Texas Baseball Ranch - July/August 2020

BREAKING THE BREAKING BALL STIGMA The Truth About Curveballs, Sliders, and Cutters

or “turn” the curveball, making the efficient deceleration/ pronation of the arm even more difficult. In fact, sometimes incorrect instruction literally makes an efficient deceleration impossible. In addition, many youth pitchers fall in love with the pitch. They throw 40%–60% breaking balls because the hitters they face at their level usually have little experience hitting curveballs and are easily fooled by such a pitch. The curveball/slider/cutter makes the deceleration of the arm more complicated. While it’s not a great idea to complicate an already inefficient and immature movement pattern, the risks are not nearly enough to warrant banning the curveball or promoting it as the primary cause of injury. Such a call for action is an overreaction and represents a significant inferential leap. Eliminating the curveball in games will have very little impact on injuries and will introduce other negative elements into the game — like amateur umpires determining if a pitcher actually threw a breaking ball or a slip/split change-up (they have their hands full with strike/ ball and safe/out already) and coaches and players trying to scam or stretch the new rule to their advantage.

The curveball is only one of many factors that contribute to injury for youth pitchers. Every prepubescent pitcher’s growth plates are wide-open for stretches in their early baseball career, so their soft tissue and bone are already more at risk from the stress of throwing a baseball at high speed. Most youth pitchers also have asymmetries, strength imbalances, and mobility/ flexibility constraints or

limitations, which will complicate any movement pattern, so their soft tissue and bones are already more at risk from the stress of throwing a baseball at high end-point velocities. Many youth pitchers are taught to throw the curveball incorrectly — to manipulate

UPCOMING RANCH EVENTS ELITE PITCHERS BOOT CAMPS: Oct. 10–12 Nov. 21–23 Dec. 28–30 Jan. 16–18 YOUTH ELITE PITCHERS BOOT CAMP (for pitchers ages 8–12): October 17–18 More details and registration information on the events listed above can be found at TexasBaseballRanch.com/events. “RANCH ON THE ROAD” BOOTCAMPS: Sept. 25–27 — Throwzone Academy — Santa Clarita, California Nov. 13–15 — Fastball USA — Chicago, Illinois For more details on these Ranch on the Road camps, please call THE RANCH (936) 588-6762.

THIS MONTH IN BASEBALL HISTORY The MLB Comes to TV

On Aug. 26, 1939, the first ever televised Major League Baseball game was broadcast on the station that would become WNBC- TV. It was a game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. This was “a spectacle” for those viewers who actually owned televisions because regular network broadcasting did not yet exist. Television in general was still a newer concept, and the MLB was praised for helping usher in more regular sports programming. Even though the crude broadcast only consisted of two stationary camera angles (the third baseline and one high above home plate) and could barely capture the fast-moving ball, it was still hailed as a success, encouraging more people to become engaged in the sport. Televised sports have come a long way since those first innovative days.

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