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Yep Mariano Throws a Spitter, or Not

Time to FJM a jackass Angel Fan...

Personally, the video you are about to watch is pretty amazing: I would say this is pretty conclusive evidence of why Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera is able to throw only one pitch that has unpredictable, yet precise movement.

Mariano doesn't just throw one pitch. He throws a cutter, a two-seem fastball and a 4-seem fastball. That is by my count three pitches. None of the pitches has unpredictable movement. The cutter breaks in to a lefty. Sometimes he throws it with more downward bite and sometimes he does not. Its not unpredictable movement, this would come when Tim Wakefield pitches.

He has mastered the Angels so far in the ALCS but has Major League Baseball gotten a look at how he "warms up" for his appearance on the mound? You be the judge...

Because if he theoretically spit on one baseball during warm ups he would be allowed to use this single baseball for the entire inning. If the baseball was fouled off into the stands Mo would magically teleport the ball back into the umpires pocket to reuse on the next pitch.

* With a tie game in the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees bring in Rivera.
* After warming up, he has his back to home plate so the home plate ump can't see.


You realize that there is this person called a second base umpire. There's also a third base umpire, a first base umpire, and even a left and right field umpire. In fact by turning around he exposes himself to 5 total umpires as compared to 1 if he did it facing the plate.

* He looks down at the ball, then up to see if the 2nd base ump is watching.

And I'm guessing the look to the left was to see if the third base umpire was looking? But then why did he not look at the first base umpire? Conspiracy. He's in on it.

* He then looks back at the ball and appears to spit on it.

Or he could have spit on the ground.

* And when he tests clean for steroids they say he is not a cheater.

And a useless bullet point.

The spitball was banned by baseball in the early 1920s. It gave the pitcher an unfair advantage with the "funny" movement that the pitch seemed to make, and was deemed unsafe to batters as the ball was not as visible when marred with foreign substances.

The spitball is banned, thanks for clarifying that for me.



Here's the problem with this entire post and idea that Rivera is using a spitball. He would have had to use it for over decade if that was truly his secret and yet this has never been mentioned prior. In addition, why exactly would you hold the baseball by your belt and spit on it? In reality you would spit in your hand, and rub it into the baseball (less conspicuous). And frankly, it looks like the spit is flying over the baseball to me.

And then there's this poll...

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