Standing in the batter's box requires the ability to suspend reality. When you get ready to face a pitcher who might be able to throw the ball at speeds approaching 95 mph, you must suspend reason. When the pitcher fires the baseball, it becomes a dangerous projectile if it is off course and thrown in your direction. However, to have any chance of hitting it, you must put fear out of your mind when you step up to the plate.
Swing Preparation
When a hitter steps into the batter's box, he must prepare himself to be quick enough to hit a pitcher's best fastball. A pitcher can throw a curveball, change-up or a slider in addition to the fastball, but hitting the fastball requires the quickest reactions. If a pitcher throws a curveball, the hitter can slow his swing down to hit that pitch, but a hard curve that breaks suddenly can cause the hitter's knees to buckle.
Shifting Focus
A hitter who expects a curveball and gets one over the center of the plate has gotten a gift. The hitter's eyes will get wide and the hitter should be able to drive that pitch with power. However, the sharp breaking curveball that goes down and away from the hitter represents a major challenge. The hitter must alter both his stance and swing in order to hit this devastating pitch. As the hitter alters his stance and the angle of his swing, his knees might appear to buckle. While trying to change the swing plane, he will miscalculate the angle he needs to shift his body and the resulting swing will be a poor one.
12-to-6 Curveball
While a hanging curveball -- one that has little break and stays high in the hitting zone -- is easy to hit, a curveball with a sharp break represents a major challenge for a hitter. This type of curveball is called a 12 to 6 curveball, which is a comparison to a clock. The ball breaks from the 12 o'clock position to the 6 o'clock position, forcing the hitter to buckle his knees as he tries to hit the pitch. The slider, screwball and the change-up can also buckle a hitter's knees, but the sharp curveball can produce that action most consistently.
Great Curveball Pitchers
Sandy Koufax of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers is considered to have the best curveball in baseball history. His breaking ball was ranked first in baseball history by the Bleacher Report. Koufax had unusually large hands and fingers and used them to impart a significant amount of spin on the ball. The left-handed Koufax's curveball left Yankee Half of Famer Mickey Mantle talking to himself after the 1963 World Series. Koufax also had an explosive fastball; he's considered one of the best pitchers in the game's history. Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven did not have Koufax's fastball but his curveball might have been just as good. Blyleven's curveball was a devastating strikeout pitch when he pitched for the Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates and California Angels. Jerry Koosman of the Mets, Mike Cuellar of the Baltimore Orioles and Camilo Pascual of the Washington Senators also threw knee-buckling curveballs.
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