The magical riseball story.

[JJsqueeze]

time to get the tinfoil hat out Hal The voices are starting again. You have not seen physics disproven. you have seen things that appeared to do this I am sure, but if you had enough information about what was going on at the time then you would have been able to explain it.

 

[Mrek]

If I threw a riseball straight at the glove; it comes in flat looking like a fastball but hops up some inches at some point and then continues towards the catcher at that new height. The most effective ones 'hop' up just before reaching the 'Hit zone' of the batter.

The wind blowing in your face or at your back made a big difference in the amount of 'Hop' and exactly when it occurred. Wind at your face, might hop way too soon and the batter could adjust and clobber it. Wind at your back; it might not hop at all in time and you best duck!

When people start playing softball in a NASA simulator or in a physics laboratory, then I will stop chuckling at that. It's not my fault they havent been in softball in the real world and seen these type of things. They simply havent been around enough to know.

Like the commercial says :Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad.

I have seen too much physics 'Knowledge' proven wrong. I was always too busy pitching, or teaching to take videos.

Sleep well in your 'Knowledge' of softball.

Out of curiosity, how tall are you?

My DD has what I would call an effective rise, not great but can generate swings and misses at the DIII level (and in the past, a ton at the HS level).
I have caught her for 8 years.

From the catching position, the pitch looks "ok/so so" to me. I don't see a "hop". I see a pitch that doesn't "flatten" out nearly as much like a fastball might.

But when I stand in the batter box looking down on the pitch, it looks a heck of a lot better and frankly might "hop" over my bat.

I am a male.

Since men are generally taller, I think male pitchers probably get fooled by their own illusion more than they like to think.

 

[halskinner]

MREK,

WHICH riseball does your daughter throw? What style and wind up does she use?

I am 6'6" and could pitch very very fast. I was a leap and drag pitcher, closed mechanics (hips at 45 degrees at LFT) and could throw more than one riseball. My best one was the bent fingered riseball that you can find in the sticky model grips.

No illusion at all.

 

[sluggers]

Mrek

And you are an example of why this discussion is important. This fantasy about rise balls confuses people. So, pitchers and parents get confused and don't really know what a riseball looks like. Hal wants people to go unicorn hunting for the magical "jumping" rise ball.

There is no "hop" at the plate. It is an illusion.

Think about it...if a ball is traveling 60 MPH, and it mysteriously "hops" in the last five feet before it gets to the plate, then the batter and catcher have about than 1/2 of .1 seconds to react to the ball. (The ball is moving at 88 FPS. 5/88 is about .05) It would be impossible for a batter to hit it or for a catcher to catch it. But, it isn't. Batters hit them out of the park all the time. Catchers catch them all the time.

I have the athletic talent of a one legged frog. Yet, I could catch a rise ball from a good riseball pitcher on the third pitch. It isn't particularly hard.

Hal:

I offered $500 for anyone who could throw a ball where the trajectory increases. No one has taken my money yet. So, I'll go further and offer $500 to some who can throw a regulation pitch with a regulation ball with riseball spin that jumps up at the plate.

CoachFP:

We have to have a common understanding of how we use words. "Rise" also means "increase", e.g., "I hope his temperature doesn't rise." So, the word "rise" can be used to indicate something other than relative vertical distances. If a rise ball is simply a pitch where the ball ends up higher at that plate its initial position, then my 100 year old aunt can throw one from her wheel chair.

 

[Sweet Lou]

No illusion at all.

I'm sure David Copperfield says the same thing.

 

[Mrek]

MREK,

WHICH riseball does your daughter throw? What style and wind up does she use?

I am 6'6" and could pitch very very fast. I was a leap and drag pitcher, closed mechanics (hips at 45 degrees at LFT) and could throw more than one riseball. My best one was the bent fingered riseball that you can find in the sticky model grips.

No illusion at all.

She actually throws what some might call a "bent-fingered" rise. I have seen pictures, I would guess, of your hand. It is not quite the same as she has smaller hands. But she bends her index finger so the tip is in front of the seam and acts like a fulcrum to pivot the ball over. She does not "flick" at the snap.

6-6" huh... That's what I was thinking.

Your rise must "look" pretty good.

 

[halskinner]

Mrek, it is not enough to just lay the index finger over. You have to dig the middle finger edge of the index finger down towards the center of the ball, dig it in hard. It makes all the difference in the world. Young girls hate that grip when they first start with it, it is not comfortable at all. They hate until they see what it does in a game then they love it.

"Batters hit them out of the park all the time." The cut rise, oh yeah, pounded hard all the time. The bent fingered rise thrown with some practice, hardly ever hit hard. It can be thrown much faster than 60mph and still hop up and still be caught. But you better be experienced at it or be prepared to take shots off the mask.

 

[halskinner]

time to get the tinfoil hat out Hal The voices are starting again. You have not seen physics disproven. you have seen things that appeared to do this I am sure, but if you had enough information about what was going on at the time then you would have been able to explain it.

Scientist and science is so accurate, solid and infallable huh? A new breed of mammal has been in plain view for many years, but just now got noticed. In plain view of everyone but they didnt what they were looking at.

Do I trust lab scientist? Heck no.

Adorable new mammal species found 'in plain sight'

 

[Greenmonsters]

MREK,

WHICH riseball does your daughter throw? What style and wind up does she use?

I am 6'6" and could pitch very very fast. I was a leap and drag pitcher, closed mechanics (hips at 45 degrees at LFT) and could throw more than one riseball. My best one was the bent fingered riseball that you can find in the sticky model grips.

No illusion at all.

Just delusions.

 

[Perfect Circle]

I'm after that $500...