I watched about half of the Dodgers/Braves game last night which is half a game more than I’ve watched in years (go Puig!). Since I don’t follow baseball, I saw a few things that absolutely baffled me.
During consecutive pitches, the pitcher threw a ball that landed basically on the ground in front of the catcher. On the first pitch, the catcher turned to the umpire and handed him the ball. On the second pitch, the catcher was going to throw the ball back to the pitcher but the umpire asked for it and handed him a new ball. Why do they change balls so much? And after what I imagine is a tiny little scuff from the ball hitting the ground. Is this done all the time? And how many balls does an average game go through?
Right now, I have the TV turned to the current Dodger/Braves game. However, it looks like before the game, they have this “Old timers game” where a bunch of retired players come out and play a few innings. Is this new?? I’ve never heard of this before! Do all teams do this? I notice the teams featured are the Dodgers and Yankees. I imagine some new team or one that’s sucked for most of its history probably won’t have a lot of good players to call up. This is brand new to me, not only have I never seen something like this, I’ve never even heard a hint of this before. I thought golf was the only one with a seniors tour. This isn’t like the NBA All-Star weekend where they have retired players and celebrities play a game
Have they ever done (well they probably have but I don’t know) actual studies to see how small a scuff or mark or alteration to the ball can have an effect? It just seems to me, a non-baseball watcher, that a bit of dirt or whatever is irrelevant in the big picture. Doesn’t it make it harder for the pitcher to control too? Why isn’t the argument “if the ball is scuffed, the pitcher might throw it wild and be advantageous to the batter”? Seems like it would be an even disadvantage to both sides…
I haven’t but I’ve heard that those pitches are really hard to throw, mess up your arm, and unhittable.
Another question: I know that runners can’t go until somebody catches a fly ball, but players being who they are, I’m sure some of them run right before its caught. But I’ve never seen that happen. Maybe I don’t watch enough, but people violate the clock in the NBA all the time. Do runners often run before a fly ball is caught? And if so, what’s the punishment?
If the fielding team (and umpire)sees it, you can get thrown out at the base you left.
Scuffing a ball makes it easier to throw breaking pitches. No violent twisting of the wrist/elbow or strange grips.
The “punishment” would be that the fielding team would return the ball to the base, appeal the play, and you would be called out.
Players do NOT attempt to do this. To be caught leaving early, and thus made out on a play you might well have been safe on anyway, would be immensely embarrassing and considered stupid and amateurish.
Knuckleballs don’t mess up your arm; in fact, they’re famously SOFT on your arm, as opposed to normal pitches, because they are generally not thrown very hard. They are quite tough to master - usually pitchers attempt to learn them only after it is apparent they don’t have the talent to make it with regular pitchers.
Umpires periodically ask the catcher for the ball just to make sure a pitcher isn’t altering it in some way, even if it hasn’t hit the ground or been touched by anyone but the pitcher and catcher. The pitcher should take it as a compliment, it means he’s getting some wicked action on the ball.
Good pitchers know how to exploit any irregularity in a ball to get unusual spin and thus movement. Historically pitchers have gone to a lot of effort to find ways to surreptitiously nick or otherwise modify the ball. They’ve hidden emery boards or small knives in their uniforms, or used a dab of vaseline from behind their ear to get a similar effect. Whitey Ford confessed that he used to use a ring to nick the ball. After he was caught, catcher Elston Howard would use a sharpened shin guard to cut the ball for him. A ball that has been legitimately scuffed in play can be a valuable commodity to a pitcher. Years ago balls used to be left in play for a long time, but now they are a trivial expense for any big league team so they are taken out of play almost any time they might have been damaged.
There are pitchers out there who can make a ball dance if they find the slightest imperfection, like the seams are a bit higher on one side. Any scuffs, tears or foreign material on a ball is a pitcher’s dream.
I’ve heard some announcers and commentators say that most pitchers today wouldn’t know what to do with a scuffed ball if they found themselves holding one. Balls last about three pitches at best, and it’s unlikely you’ll have many chances to throw an damaged ball. Pitchers have to know how to manipulate perfectly new balls, so they hold it weird or mix Bullfrog sunblock with powdered rosin.
I assume you’re not talking about situations where the baserunner leaves the base while the batted ball is still in the air, because he doesn’t think it’s going to be caught or because there are already two outs?
I dunno. It’s really only at the top levels (MLB, AAA, maybe AA, and top-tier NCAA) that the ball is replaced that often. Most of these guys learned to pitch with balls that lasted a LOT longer than that. Most high schools can’t afford to replace a ball every three pitches.
The changed/scuffed ball question is actually quite complex. Until the twenties, balls were left in play until they were falling apart. That meant an entire game could be played with just one ball–and by the late innings, the ball had the consistency of a tomato and was difficult to hit hard. There are lots of theories why balls were changed more regularly (and the spitball outlawed): it helped hitting, too dangerous to hitters (in 1920 the only major league fatality was caused by a spitball), or just the spit/tobacco/grass covered ball was just too disgusting.
Can a scuffed ball cause the ball to move more unpredictably? Yes, but it also makes it easier to get by the catcher or be mishandled by the fielders. It’s telling that when spitballs were outlawed in 1920, pitchers could apply to grandfather in the pitch–but most didn’t. The totally legal knuckleball is even harder to control. Most knuckleball pitchers admit they don’t know where the ball is going and they tend to lead the majors in wild pitches.
In regards to whether pitchers know how to use scuffed balls, it’s clear scuffing or spitballs are used less than ever. Video makes it much harder to hide ball doctoring, while pitches like the split-finger/cut fastball/circle change are much easier to control than doctored balls.
The commentators who say that are probably right. It’s still good to take scuffed balls out of play, because they can be hard to see and can break in an unusual way, but these days such breaking would as likely be by accident as by pitcher design.
Despite what you’ll read on Wikipedia, the pitch which killed Chapman almost certainly wasn’t a spitball, and the incident played little part in the banning of the spitball.
The reputation of the spitter (as a difficult pitch to hit) was already in decline by 1920, and it was banned in February 1920. However each club was allowed to designate two (AL) or more (NL) “grandfathered spitballers” who would be allowed to throw the pitch for the 1920 season only, to ease the transition.
I’ve never seen a list of the 1920 spitballers, but I don’t believe Mays was one of them. In any case by most contemporary accounts the pitch was simply a fastball that Chapman never saw, because the ball was dirty.
After the season, the spitball ban was revised so that only 17 pitchers (in total) would be grandfathered, but they would be allowed to continue using the pitch for the rest of their careers. This list of 17 has been widely published and Mays was definitely not on it.
The more substantive change which actually resulted from Chapman’s death was more consistent replacement of dirty baseballs.