What a great idea for a book. If you like any baseball history, this one will interest you. Author Tyler Kepner details ten pitches, the fastball, slider, curveball, knuckleball, splitter, screwball, sinker, changeup, spitball and cutter. With each of those pitches he talks about where they may have originated and he were some of the best pitchers to ever throw that pitch.
Kepner interviewed many and hit the history books and research material for the earlier times of the game to get a feel for how each pitch was handled. In the slider conversation, he tells how he got on the good side of Steve “Lefty” Carlton and actually got him to talk about his pitches. This in itself is rare and Carlton reused to speak to members of the press.
Then he goes back in history and discusses Chief Bender, an early ace of of Philadelphia and what they called his fast curve, as some called it a curve until they realized the ball was sliding and not bending. Johnny Sain talks about how he wanted the ball to be sliding and not curving.
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History of Baseball Through Pitches
With the fastball he discusses how Bob Gibson used the pitch and then Gibby discusses his philosophy of how to use the pitch effectively.
The curveball is talked about and modern day Adam Wainwright and his ability to toss it at any count on the hitter. His use of it against Carlos Beltran to “freeze” him in the playoffs.
I won’t go over every pitch in this review as you need to read this fantastic book and its history. Every sports fan should have this book on their bookshelf. If you love baseball, get this book.
About the author– Tom Knuppel has been writing about baseball and sports for a few decades. As an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan he began with the blog CardinalsGM. Tom is a member of the United Cardinals Bloggers and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. He also maintains the History of Cardinals website. More recently he has been busy at KnupSolutions and the primary writer of many sports at KnupSports and adds content at Sports 2.0. Tom is a retired High School English and Speech teacher and has completed over one hundred sportsbook reviews. He also can be followed on Twitter at tknup. Feel free to contact Tom at tknuppel@gmail.com
