182 Sentences With "spitball" | Random Sentence Generator

And the Democrats are having public spitball fights about wine caves.

Do you remember the last time you fired a spitball at someone?

Occasionally a misfire will leave a spitball stuck in the Skid Shot's barrel.

Performance is inconsistent, but you can occasionally send a spitball flying over 30 feet.

He likes to spitball with staff and study how to frame his policy achievements.

It is a legal maneuver he uses for a better grip, not a spitball.

It assembled a hi-tech dream team to spitball ways to battle the terrorists online.

Spitball is but one part of Mr. Hardwick's plan to build his off-camera career.

Experts don't see a clearcut reason for the decline, but there are some spitball-able theories.

There was no downside, he added, to an arrangement that asked him to spitball ideas without any pressure.

This process is not nearly as thrilling as the spitball fights between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov.

Social media sites and TV news transmitted every political spitball and insult spewed over the past 18 months.

Before the Super Bowl, he said, activists called him to spitball some ideas: Should they rush the field at halftime?

Either way, like a high school teacher hit from behind with a spitball, he's determined to find out who's responsible.

Jakks Pacific has its own pimple popping game, Pop-A-Zit, and plans to launch a toilet paper spitball shooter.

After two chaotic decades or so, the spitball was banned for 203, the same year the country went dry under Prohibition.

Sometimes the SkiD Shot will send a spitball flying 30 or 40 feet with a satisfying thwack when it hits its target.

The pitch: The people behind Spitball understand both comedy and social media and how to combine the two to build a brand.

It could also spitball comets and ice worlds from the distant reaches of the solar system toward Earth, increasing the likelihood of deadly impacts.

But most of the posts were suggestions for next steps, a sort of rapid-fire spitball session, with one idea building off the next.

That's some punk who'd knock your ice cream out of your hand down on the promenade, or spitball your back in French class. Dickhead.

It was the second official gathering of Spitball, a previously unannounced venture that aims to offer fledgling companies media consulting and comedic video-production services.

A few weeks before his inauguration, Trump tweeted a New Year greeting that was, instead, a spitball thrown at anyone who hadn't genuflected before him.

Whatever happened to the spitball, the Hall of Fame pitch of Jack Chesbro and Ed Walsh, Stan Coveleski and Red Faber, Burleigh Grimes and Gaylord Perry?

In 1974, Gaylord Perry confessed in a midcareer autobiography to throwing a spitball and was still voted to the Vaseline wing of the Hall of Fame.

It was late July, six weeks before the first preview, and producers had traipsed over to RPM's Times Square offices to spitball ways to build audience.

That was his team when he began to throw the spitball in earnest, across 10 innings of a 22-inning marathon with the Mets at Shea Stadium.

Even more revolting is getting hit by a spitball and the feeling of that paper wad disintegrating and releasing its moist payload as it flattens against your skin.

Since Ms. Silverman became a star at the start of the new century, the stature of the comedian has shifted away from its roots as spitball-tossing outsider.

The book devotes a chapter apiece to the fastball, the curveball, the sinker, the slider, the cutter, the changeup, the splitter, the screwball, the knuckleball and the spitball.

They were finicky and time-consuming, giving your opponent plenty of opportunity to ready counter-measures, or just dive under a desk before the next spitball hit its target.

Never one to sit still for an affront, Trump fired a spitball back by yanking the Air Force jet that was to fly the speaker and a congressional delegation overseas.

The specter of the dark arts would indeed follow Roe to his grave; when he died in 2000, the word "spitball" appeared in the headline of his New York Times obituary.

One notes that researchers at Kaspersky Lab uncovered an National Security Agency-affiliated hacking toolkit known as the Equation Group, and asks agents to spitball methods of not being similarly discovered.

This was a textbook case of the Streisand Effect, and it led to a brief spitball-and-paper-airplane party on weird Twitter, resulting in more attention for the graphic than it probably ever deserved.

Your results will vary wildly every time you pull the trigger, but when it does work, and a spitball leaves a giant soaking wet mess on your target, you'll have a hard time suppressing a mischievous smirk.

If you have doubts the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl, this video might erase them ... look at how cool their rookie QB Dak Prescott is from an all-out spitball assault from MVP candidate Zeke Elliott.

Baseball has a long history of stacking rules against the pitchers: banning the spitball in 1920, lowering the mound in 1969, creating the D.H. in 1973 and tacitly condoning steroid use in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

According to Vanity Fair, he recently did a "spitball analysis" of the president's Cabinet to see who would remain loyal to Trump if the 25th Amendment were invoked, and is unsure if Trump would survive an impeachment vote.

It automatically ingests and turns squares of toilet paper into sopping wet spitball projectiles that won't damage electronics like a Super Soaker can, but will create enough of a mess to make you feel like a teenage delinquent again.

With enough practice you can fire a spitball every three or four seconds, so don't expect to get the same rapid-fire speeds you'd get from automatic foam dart blasters that can often fire three or rounds every second.

That's kooky even for you, Sagittarius A*. But new research presented this week at the 2017 American Astronomical Society meeting demonstrates that the Milky Way's black hole may genuinely play this game of "cosmic spitball," as researchers described it.

"I'd wake up at 11 to Ian calling me every day and he'd say 'hey want to get lunch?' we'd go to a fast food place, spitball ideas, joke around ... and then write something up," Padilla said of their early days.

The physics behind the spitball is simple enough: When the ball slides off wet fingers, it loses backspin and therefore rotates less — something like a knuckleball, which should not rotate at all, or a forkball tumbling in its final plunge.

And for as much as something like the Oscars tends to reward editing that can make sense of big, bombastic productions, editing really matters for comedies, where punchlines can snap with the right cut or thud like a wet spitball with a sloppy one.

The same could be said back in Castle Black where Jon Snow and his friends ponder a Risk board and spitball potential allies: Umber, Karstark, Manderly, Glover, and Mormont are minor houses, most of them represented by a single actor, not to mention made-up words.

The associated risks for shareholders in a public company whose CEO uses Twitter as a weapon to indulge personal spats and feuds — and to spitball major business decisions — without, apparently, any thought for the legal and reputational consequences for him or his companies, are hard to quantify but equally difficult to deny.

