Slider (baseball)

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Handle on the slider

Slider (from English slide , to slide down) describes a certain type of throw of the pitcher in baseball .

The slider is one of the breaking balls , the throws with an escaping or breaking trajectory. In terms of flight curve and speed, it is located between the fastball and the curveball . It is thrown a little slower than the fastball, but due to the uneven grip, in addition to a slight backward rotation, it mainly rotates sideways (note the adjacent picture). This is not as strong as with the curveball, but the slider is thrown faster and therefore has a weaker curvature of the trajectory than the one. Compared to the regular ballistic trajectory, the Magnus effect causes the ball to break away to the side and move it more downward. The ball first flies like a fastball and breaks out of the expected straight trajectory due to the spin just before the batter . Since the speed is only slightly slower compared to fastball, it is difficult for the batsman to assess. Compared to the similar cutter , the slider breaks out more.

Because the movement of the slider deviates more from the natural throwing position than, for example, the fastball, injuries to the limb are more common in pitchers who perform this throw than in pure fastball throwers.

John Smoltz is known as a pitcher with an effective slider . His throw initially looks as if it hits the strike zone , but breaks out of the zone shortly beforehand. This often leads to "swing and a miss" , the swinging past by the batsman.

history

It is not entirely clear whether Chief Bender (1884–1954) was the "inventor" of the slider, in any case it is documented that he was one of the first to regularly use this pitch. At that time he called it the "nickel change" . With the help of the slider he threw a no-hitter on May 12, 1910 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jim Kaat : The Mechanics Of A Breaking Pitch ( English ) Hearst Communications, Inc .. April 1997. Retrieved on October 1 of 2008.
  2. ↑ Wisconsin Magazine of History ( English , PDF; 2.6 MB) Wisconsin Historical Society Press • 816 State Street • Madison, WI. S. April 9, 2004. Retrieved September 28, 2008.