The heavy ball: some hurlers' offerings are described as being a different sort of pitch, often due to the ball's late-breaking movement

Baseball Digest, Dec, 2004 by Norman L. Macht

EVERY OFFICIAL MAJOR LEAGUE baseball weighs between 5 and 5.2 ounces. So how come it feels like catching a feather when some pitchers throw it, and a brick when others throw it? And why do batters feel as if they're hitting a bowling ball when they connect against certain pitchers' deliveries?

Physicists may say there's no such thing as a "heavy" ball if they all weigh the same. But those experts never caught Mike Flanagan or Kevin Brown or Brandon Webb, never swung a bat against Tim Hudson or Kevin Gryboski.

Most players, when asked why some pitchers throw beebees and others shot puts, respond like Phillies pitching coach Joe Kerrigan: "I've been catching pitchers for more than 20 years. Don't ask me why, but it's so."

But some, especially catchers, offer a few explanations for the phenomenon. First, it has nothing to do with speed. A two-seam or four-seam fast ball has a lot of backspin; it doesn't pound the hand that's catching it. That's why the likes of Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Bob Welch, Jim Palmer, Catfish Hunter and Ron Guidry can and could throw 90-plus feathers.

It's the sinker that's usually the culprit. According to one-time Giants catcher and former Arizona manager Bob Brenly, "A sinker is the heaviest ball, especially if it breaks late. You don't catch it cleanly in the pocket, but lower, and it wobbles and vibrates all the way up your arm. It does the same to a batter who makes contact with it. A sinker that breaks earlier is easier to track and makes a louder crack in the mitt or when a bat hits it. A straight four-seam fastball has a pure rotation and is easy to track and catch. That's the key for a catcher. It's easier to line up no matter how fast it's thrown. That's what makes it feel lighter."

Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan maintains that a sinker is the only kind of heavy pitch. Former Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia agreed but went further. "When a catcher gets handcuffed, when a sinker doesn't drop the same amount or at the same angle every time, and you don't catch it fight, you feel it. It's part arm action, part delivery, the kind of spin. You can't teach a pitcher to throw a heavy ball."

But Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal said even a four-seamer can feel heavy if it has a lot of movement. "When it's hard to catch cleanly it reverberates in the mitt, and that's what makes it feel heavy."

Where catchers feel it most is on the thumb. Ray Fosse, who caught Oakland's 1973-1974 world champions, called Catfish Hunter and Ken Holtzman a breeze to catch. Not Blue. "After catching Blue my hand was swollen so I could hardly hold a bat. With a sinkerball pitcher, if you have to turn the mitt thumb down to stop a pitch, the ball comes down and the thumb takes the worst healing."

Longtime Pirates and Orioles pitching coach Ray Miller recalled Pittsburgh right-hander Bob Walk. "His pitch Would get about 12 feet from the plate and it would wiggle, shudder a little--you could see it. The catcher saw it and got set to catch it where he thought it would come in and it would cut back and wham him on the thumb."

For all of Rick Dempsey's 21-year major league career, the Orioles coach singled out Mike Flanagan as the toughest pitcher to catch. "It was that late, last split second break and it was not always the same. Sometimes I'd have to twist the mitt thumb down to catch it and it would jar your thumb. He once broke a ligament in my index finger, too."

Nor did it always stop at the thumb. "On a cold day it hurt right up to your jaw," added Orioles coach Elrod Hendricks.

Dave Duncan recalled that "it was harder to catch that late-breaking drop with the round mitts used in the old days, but you'll still see catchers icing their thumb after a game when their pitcher has been throwing shot puts."

So, if it's the break of a sinker that makes it heavy, what about the splitter, which also breaks late? Mike Scioscia called Bruce Sutter's splitter "nasty. It acted like a left-hander's curve, but it wasn't as heavy as a sinker."

Athletics catcher Adam Melhuse pointed out that a splitter has less rotation. And, besides, "a catcher seldom catches a splitter. Eighty percent of the time a batter swings over it and misses and it's down in the dirt, so the catcher drops down to trap or block it. If it stays up it's usually hit."

Reds hitting coach Chris Chambliss had a different theory. "A fingertip delivery, like Bob Welch's, will produce a lighter ball. Jim Bibby had huge hands. He held the ball so far back in his hand you couldn't see it. Nolan Ryan did, too. How deep they hold the ball when they throw it makes it heavy."

So who do past and present catchers regard as the purveyors of the heaviest bone-jarring pitches?

Mike Scioscia: Tommy John, Orel Hershiser, the young Alejandro Pena.

Dave Duncan: Former A's Blue Moon Odom and Bobby Locker; present Cardinals Chris Carpenter and Jason Marquis.

Bob Brenly: Greg Minton, Kevin Brown, Brandon Webb

Damian Miller: Kerry Wood, Carlos Zambrano.

Bob Geren, A's bullpen coach, one-time Yankees catcher: Tim Leary.