Everyone from the brand's creative director to assistants gather together to spitball ideas, and the idea of corporate hierarchies is banished — everyone's opinions are valid and, in fact, oftentimes the younger team members are eagerly looked to as oracles, seeing as they're the age of the customer they seek to connect with.

The flutist, meanwhile, looks forward, unfolding a retinue of futuristic techniques — sounds that purr like a cat, pop like a cork or hoick like a spitball — on the way to a final improvisation, a duet in which another flute, recorded decades ago by Roberto Fabbriciani, zooms in virtual laps around the room, as if tracing a halo around the audience.

The invention of the spitball has been popularly credited to a number of individuals, among them Elmer Stricklett and Frank Corridon. Numerous accounts, however, refer to different players experimenting with versions of the spitball throughout the latter half of the 19th century, and it remains unlikely that any one individual "invented" the spitball. Ed Walsh, however, is certainly responsible for popularizing it. Walsh dominated the American League from 1906–1912, primarily on the strength of his spitball, and pitchers around the league soon copied his spitball or invented their own trick pitch.

Spitball Sparky was recreated in Game & Watch Gallery 2 and Game & Watch Gallery 3 for Game Boy Color. In the Super Smash Bros. series, Mr. Game & Watch has an attack which has him blow opponents upwards, referencing Spitball Sparky.

Spitball Sparky Spitball Sparky is a Game & Watch game released as a part of the Super Color series on February 7, 1984. It was the first game in the Super Color series. It is a single-screen single-player Game & Watch. Hirokazu Tanaka composed the game music.

Stricklett denied inventing the spitball, though he claimed to be the first pitcher to master the spitball and to feature it exclusively. To achieve the pitch, he would moisten the ball with a spot the size of two of his fingers. The pitch would act "exactly the same way as reverse English does on a billiard ball". Stricklett learned the spitball from minor league teammate George Hildebrand in 1902, who learned about it from Frank Corridon.

In Major League Baseball (MLB), the spitball was banned in two stages. In the winter of 1919–1920, managers voted to partially ban the spitball. Each team was allowed to designate up to two pitchers who would be permitted to throw spitballs. After the 1920 season, the use of the spitball was banned with the exception of a group of 17 existing spitballers, who were grandfathered in and allowed to throw the pitch legally until they retired.

The incident is recounted by Gillespie and Calloway's band members Milt Hinton and Jonah Jones in Jean Bach's 1997 film, The Spitball Story. Calloway disapproved of Gillespie's mischievous humor and his adventuresome approach to soloing. According to Jones, Calloway referred to it as "Chinese music". During rehearsal, someone in the band threw a spitball.

He was also one of the last pitchers in baseball permitted to throw the spitball, grandfathered in along with sixteen others reliant on the pitch when it was banned in 1920. He frequently used his spitball after he was grandfathered in, in addition to his fastball, curve, and changeup. Quinn was a good hitting pitcher, posting a .

While pitching for Sacramento, Stricklett mastered the spitball. In 1903, Stricklett pitched for Los Angeles and the Seattle Chinooks of the Pacific National League, going 24-8. Stricklett with the Superbas in 1905 The Chicago White Sox of the American League (AL) invited Stricklett to spring training in 1904, where he roomed with Ed Walsh. Stricklett taught Walsh the spitball.

Stricklett played an important role in popularizing the spitball. Stricklett taught the spitball to Jack Chesbro, who saw him use the pitch while pitching in minor league baseball. Though Chesbro had experimented with the pitch in the minor leagues, Stricklett showed him how to master it in 1904. Stricklett taught it to Ed Walsh while they roomed together with the White Sox.

Alternative names for the spitball are spitter, mud ball, shine ball, supersinker, vaseline ball (because originally, Vaseline was used to give the ball a little more break), and emery ball. A spitball technically differs from a standard emery ball, in which the surface of the ball is cut or abraded. The general term for altering the ball in any way is doctoring.

He had a talent for catching the spitball, and became the personal catcher for future Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Burleigh Grimes, the last pitcher allowed to throw the spitball in the major leagues. On October 6, 1925, Taylor was traded by the Robins with Eddie Brown and Jimmy Johnston to the Boston Braves for Jesse Barnes, Gus Felix and Mickey O'Neil.

Though now outmoded, slippery elm tablets were > chewed by spitball pitchers to enhance the effectiveness of the saliva > applied to make the pitched baseball curve.

In August 1920, Ray Chapman was killed when he was struck in the temple by a spitball thrown by pitcher Carl Mays during a poorly lit game.

Retrieved 2011-02-07. Lake's key pitches were the spitball and the fastball.James, Bill and Neyer, Rob. The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 273.

He is credited with inventing the spitball and the out-curve. Deacon White was another historic player, ending his 22-year career as playing owner of Buffalo's Brotherhood team.

Calloway wrongly accused Gillespie of throwing a spitball; in the ensuing altercation Gillespie stabbed Calloway in the leg with a small knife. The band broke up in the late 1940s.

The dramatic increase in the popularity of "freak deliveries" led to a great deal of controversy throughout the 1910s regarding the abolition of the spitball and related pitches. In his autobiography, Ty Cobb wrote that such "freak pitches [...] were outlawed when the owners greedily sold out to home runs." In addition, there were serious issues with the spitball, including some that affected safety. A variation on the standard spitball called for the pitcher to smear the entire surface of the normally white ball with a mixture of tobacco spittle and dirt or mud in order to stain it the same deep brown color as the infield which made it nearly impossible for batters to see (and sometimes avoid) in low-light conditions.

The name dry spitter is sometimes used to describe a pitch that moves like a spitball without saliva, such as the forkball or split-finger fastball. It is sometimes used simply as slang for the knuckleball. There is also the remote term of God-given spitter, which is when the ball is naturally dampened by moist air or light rainfall, which allows pitchers to be able to throw pitches with sharper breaks, much like a spitball.

