Illegal baseball pitch
Gaylord Perry
threw the spitball during his career.
Look up
spitball
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A
spitball
is an illegal
baseball pitch
in which the
ball
has been altered by the application of a foreign substance such as
saliva
or
petroleum jelly
. This technique alters the
wind resistance
and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to move in an atypical manner. It may also cause the ball to "slip" out of the pitcher's fingers without the usual spin that accompanies a pitch. In this sense, a spitball can be thought of as a
fastball
with
knuckleball
action. Alternative names for the spitball are
spitter
,
mud ball
,
shine ball
,
supersinker
, or
vaseline ball
(because originally,
Vaseline
was used to give the ball a little more
break
). A spitball technically differs from an
emery ball
, in which the surface of the ball is cut or abraded. Saliva or Vaseline smooths the baseball, while the emery paper roughens it. The general term for altering the ball in any way is
doctoring
.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Slippery elm
bark, chewed to produce the extra saliva needed to throw a spitball
The invention of the spitball has been popularly credited to a number of individuals, among them
Elmer Stricklett
and
Frank Corridon
. Numerous accounts, however, refer to different players experimenting with versions of the spitball throughout the latter half of the 19th century, and it remains unlikely that any one individual "invented" the spitball.
[2]
Ed Walsh
, however, is certainly responsible for popularizing it. Walsh dominated the
American League
from 1906 to 1912, primarily on the strength of his spitball, and pitchers around the league soon copied his spitball or invented their own trick pitch.
The dramatic increase in the popularity of "freak deliveries" led to a great deal of controversy throughout the 1910s regarding the abolition of the spitball and related pitches. In his
autobiography
,
Ty Cobb
wrote that such "freak pitches [...] were outlawed when the owners greedily sold out to
home runs
."
[3]
In addition, there were serious issues with the spitball, including some that affected safety. A variation on the standard spitball called for the pitcher to smear the entire surface of the normally white ball with a mixture of
tobacco spittle
and dirt or mud in order to stain it the same deep brown color as the infield which made it nearly impossible for batters to see (and sometimes avoid) in low-light conditions. In August 1920,
Ray Chapman
was killed when he was struck in the temple by a pitch thrown by known spitball pitcher
Carl Mays
during a poorly lit game.
In
Major League Baseball
(MLB), the spitball was banned in two stages. In the winter of 1919?1920, managers voted to partially ban the spitball. Each team was allowed to designate up to two pitchers who would be permitted to throw spitballs. After the 1920 season, the use of the spitball was banned with the exception of a group of 17 existing spitballers, who became legacy spitballers who were allowed to throw the pitch legally until they retired.
[4]
Of the exempted group,
Burleigh Grimes
lasted the longest, retiring in 1934. The complete list of exempted spitballers is:
Ray Fisher
(played through 1920);
Doc Ayers
(1921);
Ray Caldwell
(1921);
Phil Douglas
(1922);
Dana Fillingim
(1925);
Marv Goodwin
(1925);
Dutch Leonard
(1925);
Allen Russell
(1925);
Allen Sothoron
(1926);
Dick Rudolph
(1927);
Stan Coveleski
(1928);
Urban Shocker
(1928);
Bill Doak
(1929);
Clarence Mitchell
(1932);
Red Faber
(1933);
Jack Quinn
(1933); and Grimes.
[5]
In March 1955, MLB Commissioner
Ford Frick
advocated for the return of the spitball, telling a sportswriter, "If I had my way, I'd legalize the old spitter. It was a great pitch and one of the easiest to throw. There was nothing dangerous about it."
[6]
Despite the Commissioner's enthusiasm, the pitch remained illegal.
Methodology
[
edit
]
The spitball is now banned in Major League baseball.
[1]
It is a pitching violation in NCAA Baseball.
[7]
However, it is still sometimes thrown in violation of the rules. In
1942
,
Leo Durocher
, then-manager of the
Brooklyn Dodgers
, fined
Bobo Newsom
for throwing a spitball and "lying to me about it." Typically, a lubricant is hidden behind the pitcher's knee or under the peak of his cap. Others will place the ball in their mitt and then cough on or lick it. Another tactic pitchers use is to soak their hair in water before going out to the mound, and then rub their hair before a pitch.
Preacher Roe
, who played for the
Brooklyn Dodgers
in the 1950s, was renowned both for his ability to control the spitball and to throw it without getting caught and described his methodology in a 1955 article in
Sports Illustrated
. "The Outlawed Spitball Was My Money Pitch" was published a year after he retired.
[8]
Another famous user of the pitch was
Gaylord Perry
, who went so far as to title his autobiography
Me and the Spitter
and chronicled the clever ways in which he avoided detection. For example, Perry would put
Vaseline
on his zipper because umpires would never check a player's groin.
Don Drysdale
also used the pitch regularly,
[9]
as did
Lew Burdette
.
[10]
Drysdale would apply oil to the back of his hair to put on the ball to make it sink.
[9]
Mike Fiers
has been accused of doctoring the baseball during both his no-hitters.
[11]
Legal spits
[
edit
]
The name
dry spitter
is sometimes used to describe a pitch that moves like a spitball without saliva, such as the
forkball
or
split-finger fastball
. It is sometimes used simply as slang for the
knuckleball
.
There is also the remote term of
God-given spitter
, which is when the ball is naturally dampened by moist air or light rainfall, which allows pitchers to be able to throw pitches with sharper breaks, much like a spitball.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Doctoring the Baseball"
.
Major League Baseball
. Retrieved
2020-02-17
.
- ^
James, Bill; Neyer, Rob (2008-06-16).
The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches
.
ISBN
978-1439103777
.
- ^
Cobb, Ty; Stump, Al (1961).
My life in baseball: The true record
.
ISBN
0803263597
.
- ^
Okrent, Daniel (1989-04-20).
Baseball anecdotes
.
ISBN
9780195043969
.
- ^
Faber, Charles F.; Faber, Richard B. (2006).
Spitballers - The Last Legal Hurlers of the Wet One
. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company. p. v.
ISBN
0-7864-2347-1
. Retrieved
26 August
2018
.
- ^
"Frick Favors Return of "the Old Spitter"
".
Milwaukee Journal
. March 8, 1953. p. 2.
- ^
2021 and 2022 Baseball Rules and Interpretations. NCAA Publications, 2020 "9-2-e - Pitcher applies foreign substance"
- ^
Goldstein, Richard (November 10, 2008).
"Preacher Roe, Brooklyn Dodgers Star Known for His Spitball, Dies at 92"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
November 10,
2008
.
- ^
a
b
Calcaterra, Craig -
Bill White on Don Drysdale: “he threw spitballs”
. NBC Sports, March 28, 2011
- ^
Goldstein, Richard -
Lew Burdette, Masterful Pitcher, Dies at 80
. New York Times, February 7, 2007
- ^
"Was Mike Fiers cheating during his no-hitter?"
.
ESPN
. August 24, 2015
. Retrieved
November 10,
2008
.