Gyroball mystery uncovered

[jacksonianmarch]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/sports/baseball/22gyro.html?_r=2&ref=baseball&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

 

so it does exist, but it isnt a screwball, a cutter or anything that really moves. It looks like a slider coming out of the pitchers hand but stays perfectly level and straight. It doesnt dip like a changeup, it doesnt dive like a cutter. It just stays on a level plane. The creator of the gyro says that 10 japanese pitchers currently throw it and Pedro actually accidentally throws it every now and then.

[MANNYHOF24]

so, it has no movement at all?

[jacksonianmarch]

No, that is the rub, it is perfectly straight.

[rician blast]

What's funny is that that is how I used to throw my change-up in high school, except I gripped it with three fingers.

 

By turning my palm outward and spinning off the inside of the ball I could have great arm speed but not let that armspeed translate to velocity. The spin, though, did result in a very small tailing in toward a righty.

 

Problem was if the ball was left up in the zone? With little or no movement , it was gone.

[Papelbon58]

I believe Pedro probably throws it when he screws up the circle change, it sounds similar.

[example1]

I think this involves a forceful manipulation (for lack of a better term) with the first two fingers. With a circle-change you're letting the friction and drag of your last three fingers create a 2-to-8 rotation. So a circle-change looks like a fastball with generally the same rotation, tilted a little bit if you release it as Rician (and Pedro) did.

 

The gyroball is apparently gripped a certain way and thrown at such an angle and trajectory that it has near perfect sideways spin while hurtling through space. Perhaps like a bowling ball before it 'catches' (if you can make a bowling ball hook) near the end of the lane, it spins franticly sideways unable to catch the air correctly and curve. The way your orient the seams with a slider is meant to maxamize that catch (the discrepency in air pressure above and below the ball, basically), same with a curve. The seams seem to grip the air and 'pull' the ball.

 

The gyro--according to that article--just slips through space without the seams catching, or they catch equally on all sides and keep the ball from straying at all. :dunno:

[ORS]

For magnus to take effect, the rotational vector must cross the trajectory vector. This happens with every type of spin, to some degree, except for spiralling. It sounds like this is accomplished by throwing a good spiral with a baseball.

[Papelbon58]

I saw an article that said the fore finger is imperative to throwing the gyro, that it apparently stays in contact with the ball until the last second, and with an overarm throwing motion will make it spin in bullet motion.

[Papelbon58]

By the way check out ESPN.com for Patrick Hruby's E-ticket investigation, which concluded it does not exist, or at least not as the three foot, late breaking pitch that was originally rumored.

[Youk Of The Nation]

Until someone can throw a pitch that stops, hovers, and then circle's the batter's head while bobbing up and down, before smacking him in the chin, dont bother trying to impress me.

[Mr Crunchy]

i had a phys ed teacher that could make a whiffle ball do some strange s***

not the whiffle ball with the holes in it

but the 1 with seams