He learned the pitch while playing in the minor leagues. He later taught the spitball to Ed Walsh and Jack Chesbro, both of whom were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

He also pitched for the 1954 Havana Sugar Kings of the International League. His nickname in Spanish was "Salivita", which translates roughly as "a little saliva", a reference to Sanchez's reputation for throwing a spitball.

A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of a foreign substance such as saliva or petroleum jelly. This technique alters the wind resistance and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to move in an atypical manner. It may also cause the ball to "slip" out of the pitcher's fingers without the usual spin that accompanies a pitch. In this sense, a spitball can be thought of as a fastball with knuckleball action.

Blue overalls, red long johns and bandanna. Hank "Spitball" Furskin—middle sized, baseball hat, red. Baby Thistle Furskin—middle sized, diapers. Junie Mae Furskin—middle sized square dancer in blue polka dot dress, lace slip and yellow ribbon.

Fisher was assistant to the athletic director of the Army training camp's athletics program which was run in cooperation with the YMCA. As a rookie, the newspapers were frequently comparing Fisher to Highlander's spitball pitcher Jack Chesbro,Jones. p. 722.

After a short stint with the Tigers, Raymond returned to the minors. He developed his spitball sometime in 1906. With the new pitch, he had a big season in 1907, going 35-11 for the South Atlantic League's Charleston Sea Gulls.

Brisbane also puts tacks on the seats, glues Miss Crabtree's books together, and blows a loud horn in the classroom. Spud then recites a poem honoring the teacher. Brisbane then throws a spitball at Sherwood. Miss Crabtree sends Brisbane out in the hall.

Benz's two main pitches were the spitball and the knuckleball.Neyer, Rob and James, Bill. The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 132. Benz pitched a no-hitter for the White Sox on May 13, 1914, against the Cleveland Naps.

Retrieved 2011-02-05. Fillingim's key pitch was the spitball, and he was one of the pitchers allowed to continue throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1921.James, Bill and Neyer, Rob. The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 203.

He was drafted by the White Sox in September. Smith made his major league debut in April 1904. That season, he was taught how to throw a spitball by Elmer Stricklett and was able to harness the pitch on his way to 16 wins.

Pleas C. "Hub" Miller (born March 24, 1888) was a Negro Leagues pitcher for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League. He pitched for the West Baden Sprudels where papers called him "Spitball Miller" and he pitched for the St. Louis Giants.

Tesreau initially signed with a minor league team of the St. Louis Browns in 1909. In , his contract was purchased by the New York Giants. Tesreau c. 1912 After two years in the minors, Tesreau learned how to throw a spitball, which became his signature pitch.

Teams relied on bunting and stolen bases to score runs. The advent of new, cork-centered baseballs in 1910, as well as the outlawing of specialty pitches such as the spitball, saw a jump in batting averages and home runs.Evolution of the Ball, Baseball Digest, July 1963, Vol.

Tim Wakefield in his throwing motion, showing his grip of the knuckleball Since it developed during a period when the spitball was legal and commonly used, and was similarly surprising in its motion, the knuckleball was sometimes called the "dry spitter". Cicotte was widely reported to throw both the knuckleball and a variant on the spitball known as a "shine ball" (because he would "shine" one side of a dirty ball by rubbing it on his uniform). However, Cicotte called the shine ball "a pure freak of the imagination", claiming that he did this to disconcert hitters and that the pitch was still a knuckleball. Other names for the knuckleball have generally alluded to its motion and slower speed.

He also worked to abolish the three-man commission that ran the National League in favor of appointing a baseball commissioner, a post to be occupied by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. He also worked to outlaw "freak" pitches such as the spitball, and he was a force in ridding the game of gambling.

In , Major League Baseball outlawed specialty pitches such as the spitball and experienced a subsequent jump in the league batting averages as well as home runs. In Williams' first full season as a regular player in 1920, he posted a .307 batting average along with 10 home runs and 72 runs batted in.

I knew the crucial beat would come when our hero, > Tony Mendez, speaks up. He couldn't seem disrespectful, yet he had to make > his case. I settled on the idea that Mendez would throw a spitball into the > conversation with a joke about giving the bicycle escapees Gatorade. The > table would go silent.

It eventually went back to normal. Pitchers adapted with the use of the spitball, which is now illegal, and an emphasis on changing the ball. In 1920, a couple of important changes were made to baseballs. They began to be made using machine winders and a higher grade of yarn from Australia.

Dygert, a spitball specialist,Jordan, David M. The Athletics of Philadelphia: Connie Mack's White Elephants, 1901-1954 (McFarland, 1999), p. 39. started his professional baseball career in 1904 in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1905, he went 18-4 with the pennant-winning New Orleans Pelicans,"Jimmy Dygert Minor League Statistics & History". baseball- reference.com.

He was a spitball pitcher who was allowed to throw the pitch after it was banned following the 1920 season. He was one of 17 pitchers exempt from the rule change. He was born and later died in Baltimore, Maryland, at the age of 79. His brother Lefty Russell also played Major League Baseball.

Elmer Griffin Stricklett (August 29, 1876 – June 7, 1964) was an American professional baseball pitcher. He pitched in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox and Brooklyn Superbas from 1904 through 1907. Including his time in minor league baseball, Stricklett pitched professionally from 1897 through 1912. Stricklett is considered one of the pioneers of the spitball.

The Pirates told him not to wear curlers on the field again. Ellis agreed, but charged that the Pirates were displaying racism. Ebony devoted a spread to Ellis about his hairstyles, which was inspired by the hair-curler incident. After Ellis defeated the Reds in a 1973 game, Joe Morgan claimed that Ellis had thrown a spitball.

He gave up three earned runs in the first inning, and Boston lost. Despite this, the Red Sox ended up defeating the Giants. By the next season, hitters seemed to have O'Brien's spitball figured out. He went 4–9 before being sold to the White Sox, and just one year after winning 20 games, his major league career ended.

Charles Otto Schmutz (January 1, 1891 in San Diego, California – June 27, 1962 in Seattle, Washington) nicknamed "King", was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He pitched for the 1914–1915 Brooklyn Robins. While pitching for the Northwestern League Vancouver Beavers, he was known as a "spitball artist, and one of the best in the league".

