Forkball
From Free net encyclopedia
The forkball is a type of pitch in baseball. Related to the split-fingered fastball, the forkball is held between the first two fingers and thrown hard without snapping the wrist. The forkball differs from the split-fingered fastball, however, in that the ball is jammed deeper between the first two fingers.
When released, the forkball, a "poor man's knuckleball" has little spin, causing it to "tumble" down through the strike zone. Though a forkball generally is slower than a split-finger fastball, it can be thrown as hard as 90 mi/h (145 km/h), so it can (like the splitter) look like a fastball until it breaks near the plate.
This is as opposed to the splitter, which "drops off the table" (that is, it suddenly moves down, towards the batter's knees) without any of the knuckle-like tumbling action of the slower, less-spin forkball.
The forkball is favored by several Japanese pitchers. Hideo Nomo of the Chicago White Sox features a particularly good forkball in his repertoire. Jose Contreras is another well known forkballer.