# Can a human cleanly throw a baseball through a pizza box **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264 "2012-10-29T22:02:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/21 "2012-10-30T02:26:17Z")
To be honest, it’s the first pitch that really makes the least sense to me. I don’t see why a soda bottle would explode like that when hit by a baseball, even at 100 mph. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/22 "2012-10-30T02:41:12Z")
Those might not be 80mph throws but to my eye it looks like the ball was really moving. In addition each object struck suffers damage as if the ball was traveling quickly; not just the pizza box. Also each example was filmed in one continuous shot. Not saying it couldn’t possibly have been faked but it seems like it would’ve been more trouble than it’s worth. For what result? What would be the goal? To have faked, make look believable something as trivial as this? I don’t think it makes any sense to have faked it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/23 "2012-10-30T03:01:49Z")
> [@the lone cashew](#): > > Those might not be 80mph throws but to my eye it looks like the ball was really moving. In addition each object struck suffers damage as if the ball was traveling quickly; not just the pizza box. Also each example was filmed in one continuous shot. Not saying it couldn’t possibly have been faked but it seems like it would’ve been more trouble than it’s worth. For what result? What would be the goal? To have faked, make look believable something as trivial as this? I don’t think it makes any sense to have faked it. Because it looks pretty damned cool and fosters a shit-ton of internet discussion? You’re right, though. I’m not 100% convinced it’s fake, but it doesn’t look real at all to me. I do hope it’s settled definitively at some point, so I could calibrate my bullshit detector. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/24 "2012-10-30T03:35:33Z")
I’m damn sure it’s fake. Don’t doubt Cain can throw a ball very, very hatd without what appears to be a lot of effort - not 95, but he could easily hit 75-80 without looking like he’s trying. Major league pitchers can do that; it’s a matter of technique. You do not (properly) throw a baseball with your arm. You throw a baseball with your body. But the pizza thing, no freaking way. He’s throwing a BASEBALL, not firing a bullet. It wouldn’t go through like that. It’d knock the pizza of into a spin. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/25 "2012-10-30T03:35:59Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Well, hopefully we’ll find out soon. It’s just that the force and speed of the ball don’t seem consistant to me with the damage they’re doing. But who knows? I take it you’ve never been hit in the face with a baseball! I’ve taken one square in the mask while catching in sandlot ball. I doubt our pitchers threw more than 60 mph. It hurt so much, I couldn’t fathom what it would feel like without the mask. So I have no trouble believing the veracity of the video! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/26 "2012-10-30T03:40:24Z")
> [@D18](#): > > I take it you’ve never been hit in the face with a baseball! I’ve gotten a hard hit ground ball in the head (we played on shitty fields that had very unpredictable bounces) that actually left seam marks in my forehead (no exaggeration, it’s still a story that gets told with that circle of friends), so, yeah, I kinda know. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/27 "2012-10-30T03:42:53Z")
Wait, what? They called that a “deep dish”? Come on, that looked like a pretty garden-variety flat pizza to me. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/28 "2012-10-30T03:47:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > You do not (properly) throw a baseball with your arm. You throw a baseball with your body. Sure, but you still need to accelerate a part of your body–fingertips, ultimately I guess–to get the ball hauling. (Isn’t there a concurrent thread about this somewhere?) It doesn’t look to me like he’s getting anything to that level. That first pitch at the pop bottle looks like an easy lob motion to me. I don’t see any sort of “snap” or anything that would launch the ball at great velocity. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/29 "2012-10-30T03:49:04Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Wait, what? They called that a “deep dish”? Come on, that looked like a pretty garden-variety flat pizza to me. I’m a Chicagoan, and that looks like a proper deep dish to me, or pretty damned close. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/30 "2012-10-30T04:07:17Z")
Has anyone here simply gone out and tried it? I lack both a baseball and a pizza box. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/31 "2012-10-30T04:12:56Z")
I’m not seeing an easy lob motion. He turns his body and leans back and if you watch his arm there’s a clear whip motion. It’s not his full speed wind-up but he’s throwing a lot harder than I could. [Here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r68uDyKqU5c) is a video of someone throwing a baseball through a door. It’s a hollow-core door which is probably about as solid as cardboard. The guy is about 10 feet away but he’s no major league pitcher. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/32 "2012-10-30T05:08:57Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Because it looks pretty damned cool and fosters a shit-ton of internet discussion? I have to admit, you got me there. I think in this instance though, there’s a lot more to lose by faking it than there would be to gain. Am frankly quite surprised at all the discussion and controversy surrounding this. I am sticking with the opinion that it’s authentic as hell. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/33 "2012-10-30T05:16:54Z")