He entered professional baseball the same year that the spitball, Meine's mainstay, was outlawed. Interviewed in 1963, Meine recalled: > After the Carl Mays-Ray Chapman accident in 1920, baseball outlawed all > freak pitches and trick deliveries. I had one break. Either the news was > slow in reaching Texas or they didn't care what the rest of the world did.

559–560 Coveleski spent his time in Portland learning to throw the spitball; originally using chewing tobacco, he later used alum. In his lone season with Portland, he won and lost 17 games, and had a 2.67 ERA. After the season ended, the Cleveland Indians purchased Coveleski from Portland, and he joined the major league squad in 1916.

A crowd of 11,000 saw Sitton use his spitball to outpitch Ted Breitenstein for a complete-game, nine-strikeout, three-hit, 1–0 shutout, giving Nashville its third Southern Association pennant by .002 percentage points. The Nashville team and the fans mobbed the pitcher on the mound. Grantland Rice called it "the greatest game ever played in Dixie".

Sothoron broke into the major leagues when the spitball was still legal. His best season came in 1919, when he posted a 20–13 record with a 2.20 earned run average for the Browns, finishing fifth in the American League in wins and ERA. After the spitball was outlawed following the 1919 campaign, Sothoron at first was not permitted to throw it, then in mid-1920 he was added to a list of 17 spitballers in the majors who were allowed to continue using the banned pitch. But he was never able to match his 1919 numbers. His pitching career ended in St. Louis with the National League Cardinals, where he played for his first MLB manager, Branch Rickey, and led the NL in shutouts with four in , despite a mediocre 10–16 (3.57) record.

In the Deadball Era, catchers played a huge defensive role, given the large number of bunts and stolen base attempts, as well as the difficulty of handling the spitball pitchers who dominated pitching staffs. Richard Kendall of the Society for American Baseball Research devised an unscientific study that ranked Killefer as the most dominating fielding catcher in major league history.

The ball was also hard to hit because pitchers could manipulate it before a pitch. For example, the spitball pitch was permitted in baseball until 1921. Pitchers often marked the ball, scuffed it, spat on it—anything they could to influence the ball's motion. This made the ball "dance" and curve much more than it does now, making it more difficult to hit.

Forrest also marries Gretchen, and his story gets put into film, causing Forrest to remark "Well, you know that one". When David Letterman makes a remark about Forrest Sr. being "the most lovable idiot in America", Forrest Jr. chides him for talking that way about his father, and the story ends with Letterman being hit with a spitball on stage.

At the beginning of the 1920 season, the spitball was banned by Major League Baseball. As a current spitball pitcher, Coveleski was grandfathered in, and was allowed to continue using the pitch until his retirement. He won his first seven starting appearances of the season, but on May 28 his wife died suddenly, and he was given some time off to mourn, returning to pitching two weeks later. He picked up his 100th victory on August 2 with a 2-0 shutout win over the Senators. Covaleski was the starting pitcher against the Yankees on August 16, and hit a sacrifice fly to help the Indians win 4–3, but it is best remembered as the game in which a pitch by the Yankees' Carl Mays hit Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the head, resulting in the only death in major league history.

The game was rained out in the top of the 9th inning. Attendance was 200. Bobby Mathews, who went on to play five seasons each in the National Association, National League, and American Association, is the only player ever to pitch 100 games or to win at least 50 in three different major leagues. He is credited with inventing the spitball and the out-curve.

Roosevelt Davis (November 19, 1904 - December 28, 1968) was an American Negro league pitcher from the 1920s to the 1940s. A native of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Davis made his Negro leagues debut with the St. Louis Stars in 1924. Known for his spitball and emery ball, he enjoyed a career that lasted over 20 years. Davis died in Chicago, Illinois in 1968 at age 64.

William Leopold Doak (January 28, 1891 - November 26, 1954) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher who for three teams between 1912 and 1929. He spent portions of 13 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was nicknamed "Spittin' Bill" because he threw the spitball. He led the National League in earned run average in 1914, and he won 20 games in the 1920 season.

Burleigh Grimes, the famous spitball pitcher, was a manager for the Independence Yankees. The Independence Yankees were a Class D minor league team affiliated with the New York Yankees. One of the most famous visiting players was Satchel Paige, who pitched for the Harlem Globetrotters at the stadium in 1954. Other visiting teams included the House of David, Kansas City Monarchs, and the Memphis Red Sox.

In the game "Manager Rube Deneau got into a row with Umpire Jocko Halligan, the London chief claiming that the Senators were putting licorice on the ball to prevent [London pitcher Bobby] Heck's spitball from working. Halligan examined the ball and tossed it back into play.""London Lose at Ottawa and Protest the Game," Toronto World, July 28, 1913, p. 3. Retrieved 4 Sept. 2011.

From Google Scholar. Retrieved on September 22, 2012. a case cited in law casebooks to highlight the scope of employment law as it relates to agency. He was accused by Yankees manager Billy Martin in 1977 of throwing "spitball" pitches using Vaseline hidden in his hair, which was usually somewhat greasy in appearance anyway due to Grimsley's penchant for not showering during winning streaks.

In four World Series appearances (1920, 1930-1932) he hit .316 (6-for-19) with 1 run and 2 RBI. At the time of his retirement, he was the last player who was legally allowed to throw a spitball, as he was one of 17 spitballers permitted to throw the pitch after it was otherwise outlawed in 1920. He had acquired a lasting field reputation for his temperament.

On February 6, 1936, Frankhouse was traded by the Boston Braves to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Johnny Babich and Gene Moore. On May 17, 1939, during a game against the Cincinnati Reds, Ernie Lombardi complained that Frankhouse, struck him out using the illegal spitball. Frankhouse promptly hit the next batter, Harry Craft, in the head, knocking him unconscious. Frankhouse then bowed to the booing fans at the end of the inning.

As the first Sidney batter whiffed, the crowd screamed: "Don't throw so hard, you'll kill the catcher!" Ewing and the Reds prevailed, 6-1. In professional baseball after the turn of the century, the spitball was a legal pitch and Ewing was known as having one of the best in the majors. By late 1904 Ewing became one of the National League's first notable exponents of the wet one.

