SCREW THIS
screwball and a curve can throw a breaking pitch that tails away from any batter. Or, just when the batter is looking for one pitch, he can surprise him with the other one and leave the hitter perfectly bewildered.
McGraw was a relief pitcher who was the closer for the Mets’ 1973 pennant winner and later for the Phillies’ 1980 world championship team. He was especially valuable to his manager because he could be brought into a game in any situation and asked to face any batter.
Valenzuela began his career as a reliever but was quickly converted into a starter. He was a left-hander, but some managers tried to stack their lineups with left-handed hitters when he pitched. The theory was that by doing so they were taking his best pitch away from him.
Not that that worked very well. Valenzuela was a six-time all-star and even won one Cy Young Award.
So, if the screwball is such a great pitch, why don’t more pitchers learn to throw it?
Answer: Because most of them can’t.
The human wrist snaps forcefully in only one direction. It bends only slightly in the “wrong” direction and some pitchers utilize that reverse snap when they throw their changeup. They “turn the ball over” and cause it to move “with scroogie action.” That can be seen clearly when watching the game through the lens of the centerfield camera. But it happens only on a changeup.
A true screwball has considerably more movement and that can’t be attained simply by snapping the wrist in a direction that it won’t go. Or at least it won’t go very far or very hard.
Scroogie action on a pitch is attained primarily from a grip and delivery that most people find impossible.
A reverse wrist snap is part of the delivery but the ball must be gripped with the thumb pressed very hard against the seam on the ball. The other fingers are used only to guide the ball but they must grip it as loosely as possible. This causes the ball to leave the hand with the necessary reverse spin that creates a screwball.
If that sounds easy to you, I suggest you pick up an object — any object — and grip it tightly, Of course you can do that. Now grip it loosely. No problem. Now grip it tightly with the thumb and loosely with the rest of the hand.
Ah hah. You probably can’t do that. The muscles of the five fingers work in concert. It isn’t easy to flex the thumb muscle while relaxing those on the other fingers. But, unless you can do that, you can’t throw a screwball.
The pitchers who can do it are rare gems.
I, for one, can’t wait to watch Brent Honeywell in action.
Hall of Fame voter Jay Dunn has written baseball for The Trentonian for 52 years. Contact him at jaydunn8@aol.com