Clipping:A discussion of underhand throwing
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
 |
| Add a Clipping |
| Date | Sunday, August 28, 1870 |
|---|---|
| Text | [Forest City of Cleveland vs. Mutual 8/24/1870] James White did not remain long in the pitching department, the umpire [Chapman] ruling him out for throwing. A word or two about this throwing business before we continue. Let any ball-player take a ball in hand, and, keeping his arm perfectly straight, and swinging it perpendicularly, or, in other words, let him deliver the ball by a square pitch, and not by an under-hand throw; and having done this and noted the pace of the ball so delivered, let him send the ball by means of a well-disguised under hand throw, or half jerk, and he will then realize the fact that there is not a swift pitcher in the country who does not get his speed from under-hand throwing. James White’s deliver in the games he has pitched in here does not differ in the least from that of Cummings, of the Stars; Wolters of the Mutuals; Pabor, of the Unions; or, in fact, any of the number of our swiftest pitchers. No such pace can be got out of a really square-pitched ball. Creighton inaugurated this style of delivery, and since his time really fair pitching has been rarely seen on the ball-field. The rules, it is true, prohibit throwing, but the difficulty is in being able to define what is an underhand throw. We can readily rule out an overhand throw, or a palpable jerk, but where is the authority competent to perceive this well-disguised underhand throwing of the ball; and, after all, this underhand throwing business does no harm to the game. In effectiveness against skillful batsmen the swiftest pitching–or underhand throwing in reality–costs more than it yields. But few catchers can support it, and what with missed chances of foul tips and passed balls, and the impossibility of putting out players from throwing to bases from it, it does not begin to pay as well as strategy in pitching. To be consistent, the next time Chapman set as umpire he should rule out every swift underhand throwing who faces him, for it White does it all our swift pitchers do it. |
| Source | New York Sunday Mercury |
| Tags | |
| Warning | |
| Comment | Edit with form to add a comment |
| Query | Edit with form to add a query |
| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
Comments
<comments voting="Plus" />