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Baseball: History, Players, & Coaching: Pitching

A research topic guide on the history and legendary players of baseball.

Resources

Fastball

Hank Aaron and Derek Jeter lead a cast of baseball legends & scientists who explore the magic within the 396 milliseconds it takes a fastball to reach home plate, and decipher who threw the fastest pitch ever. Narrated by Kevin Costner.

Source: Kanopy

Baseball's Great Pitchers

Featured pitchers include Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Mariano Riviera, Roger Clemens would together win 660 games. Mariano Riviera becomes the most successful closer of all time. Distributed by PBS Distribution.

Source: Films on Demand

Perspectives

The Arm

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers--five times the salary of all NFL quarterbacks combined. Pitchers are the lifeblood of the sport, the ones who win championships, but today they face an epidemic unlike any baseball has ever seen.  One tiny ligament in the elbow keeps snapping and sending teenagers and major leaguers alike to undergo surgery, an issue the baseball establishment ignored for decades. For three years, Jeff Passan, the lead baseball columnist for Yahoo Sports, has traveled the world to better understand the mechanics of the arm and its place in the sport's past, present, and future. He got the inside story of how the Chicago Cubs decided to spend $155 million on one pitcher. He sat down for a rare interview with Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, whose career ended at 30 because of an arm injury. He went to Japan to understand how another baseball-obsessed nation deals with this crisis. And he followed two major league pitchers as they returned from Tommy John surgery, the revolutionary procedure named for the former All-Star who first underwent it more than 40 years ago.  Passan discovered a culture that struggles to prevent arm injuries and lacks the support for the changes necessary to do so. He explains that without a drastic shift in how baseball thinks about its talent, another generation of pitchers will fall prey to the same problem that vexes the current one.  Equal parts medical thriller and cautionary tale, The Arm is a searing exploration of baseball's most valuable commodity and the redemption that can be found in one fragile and mysterious limb.  

The Closer

The greatest relief pitcher of all time shares his extraordinary story of survival, love, and baseball. Mariano Rivera, the man who intimidated thousands of batters merely by opening a bullpen door, began his incredible journey as the son of a poor Panamanian fisherman. When first scouted by the Yankees, he didn't even own his own glove. He thought he might make a good mechanic. When discovered, he had never flown in an airplane, had never heard of Babe Ruth, spoke no English, and couldn't imagine Tampa, the city where he was headed to begin a career that would become one of baseball's most iconic. What he did know: that he loved his family and his then girlfriend, Clara, that he could trust in the Lord to guide him, and that he could throw a baseball exactly where he wanted to, every time. With astonishing candor, Rivera tells the story of the championships, the bosses (including The Boss), the rivalries, and the struggles of being a Latino baseball player in the United States and of maintaining Christian values in professional athletics. The thirteen-time All-Star discusses his drive to win; the secrets behind his legendary composure; the story of how he discovered his cut fastball; the untold, pitch-by-pitch account of the ninth inning of Game 7 in the 2001 World Series; and why the lowest moment of his career became one of his greatest blessings. In The Closer, Rivera takes readers into the Yankee clubhouse, where his teammates are his brothers. But he also takes us on that jog from the bullpen to the mound, where the game -- or the season -- rests squarely on his shoulders. We come to understand the laserlike focus that is his hallmark, and how his faith and his family kept his feet firmly on the pitching rubber. Many of the tools he used so consistently and gracefully came from what was inside him for a very long time -- his deep passion for life; his enduring commitment to Clara, whom he met in kindergarten; and his innate sense for getting out of a jam. When Rivera retired, the whole world watched -- and cheered. In The Closer, we come to an even greater appreciation of a legend built from the ground up.

Wild Pitches

Every baseball fan knows that Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols are among the best to ever play the game. But how do their high-priced contracts impact their teams' abilities to compete for a World Series title? Which managers and executives are best at getting the most out of their roster, year-in and year-out? And how does sabremetrics play into all of this? In this book, veteran ESPN columnist Jayson Stark explores these questions and many more. Supplemented with insightful commentary from countless baseball insiders, it gives baseball fans a rare, fascinating glimpse into the why behind the game's winners and losers.

What is the difference between pitches? And why are there so many? | Quick Question

 

Can you tell the difference between a curveball and a slider? What about a fastball and a changeup? You might not realize it, but small discrepancies in finger placement are the difference between a 100 mile-per-hour fastball and a 65-mile-per-hour knuckleball. On this episode of Quick Question (pres. by Apartments.com), we dive in on the evolution of pitch types, from the genesis of the fastball, to the innovation of breaking pitches like the curveball, changeup and slider. And we also analyze everyone’s favorite pitch: The Knuckler. We also examine some of the best pitchers who varied their pitch types, like Red Sox legend Pedro Martínez and Mariners great/current Braves pitcher Félix Hernández.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DFYJkneoMo