AllenFaber, Charles, "Allen Sothoron". SABR Biography Project Sutton Sothoron (April 27, 1893 – June 17, 1939) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. As a player, he was a spitball pitcher who spent 11 years in the major leagues playing for the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Cardinals. Born in Bradford, Ohio, Sothoron threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed .

The following summer, the Maryland Club of Baltimore broke up in mid-season, and the Kekiongas recruited their best players, including pitcher Bobby Matthews, who is credited with having invented the spitball and being the first master of the curveball. When the team played the Chicago White Sox later that season, the Chicago fans were so humiliated that they threw rocks at Fort Wayne players, injuring several of them.

After the 1907 season, Chesbro announced that he was giving up the experimental spitball, intending to return to the "old style of pitching" in 1908. He finished the 1908 season with a 14–20 record. Prior to the 1909 season, Chesbro was assigned to the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association, a minor league affiliate of the Highlanders. However, Chesbro threatened to retire if transferred there, and did not report to the Highlanders at first.

A sweep by the home team would have won the league championship for New York. However, Boston won the first game by scoring a tie-breaking run in the top of the ninth inning. With a Boston runner on third, New York pitcher Jack Chesbro threw a spitball that got away and sailed over the catcher's head. The runner on third easily came across the plate with what proved to be the pennant-clinching run.

Osinski posted a 2.82 ERA with the Braves in 1965 and also was asked by broadcaster Howard Cosell to demonstrate the spitball on national television. He was traded to the Red Sox in December, with whom he spent the next two seasons. Osinski had the lowest ERA of his career (2.54) in 1967 and pitched in two games in the 1967 World Series, which Boston lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

Baseball historians Rob Neyer and Bill James ranked Joss' fastball third (1900–1904) and sixth (1905–1909) in the major leagues. George Moriarty explained that Joss had only one curveball because "he believed that with a few well mastered deliveries he could acquire great control and success with less strain on his arm.""The Greatest Pitcher I Ever Faced." Baseball Magazine, 1911 In an era filled with spitball pitchers, Joss achieved his success without ever altering the baseball.

Anderson had the umpire check Ellis, but found no evidence. In his 1980 book, Ellis admitted that wearing hair curlers produced sweat on his hair, which he used to throw a modified version of a spitball. Ellis missed most of the last month of the season because of tendinitis in his elbow, and the Pirates lost the division to the New York Mets. Ellis again led the league in home runs allowed per nine innings pitched ratio (0.328).

Ford won 26 games in his rookie season of , becoming only the third player in major league history to win 20 games and strike out at least 200 batters in his first season (Christy Mathewson and Grover Cleveland Alexander are the others). His pitch selection included the famed scuff/emery ball, a spitball, fastball, and knuckle ball.The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches. Bill James and Rob Neyer. 2004.

Ewing pitched a complete game, four hit, 4-3 victory. In what he always viewed as the highlight of his career, Ewing fanned the first six Pirate batters he faced, including such outstanding hitters as Wagner, Fred Clarke and Ginger Beaumont. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that "He used the spitball when he found himself in a tight place and it was very effective in his hands." The Reds come from behind with two runs in the ninth inning.

Lary was born in Northport, Alabama, in April 1930 as the sixth of seven children in the family. He was raised with his six brothers at a two-bedroom house in his family's farm near Northport. His father, Joseph Milton "Mitt" Lary, was a cotton farmer and a former semipro spitball pitcher, who coached young Lary and five of his brothers when they were not working in the farm. His mother, Margaret, was a fiddle maker.

Vampiro made his debut on the album FREEKSHOW by the band Twiztid on the track "Maniac Killa" where he recorded the introduction of the song. On the Insane Clown Posse album Forgotten Freshness 3 the spitball recording for that intro on the Twiztid album was released as one of the gag tracks on the cd. In 2006, Hodgkinson formed the industrial metal band Droch Fhoula. In January 2007 Carpatos Records released the band's debut maxi-single Alter Deus.

Edward Lloyd Klepfer was a spitball pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians in a span of six seasons between 1911 and 1919. Klepfer, commonly known as "Big Ed", was born on March 17, 1888 in Summerville, Pennsylvania. He batted and threw right-handed and was also , 180 pounds, and attended Penn State University. Klepfer made his big league debut on July 4, 1911 with the Highlanders.

Gowdy twice led the National League in caught stealing percentage. His 52.58% career caught stealing percentage ranks him sixth in major league history.Caught Stealing career leaders at Baseball Reference Gowdy's reputation as a defensive stand out is enhanced because of the era in which he played. In the Deadball Era, catchers played a huge defensive role, given the large number of bunts and stolen base attempts, as well as the difficulty of handling the spitball pitchers who dominated pitching staffs.

On October 9, heavy rain forced the sixth game to be delayed a day. On Saturday, October 10, play resumed despite freezing temperatures and gusting winds that kept all but the hardiest of fans away. Phil Cockrell, a spitball pitcher, was the winner, as he allowed eight hits and two runs, striking out six, and walking four, in a complete game. William Bell, the loser, also went the distance, as he allowed nine hits and five runs, struck out four, and walked one.

During the 1913 season, upon the ending of an 11-game winning streak by Washington Senators pitcher Joe Boehling, Marquard commented, "I know just how Boehling feels. I know how I felt after Lavender beat me in Chicago last year after I had won nineteen straight, and I can sympathize with the Washington youngster." Lavender would have continued success against the Giants throughout his career. Lavender's primary pitch was the spitball, and his method of preparation was to lick the ball.

During the deadball era, catchers played a huge defensive role, given the large number of bunts and stolen base attempts, as well as the difficulty of handling the spitball pitchers who dominated pitching staffs. A newspaper report in 1912 called Whaling the best catcher to have ever played in the Northwestern League. Whaling signed a contract to play for the Boston Braves in October 1912, and made his major league debut with the team on April 22, 1913 at the age of 25.

