Blast From the Past: Me and the Screwball

The first time I ever heard of a pitch called the screwball, I was listening to a game on the radio between the Giants and the Houston Astros. The Astros pitcher that day was a smallish Cuban pitcher named Mike Cuellar. From the way Russ and Lon were describing the game, Cuellar didn't throw very hard, but he was giving the Giants' hitters fits with a pitch called the screwball. I had never heard of such a pitch and my imagination ran wild as to just what the ball did between leaving the pitcher's hand and home plate, and just how you would throw such a pitch anyway. Although Russ and Lon didn't explain exactly what it was, I picked up that the pitch was slow and was tailing away from righthanded batters, and the Giants hitters were foolishly trying to pull everything resulting in either strikeouts or harmless ground outs. Cuellar, of course, would be later traded to the Baltimore Orioles, for Curt Blefary, where he would blossom into a perennial 20 game winner as part of a legendary Orioles starting rotation and would win a Cy Young award, largely because of that pitch, the screwball. Wow, I thought! Why don't the Giants have pitchers who throw this great pitch? As I later learned, not only did the Giants have screwball pitchers, Giants pitchers had played a central role in the history of the pitch.

I tried to read everything I could get my hands on about the screwball. I learned that it is basically a reverse curveball thrown by snapping the wrist down and in rather than down and out at the point of release of the pitch. It breaks very similarly to the curveball, but in the opposite direction. Thrown by a lefthanded pitcher, it breaks away from a righthanded batter and vice-versa. Back in those days, before the development of the circle change, it was about the only pitch that broke away from opposite-handed batters, and so was a great weapon, especially for lefthanded pitchers who had to face more righthanded batters than righthanded pitchers had to face lefthanded batters, but there were still some RHP's who used it, including Juan Marichal.

In the summer, I used to set up a radio on our back porch and point it out toward our lawn to listen to day games, which were more numerous back in those days. I had a pitchback and would pretend to be the pitcher. I would try to throw the pitches that Russ and Lon were describing. I was interested in science and math, and I would read up on the various pitches and try to understand the mechanics of throwing them and how that would produce the movement on the pitch. I tried to throw screwballs, but could never see the break on it when throwing a baseball. I think it was because I just couldn't generate enough velocity to produce enough air resistance to make the ball change direction. What was really fun was to try it with a wiffleball where the movements are exaggerated. Then I could really see how pitching mechanics translated into ball movement.

Somewhere around this time, I read a biography of the great Giants pitcher, Christy Mathewson. Undoubtedly there were pitchers before Mathewson who used the "screwgie", but he is really the guy who put it on the baseball map. Mathewson had attended college at a time when the vast majority of ballplayers had no education at all. Whether his educational advantage had anything to do with his understanding and use of the screwball, I don't know, but Mathewson baffled National League hitters for over 15 years on his way to 373 wins in his career.

Carl Hubbell was star pitcher the Giants in the 1930's. Hubbell was more of a classic screwball pitcher, a small lefthander who probably didn't have the biggest fastball in the world. Hubbell threw the pitch so much that his elbow became permanently deformed from the unnatural stresses. Hubbell rode it to a career ERA of 2.98 with 253 wins between 1928 and 1943, all with the New York Giants. In one All-Star game, he famously struck out a 7 batters in a row from a "murderers row" AL lineup that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and several other legendary hitters.

Juan Marichal threw the pitch, but did not rely on it the way a lefty like Cuellar or Hubbell did, It was just part of Juan's seemingly endless arsenal of pitches. I remember he used to bring it out as a strikeout pitch against tough lefthanded batters.

1967 was a down year for Juan Marichal. The whole season might have been a complete disaster were it not for the return of a Giants lefthander named Mike McCormick. McCormick had been somewhat successful as a conventional lefthanded pltcher with the Giants and then traded away. He was on the verge of pitching his way out of baseball when he added a screwball to his repertoire just in time to come back to the Giants for the 1967 season. Using the pitch to great effect against righthanded batters, Mike won 22 games and the NL Cy Young Award that year. Carl Hubbell, who by that time was the Giants farm system director was beaming with pride, and delighted in pointing out the role the screwball played in McCormick's success. Unfortunately, that success was short lived and Mike was soon out of baseball.

The last pitchers I recall throwing the "screwgie" were Mike Marshall and Fernando Valenzuela of the hated Dodgers. The thing that was different about them is that they seemed to throw the pitch with equal effectiveness against both right and left handed batters. The development of the circle change provided an offspeed pitch that moved away from opposite handed batters and was easier to throw, control and less stressful on the arm.

I don't know of any current MLB pitcher that throws the "screwgie." I know I am always on the lookout for it, and haven't seen one in years. Dallas Braden of the A's threw one in the minor leagues, but I believe he has since scrapped it. One reason I was hoping the Giants would sign Japanese pitcher Hisanori Takahashi is that he features a screwball in his repertoire. Alas, if he uses it in the major leagues, it will be with the Mets.