Making their pitch

Diamondbacks hurlers explain the secrets of their specialties

The Arizona Republic
Aug. 27, 2002

When William Arthur "Candy" Cummings was trying to make a baseball curve in 1864, the boys at his boarding school became alarmed. At first, they believed the notion so preposterous Cummings became the target of ridicule. But as he persisted, the comedy turned to concern: Keep an eye on that guy.

He tried countless grips, arm angles and release points until he finally mastered it three years later against Harvard during a game in which he "saw many a batter . . . throw down his stick in disgust."

Nearly 140 years after Cummings threw the first curveball, his recollections about practicing hours on end still resonate. Even today there is no definitive how-to on throwing curves, sliders, split-fingered fastballs or any of the other specialty pitches.

There are guidelines, but trial-and-error experiments are how most knee-bucklers are perfected. And even if a pitcher can master a particular trick pitch, he still has to depend on the most common pitch around - a four-seam fastball.

But if you can get pitchers to talk shop - some love to, others prefer to play their cards close to the vest - you can get an understanding of what their pitches mean to their repertoire. And you can get a brief glimpse of the chess match, the game within the game, that is a part of every major league at-bat.

Curt Schilling

Split-fingered fastball

THE BACKGROUND: Schilling is a believer in "changing eye-level," or not letting a hitter get used to seeing pitches at a particular height and instead pitching both up and down in the strike zone. For that reason, the splitter is an essential pitch for Schilling. It looks deceptively similar to a fastball, and that allows him to use both splitters in the dirt and fastballs up as strikeout pitches. It also helps that he throws his splitter in the high 80s, as hard as some guys' fastballs.

SCHILLING SAYS: "It's always been my second pitch because I can make it look like my fastball. Being primarily a fastball pitcher, it's a huge pitch for me. I split my fingers over the seams, off the seams, and I don't have any of my fingers underneath the ball. It took awhile to get used to, but it's a different split grip than most people use."

Brian Anderson

Change-up

THE BACKGROUND: Despite the change-up being typically 10 to 15 mph slower than a fastball, Anderson considers it an aggressive pitch, a pitch many players turn to if they don't overpower like Johnson or Schilling. When Anderson reached the big leagues in 1993, he rarely threw change-ups. Now, it's his No. 2 pitch. He's even begun to throw it inside more, which flies in the face of most pitching theory. He says inside change-ups usually turn into loud foul balls.

ANDERSON SAYS: "Your fastball is obviously your most aggressive pitch. Your change-up has to mimic that, except be 10 to 12 miles an hour slower. But it has to be the same aggressiveness, the same look, the same push-off, the same everything. You've got to make the hitter think, 'He's throwing me a fastball.' . . . When it looks exactly like the pitch it's mimicking and all of a sudden it's 12 miles an hour slower, mission accomplished."

Randy Johnson

Slider

THE BACKGROUND: When his slider is on and his velocity up, Johnson is perhaps the nastiest pitcher in baseball. Johnson's "back-foot" slider - so called because that's where it ends up when a right-handed hitter swings through it - helps keep hitters from sitting on his fastball, which, while incredibly hard, is also very straight. Johnson calls his slider "Mr. Snappy" because of the sharp break.

JOHNSON SAYS: "The ability to be able to throw my breaking ball behind in the count is just as effective if not more so than when I'm ahead in the count. Because obviously as a hitter you're geared up, if it's a 2-0 count, for a fastball, and now if you can throw your breaking ball or your off-speed stuff for a strike, that says a lot about your confidence in that pitch. And I'm very capable on any given start to be able to throw my slider in a 2-0, 3-0, 3-2 count. If I'm throwing it on that day effectively, then I might be getting a ground ball when I had the hitter 2-0 or a full count, and they're definitely geared up for a fastball."

Rick Helling

Curveball

THE BACKGROUND: Helling throws the classic 12-to-6 curveball. With a little help from his brother when he was young, Helling said he mostly learned to throw the pitch on his own. He experimented with numerous curveball grips before finally settling on one that's unlike most others.

HELLING SAYS: "It seems like the days that I have it, the days that I have good command, are the days that I usually pitch better. It's a pitch that keeps the hitters off balance. I've been told when I have a good one it's tough to pick up. My grip is completely different than just about everybody who throws a curveball. . . . Most guys will have their fingers, together and they'll throw off one of the four seams. I have my fingers split apart with one finger on each seam. I try to use the force from both seams to get it to spin. But most guys try to throw it with a four-seam spin and with their fingers tight or together with most of the pressure on their middle finger, and I use kind of equal pressure on both middle and index finger."