Eephus
In baseball, an Eephus pitch is a “junk pitch” which “has nothing on it.” The pitch has very little velocity and catches the hitter off-guard. Its invention is attributed to Rip Sewell of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1930s. Sewell had been shot in the right foot—some sources say in a hunting accident—and had to come up with a delivery that didn’t rely on pivoting the foot. According to Pirates manager Frankie Frisch, the pitch was named by outfielder Maurice Van Robays. When asked what it meant, van Robays replied “Eephus ain’t nothin’.”
The Eephus pitch is thrown overhand like most pitches, but is characterized by an unusual high arcing trajectory and corresponding slow velocity, bearing more resemblance to a slow-pitch softball delivery than to a traditional baseball pitch. It is considered a trick pitch because, in comparison to normal baseball pitches (which run from 70 to 100 miles per hour), an Eephus pitch appears to move in slow motion. Hitters typically get very anxious, swing wildly, and ground out.
After appearing in over 300 major league games, Rip Sewell only gave up one career home run off the Eephus, to Ted Williams in the 1946 All-Star Game. Williams challenged Sewell to throw the Eephus. Sewell obliged, and Williams missed the pitch. However, Sewell then announced that he was going to throw the pitch again, and Williams clobbered it for a home run. Years later, however, Williams admitted that he had been running towards the pitcher’s mound as he hit the ball, and photographs reveal that he was in fact a few feet in front of the batter’s box when he made contact (which would have resulted in an out if it was spotted by the umpire).
Pitchers known to have employed the Eephus pitch include: Dave LaRoche (whose pitch was known as LaLob), Bob Tewksbury, Kazuhito Tadano, and Orlando Hernandez. Left-hander Bill Lee, known as “The Space Man,” threw a variant of it he called the Space Ball, or, occasionally, the Leephus. In Game 7 of the 1975 World Series, Lee twice retired future Hall of Famer Tony Perez of the Cincinnati Reds with the pitch. The third time Perez came up, however, Lee tried it again, only to have Perez hit a homer that set the stage for a Reds come from behind win of the game and the World Series. There were reports that Perez hit the ball so hard that the Boston outfielders didn’t even bother turning their heads to watch it fly. After the game, the ever-philosophical Lee quipped, “Live by the slow curve, die by the slow curve.”
Steve Hamilton of the New York Yankees was known for throwing the folly floater. He also developed a pitch called the hesitation hummer. This pitch started with the classic slow delivery of the “folly floater” but then would be “hummed” in as a fastball. The “hesitation hummer” worked with the “folly floater,” and Hamilton had modest success therewith. Fans at Yankee Stadium, during the mid to late 1960s, loved to see Hamilton work these novel pitches in his relief appearances. One of Hamilton's most famous moments involving the "Folly Floater" occurred during a June 24, 1970 game against the Cleveland Indians. Hamilton threw the pitch to Tony Horton, who fouled it out of play behind home plate. Horton asked for another "Folly Floater," and Hamilton again threw one, and again Horton popped it into foul territory behind home plate—this time into Thurman Munson's mitt. Embarrassed, Horton crawled back into the Indians' dugout.
During a 5-hit performance by Ichiro Suzuki versus the Chicago White Sox on September 4th, 2004, Mark Buehrle, who has struggled facing Ichiro throughout his career, threw up an Eephus pitch during Suzuki's 4th at-bat, catching him off guard and injecting a little humor into the game for all those watching. Buehrle later claimed that he'd tried every pitch in his repertoire against Suzuki and had resorted to making up new pitches in his futile attempts to get him out.
Casey Fossum of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays now throws a form of the Eephus that is known to dip below 50 miles per hour. It has been dubbed the Fossum Flip.
Other nicknames for the Eephus pitch include the Bloop Curve, and Bugs Bunny Curve.