Ness promptly quit the game, saying, "I can pull down $100 a month playing semi-pro baseball in Chicago. That, added to my salary [as a mechanic], will give me about the same as that offered me to play for the Sox in 1917."Hogg, Clyde H. Spitting on Diamonds: A Spitball Pitcher's Journey to the Major Leagues, 1911-1919 (University of Missouri Press, 2005), p. 181. The Chicago White Sox would win the American League pennant and World Series in 1917.

" At the end of spring training in 1914, manager Hughie Jennings had decided to send Reynolds to the minor leagues, but pitcher Jean Dubuc persuaded team owner Frank Navin to keep Reynolds on the Tigers' lineup. Dubuc opined that Reynolds had the best control of a spitball he had ever seen. Dubuc added: "If you want a 'Walsh in the bud,' keep this fellow. He has a fine spit-ball, good control, holds men on the sacks and has plenty of nerve.

The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers is divided into three main sections. The first section contains a series of 11 chapters dealing with eight different pitches, such as the fastball, spitball, curveball, change, slider, knuckleball, forkball, and screwball. These chapters detail such matters as the origin of these pitches, the history of their nomenclature, a description of any sub-types, and citations of different pitchers who were noted for their skill in throwing particular pitches. All but two of these chapters are credited to Neyer.

The motion of a split-finger pitch is similar to the outlawed spitball and at one time the pitch was known as the "dry spitter". When thrown, the pitcher must emphasize the downward pull of the pitch at the end of his motion. Thrusting the hand and forearm downward is what causes the reduced backspin relative to a fastball, and thus the appearance of "drop off the table" movement from the pitch. The split-finger fastball is a very effective pitch with runners on base.

Crazy '08: How a cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads and Magnates created the Greatest Year in Baseball History, p. 166, by Cait Murphy, Smithsonian Books, a Division of Harper Collins, 2007, Raymond was known for his spitball and got his nickname because of his zany antics on the mound. What might have been a promising career was short- circuited by a severe addiction to alcohol. The only manager who could keep Raymond in line for any length of time was hard-nosed Giants manager John McGraw.

According to his longtime teammate Frank Duncan, "Rogan was one of the best low-ball hitters I ever saw, and one of the best curve-ball hitters. Rogan taught Bob and Irish Meusel how to hit curve balls." While not extremely fast, he ran the bases well and stole when necessary. As a pitcher, Rogan used a no-windup delivery and both overhand and sidearm motions, and relied on an array of curveballs, a spitball, a palmball, a forkball, and the fastball that gave him his nickname.

David Browne of Entertainment Weekly described Insomniac as "14 slices of hearty anarchy, played with a follow-the-bouncing-spitball compactness and vigor." Ian Winwood of Kerrang! wrote of the album's "master class in buzzsaw efficiency, the songs are so economical, not to mention harsh, that the removal of even a single chord would cause each composition to collapse in on itself," calling it "the album on which its creators lost their baby teeth." The album features bleaker, more pessimistic lyrics than those of Dookie.

"We're playing the [San Francisco] Giants...and [Bob] Shaw was pitching for the Giants and throwing nothing but spitters. I remember [manager Bobby Bragan] calling the bullpen and asking if anybody down there threw a spitter, and I got elected." Bragan ordered him to throw the pitch and be very obvious about it; he threw two shutout innings as the Braves lost 9–2. The next day, broadcaster Howard Cosell had him demonstrate the spitball to national television on the game's pre-game show.

Raymond Benjamin Caldwell (April 26, 1888 - August 17, 1967), was an American Major league pitcher from 1910 to 1921. He was known for throwing the spitball, and he was one of the 17 pitchers allowed to continue throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920."Ray Caldwell Chronology" , Retrieved on 2013-5-24. Caldwell was notorious during his playing career for his addiction to alcohol and partying; he possessed a self-destructive streak that many of his contemporaries believed stopped him from reaching his potential.

Marvin Mardo Goodwin (January 16, 1891 – October 21, 1925), was a professional baseball player who was a pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1916 to 1925. He would play for the Washington Senators, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. Goodwin was known for throwing the spitball, and he was one of the 17 pitchers allowed to continue throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920. Goodwin was a pilot in World War I, and died after the war from injuries sustained in a training flight while a member of the Army Air Service Reserve.

He played in the majors from 1911 to 1932 for the Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, Brooklyn Robins, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals. Mitchell was known for throwing the spitball, and he was one of the 17 pitchers allowed to continue throwing the pitch after it was outlawed in 1920. He was a very good hitting pitcher in his 18-year major league career, posting a .252 batting average (324-for-1287) with 138 runs, 7 home runs, 133 RBI and drawing 72 bases on balls.

Gibson was regarded as one of the National League's premier catchers because of his impressive defensive skills and his strong, accurate throwing arm. He was also known for his smart pitch-calling and his ability to hold runners on base. His reputation as a defensive stand out is enhanced because of the era in which he played. In the deadball era, catchers played a huge defensive role, given the large number of bunts and stolen base attempts, as well as the difficulty of handling the spitball pitchers who dominated pitching staffs.

George Albert Hildebrand (September 6, 1878 – May 30, 1960) was an American professional baseball player and umpire. He played in 11 Major League Baseball games as a left fielder for the 1902 Brooklyn Superbas before becoming an American League umpire from 1913 to 1934. He is often credited as having invented the spitball while playing in the minor leagues. He was the umpire in four World Series (1914, 1918, 1922, 1926), and his 3,331 games as an umpire ranked third in American League history at the time of his retirement.

When throwing his fastball, he would grip the ball by the seams, with his fingers spread out. Before he threw, Maglie had a routine of, as he described it, "wiping my hand on my shirt, tugging at my cap, then licking my fingers, wiping my hand off again, rubbing it on my leg and then picking up the resin bag." He did this to get hitters fidgety and to relax himself before throwing. His habit of wiping his hands led, as Robert Creamer reported, to accusations that he threw a spitball.

Compared with the present, professional baseball in the early 20th century was lower-scoring, and pitchers were more dominant.Sullivan (1997), p. 214. The so-called dead-ball era ended in the early 1920s with several changes in rule and circumstance that were advantageous to hitters. Strict new regulations governed the ball's size, shape and composition, along with a new rule officially banning the spitball and other pitches that depended on the ball being treated or roughed-up with foreign substances, resulted in a ball that traveled farther when hit.Zoss (2004), p. 90.

