The simple answer: gravity. A riseball has to overcome it. A curveball or screw does not, and a drop is helped by it.
I don't have the exact figures, but the physics geeks have done the calculations showing how fast a softball would have to spin backwards in order for it to overcome the earth's gravitational pull and actually jump up. It was some number well above what humans can throw.
Edit to add:
I found this with a Google search. According to the authors of the book, for a BASEBALL (which weighs less) to rise above its anticipated trajectory it would have to have 3600 RPM (60 RPS) spin when thrown at 90 mph. RevFire says 25 - 30 RPS is an exceptional spin rate - puts you in the elite category I believe. And the fastest female pitch speeds are in the 70-73 mph range. So you'd need a softball to be thrown roughly 15-20 mph faster with twice as much spin to get the ball to actually jump. That's if it weighed as much as a baseball. Since it weighs more, you probably have to increase both numbers. You'd probably have to also account for increased drag due to the larger surface of the ball, and the shorter distance to make it happen. So not bloody likely.
https://books.google.com/books?id=-...age&q=spin rate for rise ball to rise&f=false
There are only two words that are yet mystical in this domain => "drag crisis"
I do understand gravity. So you guys say that it is impossible to put enough spin and speed and whatever to make a ball curve/rise upwards in a short distance (43'). I also realize it will return to earth sometime. I am not a rocket scientist but with enough speed and power you can over come gravity and get a rocket to the moon. I'm just saying. If the consensus is there is no rise ball, why is that all I hear on the TV broadcasts about the great rise ball so an so has. If it is just an optical illusion ( and it well may be), then is the curve and drop also, or are you saying that gravity helps them. I can't argue with that. Thanks for letting me ask these novice questions.
NEXT QUESTION. As a novice, does (rise ball) have a spin altogether different than any other pitch? If so, when a pitch starts out low and is heading high why does any body swing at it, won't it likely be a ball. Seems like most the rise balls I see on TV are way up there. Is it the different spin you see as it get closer that causes the optical illusion? I thought softball was ...see the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball! Wow am I getting an eye full (no pun intended!) That's all for me, thanks again, you guys are great!
So... ball travels from point A (release point from pitcher's hand) to point B (catcher's mitt) WITHOUT rising, meaning without traveling in an upward trajectory? Definition of the word rise:
1. move from a lower position to a higher one; come or go up
Okay, then what you're saying is that from pitcher's hand to catcher's mitt the ball eithers travels completely level or on a downward trajectory. Those are your only other options. Good luck with that.