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Mangesh Hattikudur
1 of 2 Japanese things to look forward to
by Mangesh Hattikudur - September 11, 2006 - 12:00 PM

I read two exciting things in this month’s terrific Esquire, and surprisingly enough they were both penned by mental_floss contributor Doug Cantor. (Nice job, Doug!) Anyway, I figured they were too interesting not to post about, so here goes…

#1) Apparently, there’s a new type of Baseball Pitch?
Dubbed the Gyroball, the throw is the first entirely new baseball pitch to enter the sport since the split-fingered fastball?! Developed by two Japanese scientists who are well-versed 36770-baseball_pillow.jpgin sports mechanics, baseball writers have referred to the throw as a “Bugs Bunny pitch” because it comes straight towards a batter’s kidneys on a nearly flat plane before taking a total left turn and breaking as much as three feet over the plate! And while the pitch looks better on computer simulators than on the field right now (only 2 pitchers claim they can throw one), the way the pitch is described it sounds like any contact with the ball is a lucky accident. And while I can’t even imagine how the pitch works (there’s some mention of “double-spin mechanics” and throwing the pitch more like a football than a baseball), I’m definitely excited to see if and how it’ll affect the game. Info, via Esquire Magazine

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Comments (4)

  1. As an experienced pitcher, coach and avid student of pitching I am very skeptical. There have been literally millions of players over the years trying to make the ball dance, it is hard for me to believe that no one till now figured out how to throw this unhittable pitch. New pitches are not invented anymore, they simply become fashionable.

    This is not to say it is not possbile from the standpoint of physics but it is highly unlikely that a human can consistantly throw a new pitch that acts like the described Bugs Bunny pitch.

    posted by Ari on 9-11-2006 at 12:47 pm

  2. yeah, it’s pretty interesting, and there seems to be quite a bit of skepticism around it. but Esquire has pretty sound fact checkers, and the mechanics of it seem fascinating to me. Apparently, part of the reason the researchers stumbled on the pitch was that they were trying to create a pitch that put less strain on a pitcher’s arm through computer simulations? I’d still like to read more about it. But there’s a Japanese pitcher who might be coming to the states next year, and is predicted to bring the pitch with him. You could very well be right though.

    posted by Mangesh on 9-11-2006 at 1:25 pm

  3. Fascinating! I can’t wait to see that in action. AND, you brought back that old cartoon to me, with the great cheer: “What’s the score boys? What did Bugs Bunny say? Baseball and carrots, hip hip hurray!”

    posted by David on 9-11-2006 at 1:54 pm

  4. I agree with Ari’s statement that “new” pitches are just old pitches becoming fashionable. That was certainly true in the case of the splitter, a fastball-forkball hybrid.

    And while the computer-generated gyroball seems like an attempt to create something truly new and different, the concept of throwing a pitch “more like a football than a baseball” is not new at all. Some pitching coaches used this technique during the late sixties to teach the slider–a practice that led to a high incidence of elbow injuries.

    If you have a 96 m.p.h. heater as gyroball master Daisuke Matsuzaka is reported to have, I wonder why you would want to risk a promising career to throw a trick pitch–especially when the same effect can be achieved–pain-free–with a strong grip and the discrete use of K-Y Jelly or other water-soluble lubricant….

    posted by dlreed52 on 9-13-2006 at 2:14 am

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