The motion looks okay, but there’s other stuff just wrong about it. 1. Cain’s first throw, at the soda bottle, appears to go not 70 or 80, but like 100, 110 miles an hour. He’s throwing the bottle 50-60 feet and it just zips like a rocket. It flight time is visible MLB-fastball-to-the-plate fast or faster. I don’t know Cain can throw that hard from a casual throw. He can certainly throw it hard enough to hurt you, but not that hard. 2. The reaction after the soda bottle looks fake as shit to me. That just looks like acting. 3. Although Matt Cain is a wonderful pitcher he’s not THAT accurate. He’s not throwing at a catcher’s mitt, he’s throwing at a moving target, on an upwards trajectory, \*\*\*something he is asked to do exactly never in his job. \*\*\* I suppose it is not impossible he could pull it off but it’s crazy unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/34 "2012-10-30T05:35:08Z")
The ball breaks the pinata in half? Why wouldn’t it make a hole like it did the pizza box? Pinatas are more rigid and “puncturable” than soft, pizza-filled cardboard boxes. And I would have expected the ball to knock the pizza box way out of its arc, rather than punching a clean hole through it. Like hitting a wet blanket. Something else I just noticed, there should have been pizza sauce sprayed all over the inside of the box because of the way they tossed it up in the air (spinning), unless it was totally desiccated. But when they opened it up, the side panels were completely sauce-free. It feels fake to me. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/35 "2012-10-30T05:40:20Z")
They must be desperate for material, having to create their own myths, and then subsequently bust them. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/36 "2012-10-30T06:01:21Z")
What happens when you throw a piece of paper in the air and punch it as hard as you can? The paper bends and flies off in a different direction. If you clamp the paper to a rigid frame, then your hand goes through. What makes anyone think that a round blunt baseball is going to go through two layers of flexible but relatively strong layers of cardboard and a pizza while it flies unsupported in the air? And even more silly is the perfectly round hole in the cardboard AND the pizza that looks like it was made with a biscuit cutter, not an object forcing its way through it. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/37 "2012-10-30T06:46:58Z")
> [@Mesquite-oh](#): > > What happens when you throw a piece of paper in the air and punch it as hard as you can? Unless you’re a boxer, you won’t punch faster than about [15 miles per hour](http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=5538765E-E7F2-99DF-393E0A0CD7821157). ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/38 "2012-10-30T07:07:28Z")
A similar stunt is done by Brandon Weeden, baseball player turned quarterback. Sports Science sets him up to knock down clay pigeons with a football. Mentions his failures, too. There is no point faking that, and if that is possible, I’m not seeing why the baseball thing shouldn’t be.[http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=KaPuSLRQR8Q&desktop\_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKaPuSLRQR8Q&gl=GB](http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=KaPuSLRQR8Q&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKaPuSLRQR8Q&gl=GB) ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/39 "2012-10-30T07:39:27Z")
Then there was Steve Dalkowski . . . [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve\_Dalkowski](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Dalkowski) > [@](#): > > Dalkowski’s greatest legacy may be the number of anecdotes (some more believable than others) surrounding his pitching ability. He was said to have thrown a pitch that tore off part of a batter’s ear, and some observers believed that this incident made Dalkowski even more nervous and contributed further to his wildness. Another story says that in 1960 at Stockton, California he threw a pitch that broke umpire Doug Harvey’s mask in three places, knocking him 18 feet (5 m) back and sending him to a hospital for three days with a concussion. Dalkowski once won a $5 bet with teammate Herman Starrette who said that he couldn’t throw a baseball through a wall. Dalkowski warmed up and then moved 15 feet (5 m) away from the wooden outfield fence. His first pitch went right through the boards.[4] On another bet, Dalkowski threw a ball over a fence 440 feet (134 m) away. ---
**Author:** ![Gaqua77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gaqua77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaqua77)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264/40 "2012-10-30T08:20:41Z")
It must be a modified or morphed pizza box. I don’t think this can be happen… Completely disagreed with this statement. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-human-cleanly-throw-a-baseball-through-a-pizza-box/639264.md?page=3)