If you ’re even a everyday baseball devotee , that 2nd dubiousness — why do n’t more pitchers throw submarine style?—might seem preposterous . hoagie pitcherful , whose release stage is so lowly their knuckle much scratch the ground , are a rare breed in Major League Baseball . And why should n’t they be ? An overarm windup is not only iconic and powerful , it ’s also the natural movement when playing catch with a orb .
But there was a clip when all the pitchers throw underhand . It was any year before 1872 and it was n’t because our ball - play father had yet to master the more masculine - seeming movement , but rather because it waswritten into the rule .
" The formula was that your arm had to be perpendicular . flat underhand until 1872 , " MLB ’s Official Historian John Thorn says . If you think that sounds unjust to the pitchers , who were forced into a comparatively unnatural throwing motion , you ’d be correct . In fact , that was sort of the point .
" The lurch gesture was different because the role of the pitcher in relation to the batter was dissimilar , " Thorn says . " He was not regarded as someone who was in mortal scrap with the slugger . His purpose was the serve up pitches that the batter would then put in play , because what the audience liked to see was fine fielding plays and wad of understructure run . "
Of course , it did n’t take long for pitchers to understand that by edge up their going points past the legal demarcation line they could give their team a competitory advantage . In 1872 , the prescript caved to accommodate the trend and begin allow a side sleeve release . But give a few inches , the pitcher took , well , a few more inches and proceed to arouse their exit points in opposition to the written rules . Another yielding by the League presidents let for straight pitch from the shoulder until 1883 and 1884 when all restrictions on lurch style were abolished in the two leagues .
Not everyone switch their way right away . Most submariners stay put submariners . But as the space between the hummock and habitation shell increased from 45 feet before 1880 to the current 60 foot 6 column inch , raw pitchers establish that the overhanded style made it well-off to control the formal over a greater distance .
What ’s more , throwing overhand countenance for more sophisticated breaking pitches . " Your curveball with the underhand or sidearm bringing run to be the schoolboy curve , which any Little Leaguer can throw . It transgress laterally , not down , " Thorn explicate . " At the collegial and Minor League and Major League stratum , curveballs break in two directions — both laterally and down . "
If early pitchers experience a higher delivery granted them a competitive border and that in practice it add together an extra dimension to your curveball , then we have arrived at our first doubtfulness : why does anyone nettle to still pitch submarine style ?
A quick word on submarine pitching , although I have been using it interchangeably with " underhand " : there is in reality a flimsy divergence in the modernistic version . Submarine pitcher angle their whole upper body down towards the basis but keep their hand typically on top of the glob . This is in foeman to softball underhand in which the ball is lob while remain upright piano .
But Thorn makes another claim , that " underhand is much less melodic phrase . " A bold statement in a earned run average when pitch counts aim newcomer from the biz ever earlier and Tommy John surgical process sidelines pitchers for full season . So let ’s take out that .
I touch out to Glenn S. Fleisig , PhD , the Research Director at the American Sports Medicine Institute . He explains that when throwing at the same upper , say 80 mile per 60 minutes , underhanded and overarm throwing put around the same amount of force on the shoulder joint and elbow joints . But Cuban sandwich pitcher and traditional hurler do n’t typically throw the same speed at the Major League story .
" I would say the mediocre hummer pitcherful has more force on his weapon system than the ordinary sidearm twirler in Major League Baseball , because the fair overhand pitcher is flip with more speed , " Dr. Fleisig says . But there is an important distinction between causing and correlation to be made here . " [ submariner are ] throwing less hard not because sidearm is a less punishing thing but because they were guys who thrust less hard from over the top . "
And now we ’re quick to harness those Big Questions succinctly :
Why do some pitchers throw hero sandwich style?Because it allows struggling or wound pitchers to reinvent themselves as a worthful commodity out of the detention cell by allowing an unusual speech to interrupt the batter ’s timing of the globe .
Why do n’t more pitcher try it?It renders one of your pitches far too hittable for you to be a starter and , culturally , gifted kids are promote in the focal point of formal throwing to best capitalise on their strenuosity .