I, No. 1 (1991), McGraw-Beauchamp Publications, Chicago, IL. # "Pieces of My Soul," Break Bread With The World: A Commemorative Collection Of Poems/Anecdotes/Commentaries (1991), Parks Publishing Corporation, East St. Louis, IL. # "Spinner Sponn," "Hot Dog Kind of Girl," Spitball, No. 43 (1993), McNaughton & Gunn, Inc. Publications, Cincinnati, OH. # "Augusta," Webster Review, No. 17 (1993), Webster University Press, St. Louis, MO. # "Ham," Earth’s Daughters, No. 43/44 (1994), Something Press, Buffalo, NY. # "Bowl," California State Poetry Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1995), Kimberly Press Inc., Orange, CA. # "Water," "God On Noah," Sagarin Review, Vol.

By the 1960s, it had increased to over a million, and by the 1970s, it had doubled to two million. Circulation multiplied more than eight times during Feldstein's tenure, peaking at 2,850,000 for an issue in 1974 (and an average of 2.1 million for that year), although it declined to a third of that figure by the end of his time as editor. Feldstein has been credited with giving the magazine the personality of a "smart-alecky, sniggering and indisputably clever spitball-shooter." Many new cartoonists and writers surfaced during the early years of Feldstein's editorship.

Mays was nicknamed "Sub", a reference to his submarine pitching motion, and he was known to throw a spitball. The pitch was legal at the time of the Chapman incident, but Chapman's death was partly responsible for its ban in Major League Baseball. Mays was also known for a habit of throwing inside to any batter who hugged the plate; despite a stellar win/loss record, he was typically among the American League leaders in hit batsmen. Mays was also regarded as an exceptional fielder, and was capable enough with the bat that he was often used as a pinch-hitter.

Louis "Dicta" Johnson (born June 29, 1887) was an American spitball pitcher in Negro League baseball and during the pre-Negro League years. He played from 1908 until 1923, mostly for the Indianapolis ABCs and the Chicago American Giants. 1910 St. Paul Gophers In 1910 and 1911, Johnson followed many of his fellow Chicago players to the St. Paul Colored Gophers team, which became the Twin Cities Gophers in 1911. There he would play with Candy Jim Taylor, William Binga, Mule Armstrong, Sherman Barton, Johnny Davis and future College Football Hall of Fame legend Bobby Marshall.

Urbain Jacques Shockcor (September 22, 1890 – September 9, 1928), known as Urban James Shocker was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Browns between 1916 and 1928. Shocker, known as one of the last legal spitball pitchers, led the American League (AL)—and set the Browns record—in 1921 with 27 wins, and won at least 20 games 4 seasons in a row from 1920 to 1923. At the time of his retirement he was the Browns all-time leader in wins with 126 and shutouts with 23.

The 1941 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Dodgers, with the Yankees winning in five games to capture their fifth title in six years, and their ninth overall. The name "Subway Series" arose for a World Series played between two New York City teams. The series was punctuated by the Dodgers' Mickey Owen's dropped third strike of a sharply breaking curveball (a suspected spitball) pitched by Hugh Casey to Tommy Henrich in the 9th inning of Game 4. The play led to a Yankees rally and brought them one win away from another championship.

During some office horseplay at the Lantz studio, a thumbtack or paper clip flew into Avery's left eye and caused him to lose his sight in that eye. Some speculate it was his lack of depth perception that gave him his unique look at animation and bizarre directorial style, but it did not stop his creative career. The incident is described in some detail by Barrier, based in part on old interviews with Avery. Part of the typical crude horseplay at the Universal studio was using a rubber band or a paper spitball to target the back of a colleague's head.

Coveleski followed in the footsteps of his brother Harry as a major league pitcher. But after making his debut with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1912, he was sidetracked by three more seasons in the minor leagues before joining the Indians in 1916, and won only 13 major league games before turning 27. Coveleski specialized in throwing the spitball, where the pitcher alters the ball with a foreign substance such as chewing tobacco. It was legal when his career began but prohibited in 1920, with Coveleski being one of 17 pitchers permitted to continue throwing the pitch.

Charlie Graham was a Santa Clara Player, Coach and Professor prior to a Major League Career. Santa Clara's Frank Arellanes was the first Hispanic professional baseball player, who played for the Boston Red Sox in 1908. Another Bronco baseball player from the early period was Harry Wolter, who recorded the first hit in then-new Fenway Park as a member of the Red Sox. Elmer Stricklett, who played at Santa Clara and made his way to the Major Leagues, is considered the inventor of the spitball. The most notable contributor to Santa Clara Baseball was 1898 graduate Charlie Graham.

His 1,332 career assists rank him 17th all-time among major league catchers. Richard Kendall of the Society for American Baseball Research devised an unscientific study that ranked Snyder as the ninth-most dominating fielding catcher in major league history.Dominating Fielding Catchers at The Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers His reputation as a defensive standout is enhanced because of the era in which he played. In the Deadball Era, catchers played a huge defensive role, given the large number of bunts and stolen base attempts, as well as the difficulty of handling the spitball pitchers who dominated pitching staffs.

Her teacher unfairly keeps her after school after one of her bullies Brandon McCarthy tries to copy her answers on a test. Later, Dawn gets in trouble again after accidentally hitting another teacher in the eye with a spitball in self-defense when Brandon and his friends bully her during an assembly. Mark's classmate Steve Rodgers, a handsome and charismatic aspiring rock musician, agrees to join the band in exchange for Mark's help in school. Dawn pursues him romantically when they spend time together, though one of Steve's former girlfriends tells her that she has no chance of being with him.

Cardboard Gods was inspired in part by Frederick Exley's A Fan's Notes. It received positive reviews, with Spitball Magazine writing that "Wilker moves us beyond baseball cards as monetary investment to place us inside his Transcendentalist-esque realization of their ability to transcend time and make tangible a golden age of childhood." It was nominated for a Casey Award. In addition to numerous books for children, Wilker is the author of The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, about the 1977 sequel, and Benchwarmer: A Sports-Obsessed Memoir of Fatherhood, a memoir of sports and parenting.

