What is a Curveball?
How to Throw the Curveball and Who Threw it Best in Baseball History
Mar 27, 2007
Who Invented The Curveball?
Credit for the invention of the curveball is generally given to William Arthur “Candy” Cummings. Cummings claimed that he invented the curveball after studying the movement that sea shells made when thrown. After he first noticed the movement, Cummings began to attempt to make the same motion with a baseball.
Cummings reportedly first through the curveball in a game in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1867 while playing semi-pro for the Brooklyn Excelsiors. His professional baseball career lasted from 1872 until 1877, during which compiled a 145-94 career record and 2.49 ERA.
Another pitcher to lay claim to inventing the curveball is Fred Goldsmith, who some claimed gave the first publicly recorded demonstration of the curveball (to baseball historian Henry Chadwick) on August 16, 1870 in Brooklyn, New York. However, it is now generally agreed that Cummings was already throwing the curveball in actual games by the time Goldsmith gave his demonstration.
How To Throw The Curveball
The grip is the most important part of learning how to throw a curveball. Grip the ball by placing your middle finger on the inside half of the seam and apply pressure to the ball. Your index finger should stay as close to your middle finger as possible. Your ring and pinkie finger should rest under the ball with only your ring finger in contact with the baseball. The ideal location for your ring finger is to have its “door knocking knuckle” on the seam. Finally, the side of your thumb, and not the pad of the finger, should rest directly on the top of the seam. Your thumb and middle and ring finger should all be in contact with a seam, preferably the “horseshoe,” the wide part of a baseball. Another way to look at it is to have your fingers going with the seams opposed to against them to ensure optimal control.
Deliver the baseball to your target. The general mechanics of throwing stay the same, however, the angle by which the pitcher's hand is positioned as it accelerates toward home plate is what makes the ball spin and evenutally, curve. This action involves no “snapping” or “twisting” of the wrist. The proper arm action and angle of your hand is very similar to doing the tomahawk-chop at an Atlanta Braves game. For right-handers, your palm should be facing first base as you prepare to release the baseball, and this angle should continue as you follow-through (use third base for lefties.)
Once the ball is released, the curveball’s trajectory is from north to south. While a slider runs east to west, an ideal curveball is commonly referred to as “dropping off the table” or by going from “12-6” on a clock.
The Best Curveball Pitcher of All Time
Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown was the best curveball pitcher of all time. Brown lost most of his index finger when his hand accidentally slipped into a “feed chopper” on his father’s farm. While he was still healing from that injury, Brown fell and severely broke his middle finger, which caused it to be permanently bent. Sounds tragic right? It wasn’t. The injuries transformed Brown’s pitching hand into a curveball machine. Because of the unusual grip he had to take n the ball to compensate for his injuries, Brown’s pitches had an unusual amount of “spin” that caused his curveball to be absolutely wicked.
Brown was an absolutely dominant pitcher. He won 20 or more games six years in a row, had a career marks of a 239-130 record and a 2.09 ERA. Brown was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949.
If you're a baseball fan, here are links to more Baseball Primer articles that explain who invented baseball, the history of spring training, the fastball, the screwball, the knuckleball, the wild pitch, the designated hitter baseball uniforms and the best baseball teams of all time. Enjoy!
