Urban Legends: The Gyroball
Ive heard a lot of hoopla about this pitch that Matsuzaka supposedly throws. People have been calling it the Gyroball. Upon hearing about it the first time i knew very little and over the weekend I've done quite a bit of research on the validity of the so called "Gyroball."
Picture this...a pitch that's thrown like a fastball … that spins like a bullet … that takes a sharp, late turn over the plate, swerving sideways up to possibly three feet! This is how I've found the gyroball to be described.Now, does that sound like just another breaking ball to you? If the gyroball is real, it's the greatest pitch you've never seen. A pitch that shouldn't be possible and can't be explained and baseball isn't ready. Mariano Rivera's cut fastball moves a few inches, max and for years It's been almost unhittable. Think of the possibilities!
The gyroball is big...potentially huge. Baseball hasn't seen an original pitch in three decades, not since Bruce Sutter's split-fingered fastball, which only turned a minor-league washout at the time into a Hall of Fame reliever. Hitters still haven't caught up. The gyroball could be just as revolutionary, if not more.
The gyroball is like the yeti of baseball. Some people deny it's existence while others attest to it's validity. In my weekend research I came across some videos on YouTube. So take a look at this:
OTHER GYROBALL VIDEOS
Slow Motion (check out the spin): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yimyfjcf2f4
Poor quality but check out the break!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt_yNtWhmQE
It seems the Gyroball defies physics and seems quite improbable. However when you hear that it's legit, and there is video proof of what looks to be the supposed "Gyroball" it's hard to deny it's existence. Regardless, you can tell that it is definately not a curveball, nor is it a slider so we definitely have something new on our hands. I personally believe it is the gyroball and thus that the gyroball exists (just maybe not to the extreme effect of a 36 inch break at the plate)
What do you think? Does the gyroball exist? Does Matsuzaka throw it? I guess come April we'll find out for certain.
7 comments:
No such thing! But have you ever heard of the "Beyonce" ball? I am serious, it's like curve ball, but it has a bunch more curves before it reaches the plate :)
I don't know man. How can you be so sure?...As stated I'm not saying i believe that it breaks the full 3 feet at the plate but i do that that it exists to a lesser degree. Just because no one knows about it doesn't mean that there couldn't be a different way to throw a ball that no one has yet utilized.
The way I've heard it, the Gyroball exists in some form, but Matzusaka doesn't really throw it... all the videos with him "throwing it" are supposedly his slider... definitely an interesting story though.
well rumor is is that he throws 5 breaking balls- some say that the breaking ball is in his repetoir
*some say that the gyroball is in his repetoir*
and that pitch in that video is called a slider
the gyro ball exists, and it is more like what pedro threw. it's a fastball with decreased resistance on the spin, so it doesn't slow down as it reaches the plate. watch the spin. matsuzaka throws a near gyroball here, but the gyration is lost at the end.
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