Pitched balls

Timmy Holdgrafer in

Monday's game: torso tilt

not right or left, leaning

forward. (Photo by

Ed Piper)



More on delivery angle, I'm picturing a ball not spinning (a knuckleball) and how it moves: It doesn't move in a straight line. Rather, it bobs back and forth.

That's different movement from a two-seam or four-seam fastball. Those have more of a direct trajectory in a slope, like what I teach my students when we graph slope in Algebra.

When Trenton Fudge throws a pitch for La Jolla, there is air between him and home plate. That means the ball is going to encounter filled space as it races toward Jackson Hyytenin's catcher's glove. There isn't a vacuum.

Molecules of oxygen, nitrogen, and various particles of dust and pollen floating in the air from all the vegetation surrounding the field (I'm picturing where the Vikings played last, on Cathedral Catholic's field Thursday) have to get out of the way. This sphere is pushing its way through all of that, creating eddies of air movement and spinning from Fudge's or Ben Wintringer's or Luke Bucon's or James Whelan's (whew--a lot of pitchers Thursday) grip and release of the pitch.

A funny thought: The poor Aztecs basketball players--didn't they play one of the games on the Midway?--having to loft jump shots, with the wind from the bay blowing the ball to the side or back to them! Changing baskets at halftime meant you either had your shot blow over the basketball stanchion, or fall short of it, depending on the direction of the wind during the game.

As I read the Brooks article (see previous entries) on pitching biomechanics, I still don't understand why and how the spin of the ball interacts with air resistance. Can someone out there explain it to me in lay terms?


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper