Submarine (baseball)
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A submarine (German: underwater throw ) describes a certain throwing technique of the pitcher in baseball . Here, the ball is accelerated in a stooped position and released as an underhand throw so just above the ground that the ball's trajectory appears to begin “under water” (ie “below” the sward).
A submarine is considered an unusual throw because, contrary to the natural movement of the body, the ball is not released above but below the shoulder. In contrast to an overhand throw, which has a backward spin, it has a forward spin, and due to the strong side arm movement, it has an additional side effect. Submarine pitchers therefore have an advantage over batterers of equal handedness . Throws z. If, for example, a right-handed submarine pitcher hits a right-handed batter, the ball flies onto the handle of the baseball bat from the batter's point of view: the sweet spot at the end of the baseball bat is avoided. If the handedness is opposite, the batter has an advantage.
Since a submarine is thrown relatively slowly (about 85 mph ), it leads to few strikeouts , but the batter often hits the ball in the ground and the pitcher's arm tires more slowly.
In the early days of professional baseball, many throws were performed as submarines, e.g. From Cy Young or Mordecai Brown . After the distance between pitcher and batter was increased from 50 to 60.5 feet in 1893 and the pitchers had to maintain contact with the ground during the entire throwing movement, the modern overhand throws gradually prevailed.
Submarines generally refer to all throws in which the ball is released very deeply. Whether a fast fastball , a curved curveball , an intentionally slow change-up or the like is used is up to the pitcher.