Knuckleball

The knuckleball, knuckler and or floaters, is considered the most exotic pitch ( throw) in baseball. He is thrown without any rotation, which makes the trajectory unusually unstable because there is no stabilizing spin ( angular momentum conservation ). The name is somewhat misleading, as most of the ball is with the fingertips and not with the knuckles (English knuckle), and then kept herausgeschnippt. Without rotation of the ball pushes quite slow ( 60 mph, 95 km / h) an air cushion in front of him and unpredictable changes its trajectory (English "the knuckleball dances "). The flight of the ball is very difficult to control, the pitcher risk among many, many Walks Hit by pitch. The catcher must be very careful when catching the balls. Even when football and volleyball such balls can occur - they are called colloquially " flutter balls ".

There are few pitchers who throw this ball: John Smoltz, Steve Sparks or even Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox, arguably the most successful knuckleballer the last 20 years. Also R. A. Dickey has after learning of Knuckleballs can resurrect his career in recent years and put down for the New York Mets a very successful season in 2012.

Eri Yoshida, the first woman in a Japanese professional league ( Kansai Independent Baseball League, 2009) played mainly throws, Knuckleballs. She has trained in 2010 as part of the Spring training can make a day together with Wakefield.

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