The magical riseball story.

[Ken B]

Somebody posted a couple different clips in that were incredible. One was a ball that curved the opposite of what one would expect based on spin and seam orientation. The other was of MLB pitcher _____ (maybe Niekro?) that I believe showed a pitch rise. Very cool!

 

[bucket pinata]

Love this board,till now the by far the most important thing I have learned is stay away from any thread that has anything to do with the rise ball!

 

[Sweet Lou]

RA Dickey maybe?

 

[bucket pinata]

Okay I did not not learn yet. neat vid but after looking at it.at first glance it does look like it rises but the pitcher is on a mound, already elevated his release point must be near his shoulder and the catcher snags it at the top of his helmet while still crouching.looks like flat high heat to me at best.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Okay I did not not learn yet. neat vid but after looking at it.at first glance it does look like it rises but the pitcher is on a mound, already elevated his release point must be near his shoulder and the catcher snags it at the top of his helmet while still crouching.looks like flat high heat to me at best.

It is RA Dickey's knuckle ball. I believe with the combo of near no rotation and the right air currents a knuckle ball can actually rise slightly above it's initial trajectory under the right conditions. It also think it is rare and the it more often "dances left, right or down" and while I admit I could be wrong on this I think science backs up the possibility of a rising knuckle ball.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Can Dickey throw heat?

 

[JJsqueeze]

It is RA Dickey's knuckle ball. I believe with the combo of near no rotation and the right air currents a knuckle ball can actually rise slightly above it's initial trajectory under the right conditions. It also think it is rare and the it more often "dances left, right or down" and while I admit I could be wrong on this I think science backs up the possibility of a rising knuckle ball.

Rising knuckleball concept, that oughta help us converge...We can't even agree on what rise means and you think we can handle this?

 

[Sweet Lou]

Can Dickey throw heat?

Depends how you define heat. I think he tops out around 89 mph on his FB and sits around 85 with it. Slow by MLB standards but still pretty darn fast by most people's standard.

His knuckle ball is usually in the 74-77 mph range. Very fast for the pitch type.

 

[Sweet Lou]

Rising knuckleball concept, that oughta help us converge...We can't even agree on what rise means and you think we can handle this?

I never said it was a controlled rise. Just a random event on the pitch that is possible under the right conditions.

 

[JJsqueeze]

ok- in all seriousness. A knuckleball is not magic and cannot do anything that a normal pitch with spin can't do better (in a single direction). What it does is break unpredictably. So it could start out straight, dodge left then come back right then go down, that is why it is so effective, it is the unpredictability, not the degree, of break.. This is what a spin pitch cannot do. A spin pitch has a defined break direction that is more than a knuckle ball would break if all conditions were held constant. If a knuckleball could rise, then a high heater could rise too.