ball
that result could be obtained.
Instead of starting to revolve and
going fast the ball wagblei from side
to side, scarcely turning over, and
! floating on the air, allowing the at
mosphere pressure to strike the for
ward side with no revolution to les
sen the friction
The effect is that the air pressure
stops the ball; it loses speed rapidly
and drops quickly toward the earth
after expanding its force. Oddly, il
commences to revolve with extreme
| raDiditv on losing it's forward nrns.