The countdown to Opening Day has now reached the number FOUR.
Word association with “four” for the average baseball fan would probably first elicit the response, “Base on Balls”, i.e., the rule awarding first base to a batter who has taken four pitches outside the strike zone.
For some reason, though, the first word I associated with the word “four” was a specific pitch: the FOUR-seam fastball.
J. J. Putz’s short tenure with the Mets turned out to be a major disappointment–for him as well as for fans. Due to injury, we saw very little of him–and he’s not even a Met anymore.
Nevertheless, I’ll include in this post the following video featuring J. J. Putz demonstrating the proper pitching grips for fastballs, including the FOUR-SEAMER:
Perfect Pitch 