Forkball

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.

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When released, the forkball, a "poor man's knuckleball" has little spin, causing it to "tumble" down through the strike zone. It can be thrown as hard as 90 mi/h (145 km/h), so it can look like a fastball until it breaks near the plate.

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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.

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The forkball is favored by several Japanese pitchers. Hideo Nomo of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays features a particularly good forkball in his repertoire. Jose Contreras is another well known forkballer.

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Pitch: Pitch may refer to:...

Baseball: Baseball is a team sport, a bat-and-ball game, in which a hard, fist-sized ball is thrown by a defensive player called a pitcher, and an offensive player called a batter attempts to hit it with a tapered, cylindrical, smooth stick called a bat. The ball itself is also called a baseball. Scoring is a...

Split-fingered fastball: redirect Split-finger fastball...