Where's the Rubber?
I was having trouble finding practical information on the Pitcher’s ‘Rubber,’ so I called my Dad in Atlanta to interview him. Here’s what he had to say:-The Pivot foot is on the same side of the body as the throwing hand.
-The rubber is a hard rubber rectangle on the pitcher’s mound, 4” by 12-15”long
-It’s a brace for the pitcher’s foot, pointing between first and third bases, and is located at about the center point of the pitcher’s mound
-Also, there are about 50% left-handed and 50% right-handed pitchers in the major leagues.
-A left-handed batter sees the ball better from a right-hand pitcher, so (strategy-wise) a pitcher prefers to throw the ball to a batter of the same hand.
-A right-handed batter is on the 3rd base side of home plate.
It is fairly common to be a switch hitter – they are very valuable to a team; some of the best players in the game were switch hitters.
I also conducted some additional internet research…
According to Wikipedia, there are three main categories of pitches: Fast Ball, thrown in a straight path to the batter and the most common; Breaking Ball, which includes Curve balls; and Change Up, a slower version of the Fast Ball.
1/23/2005
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