Eephus pitch facts for kids
An Eephus pitch is a special kind of pitch in baseball. It's often called a "trick pitch" because it's very different from most pitches. Imagine a baseball thrown super slowly, almost like it's floating! That's an Eephus pitch. Its main goal is to surprise the batter and make them swing too early or miss completely.
This unique pitch was first used by a pitcher named Rip Sewell of the Pittsburgh Pirates back in the 1940s. The name Eephus comes from a Hebrew word, efes, which means "nothing." A Pirates player, Maurice Van Robays, supposedly named it, saying, "Eephus ain't nothing, and that's a nothing pitch."
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What Makes an Eephus Pitch Special?
The Eephus pitch is thrown overhand, just like most other baseball pitches. But it stands out because it's incredibly slow and travels in a high arc (a big curve) towards home plate. The ball goes so high that its path looks more like a pitch from slow-pitch softball than a typical baseball pitch.
How Slow Is It?
This pitch is known for being unusually slow. It can feel like the ball is moving in slow motion! An Eephus pitch usually travels at about 55 miles per hour (89 km/h) or even slower. To give you an idea, most pitches in Major League Baseball are thrown much faster, usually between 70 to 100 miles per hour (110 to 160 km/h). Because it's so much slower than what batters expect, the Eephus pitch is a real trick!
Other Fun Names for the Eephus Pitch
Sometimes, the Eephus pitch gets different nicknames, especially when a famous pitcher throws it. Here are some of the well-known ones:
- Fossum Flip, thrown by Casey Fossum
- The folly floater, used by Steve Hamilton
- LaLob, thrown by Dave LaRoche
- Leephus, spaceball, and moonball, all names for pitches by Bill "Spaceman" Lee
- The soap bubble, thrown by Vicente Padilla
- The Pascual Pitch, from Pascual Perez
- The Dead Fish, thrown by Dave Stieb
Other general nicknames for this pitch include bloop curve and gravity curve. It's also sometimes called the Bugs Bunny curve. This funny name comes from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon called "Baseball Bugs." In the cartoon, batters swing three times at a super slow pitch before it even reaches home plate!
Related Baseball Topics
Images for kids
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This image shows the path of an Eephus pitch thrown by pitcher Rip Sewell in the 1946 MLB All-Star Game. It was hit for a home run by Ted Williams.
