The curveball is not just a devastating pitch used to put the finishing touch on a batter when a pitcher wants to register a strikeout. It was such an effective pitch that it spawned the development of the slider, which is a combination of a fastball and a curve. However, a first-rate curveball has a large break that can buckle a batter's knees and send him back to the dugout shaking his head after striking out.
Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown
Many baseball historians credit Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown with inventing the curveball. If he did not invent it, he was the most well-known pitcher to throw the breaking ball in the World Series era, which began in 1903. Brown, who pitched primarily for the Chicago Cubs, suffered a horrific accident as a youngster after his hand got caught in farming machinery. Three of the fingers on his pitching hand were mangled or severed. While his hand was damaged, Brown had an affinity for baseball before the accident and continued to work at his trade. When he was called up to the Cubs in 1904, he had a devastating curveball that helped lead Chicago to back-to-back World Series titles in 1907 and 1908. The Cubs have not won a World Series since then.
How It Is Thrown
Throwing the curveball takes proper placement of the ball along the forefinger and middle finger with the thumb directly underneath. The fingers should be placed with the seams. When you throw a fastball, you throw it with your fingers across the seams. With an overhand motion, you twist your wrist hard to the left as you let the ball go if your are right-handed. This creates a spin on the ball that will send it down and away from a right-handed batter. A well-thrown curveball can have a break of 8 to 12 inches.
Sandy Koufax
Sandy Koufax pitched for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers between 1955 and 1966. Koufax had a devastating curveball to go along with his hard fastball. Koufax had exceptionally long fingers on his 6-foot-2 frame and sensational coordination even by professional athletic standards. That allowed him to put an overpowering amount of spin on his curveball and cause it to break sharply down. The late Yankee manager Casey Stengel said Koufax was "the best pitcher in baseball history" and one of the primary reasons was his curveball. Koufax left the game at the age of 30 because of an arthritic condition in his left elbow, but not before he compiled a 165-87 record and struck out 2,397 batters. Koufax threw four no-hitters and one perfect game.
Curve Ball Problems
When thrown effectively, the curveball leaves even the best hitters shaking their heads in disbelief. Many pitchers have a hard time throwing it consistently. When you don't put enough spin on it to make it break hard and do it rapidly, the result can be a hanging curveball. Instead of breaking low and away, or low and in to a batter, it hangs over the middle of the plate. Good hitters can overpower this pitch and launch it for a home run with ease. "When I think of getting a home run pitch, that was the pitch I wanted," Phillies Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt said. "If I got a hanging curve and didn't hit it out, I was mad at myself for a week."
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