by Josh Kalk
May 14, 2008

A conversation on the mound after a curveball ended up being hit for a home run.

Nuke LaLoosh: [softly, infuriated] I held it like an egg.
Crash Davis: Yeah, and he scrambled the son of a bitch.
--Bull Durham 1988

The curveball has been around almost as long as baseball yet there still is plenty of mystery around the pitch. Curveballs are all about deception. Ideally, a pitcher would like to throw the pitch with the same arm speed at the same release point only to have the bottom drop out at the last instant leaving the batter wondering happened. When the pitch loses its deception it can be hit a long way as Nuke found out. While I doubt many catchers in the majors are letting batters know that a curveball is coming there still are plenty of ways for the batter to sniff out the pitch. ...

hat-tip Tango