What am i doing wrong?

Pitching Mechanics
#1

Well, I am 14 and haven’t played baseball for a while, but have worked on arm strength. In PE we are starting a baseball/softball unit and I’m trying to throw. I grip the ball (we use softballs so that might be the problem) like a normal 4SFB but when i throw the ball it manages to break away from left handed hitters almost like a slider I believe. Then later i threw the same way but it sank alot more like i was trying to throw a sinker which i wasn’t. I don’t really have a conventional motion i throw kind of sidearm but not entirely. I can’t really explain how i throw the ball but i want to know why it breaks so much.

Also, for future referance, I’d like it if someone told me how to throw an eephus without requiring a PhD in baseball…

#2

Okay, first things first. The eephus (also called the blooper, the folly floater, the “LaLob” and a few other designations) is a slow, high-arcing curve ball that has been known to rise 20 or 25 feet in the air before it comes down. The best way to throw it is to use a straight overhand delivery (and I don’t think you could do it with a softball, so it’s best to use a regular baseball). The grip is not important, but a lot of pitchers will use a standard curve-ball grip. The pitch has been in existence for decades; Rip Sewell came up with it after he was forced to alter his pitching delivery due to an injury, and he had a great deal of success with it (except for the one time Ted Williams blasted that pitch into the stands). More recently Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez used it effectively when he was pitching for the Yankees.
As far as your pitches breaking every which way is concerned, you’d better stop trying to do anything with the softball and stick to using a regular baseball, especially if you throw sidearm. With a regular baseball you’ll be able to get a finer degree of control and get the pitches to do what you want them to. :slight_smile: 8)

#3

Well thanks for the reply, I guessed that could be a problem, so when i manage to find a baseball in the mess known as my closet I’ll try it with a baseball.