Joe Jackson in 1911, and the next year Cobb . These were the averages between and . In , however, minor league pitcher Russ Ford noticed that a ball scuffed against a concrete wall quickly dived as it reached the batter. This so-called emery pitch, together with the spitball, gave pitchers greatly increased control of the batter, especially since a single ballrarely replaced during a gamewould become increasingly scuffed as play progressed, as well as more difficult to see as it became dirtier. By run scoring was essentially back to the pre-1911 years and remained so until 1919.

Spitball Sparky works similarly to Breakout, where a ball moves across the screen and is propelled by the player, blowing it upwards as long it is directly above the player in the purple space. If all blocks are eliminated fast enough, a bonus bar at the top would add 5 points per segment, the most being 20 points. Along the top row are red blocks, which require two hits to destroy. If the player eliminates all but the red blocks, and then hits each red block once to make them flash, it awards more bonus points.

Ross Ernest Reynolds (August 20, 1887 – June 23, 1970), nicknamed "Doc", was a right-handed American baseball pitcher. He played professional baseball for five years from 1912 to 1916, including two seasons in Major League Baseball for the Detroit Tigers in 1914 and 1915. Known for his ability to throw a spitball with control, he appeared in 30 games, nine as a starter, and compiled a 5–4 win-loss record and a 2.62 earned run average. As a rookie in 1914, he compiled a 2.08 ERA and defeated Walter Johnson in a 2–1 decision on August 25, 1914.

John Morgan Boozer (July 6, 1938 – January 24, 1986) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies (1962–64 and 1966–69). Boozer has the distinction of being one of only four Major League Baseball players to be ejected from a game for violation of the spitball rule (the others were Nels Potter in 1944, Phil Regan later in 1968, and Gaylord Perry in 1982).Peter Morris, A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball: The Game on the Field (Ivan R. Dee, 2006) p103 The ejection occurred on May 2, 1968, when Boozer, having entered the game for the Phillies in relief of Woody Fryman, with his team trailing 3 to 0 to the host New York Mets, repeatedly touched his fingers to his mouth during warm-ups for the bottom of the seventh inning. Home-plate umpire Ed Vargo gave Boozer two warnings, calling a ball to batter Bud Harrelson three times — the last resulting in the pitcher’s ejection, along with the ejection of Phillies’ manager, Gene Mauch."Mauch, Vargo Feud Over Spitball Rule— Boozer's 'Housecleaning' Chores Start Feature Attraction At Met Game", Pittsburgh Press, May 3, 1968, p35 Boozer attended Wofford College and also played in the Puerto Rico Baseball Winter League in 1961, 1962, and 1963 with the Ponce Lions.

These developments meant that catchers began to take on a crucial defensive role, as a pitcher's deceptive deliveries could only be effective if the catcher was capable of fielding them. The progression of the catcher positioning himself closer to the plate would lead to changes in pitching deliveries that would revolutionize the sport. In the 1870s, pitcher Candy Cummings was able to introduce the curveball because his catcher, Nat Hicks, fielded his position in close proximity to home plate and was able to catch the deceptive pitch. Other specialized pitches such as the spitball and the knuckleball followed, which further emphasized the defensive importance of the catcher's position.

Both teams had the same number of losses (56), but the New Orleans Pelicans were in first place with 76 wins to the Vols' second-place 74. Carl Sitton used his spitball to out-pitch Ted Breitenstein for a complete-game, nine-strikeout, four-hit, shutout. According to one account, "By one run, by one point, Nashville has won the Southern League pennant, nosing New Orleans out literally by an eyelash. Saturday's game, which was the deciding one, between Nashville and New Orleans was the greatest exhibition of the national game ever seen in the south and the finish in the league race probably sets a record in baseball history".

He worked his way through the system over the next few seasons, culminating with a three-season stint with the Providence Grays of the Eastern League from 1909 to 1911. Lavender primarily threw the spitball, and used it to win 16 games as a 28-year-old rookie in 1912. In July 1912, he defeated Rube Marquard, ending Marquard's consecutive win streak at 19 games, which at the time tied the record for the longest win streak for a pitcher in MLB history. Lavender's early success as a rookie soon turned to mediocrity as his career progressed, winning no more than 11 games in any season afterward.

Burleigh Arland Grimes (August 18, 1893 – December 6, 1985) was an American professional baseball player and manager, and the last pitcher officially permitted to throw the spitball. Grimes made the most of this advantage, as well as his unshaven, menacing presence on the mound, which earned him the nickname "Ol' Stubblebeard."Faber, Charles F., Burleigh Grimes, Society for American Baseball Research Biography Project He won 270 MLB games, pitched in four World Series over the course of his 19-year career, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964. A decade earlier, he had been inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame.

Mike Sowell is a sports historian and the author of three baseball books, including The Pitch That Killed about Ray Chapman and Carl Mays. Named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times in 1989, and winner of the CASEY Award for best baseball book of 1989,Casey Award, Spitball: The Baseball Literary Magazine (accessed March 17, 2010). The Pitch That Killed tells the story of the only on-field fatality in major league baseball history, when the Yankees' Mays beaned the Indians' Chapman in the final weeks of the 1920 American League pennant race.Susan Jacoby, "Death on the Mound", New York Times, September 17, 1989.

Strict new regulations governing the ball's size, shape and composition, along with a new rule officially banning the spitball and other pitches that depended on the ball being treated or roughed- up with foreign substances, followed the death of Ray Chapman after a pitch struck him in the head in August 1920. Coupled with superior materials available after World War I, this resulted in a ball that traveled farther when hit. The construction of additional seating to accommodate the rising popularity of the game often had the effect of reducing the distance to the outfield fences, making home runs more common.Zoss (2004), p. 90.

Catchers fielding records at The Encyclopedia of Catchers His reputation as a defensive stand out is enhanced because of the era in which he played. In the Deadball Era, catchers played a huge defensive role, given the large number of bunts and stolen base attempts, as well as the difficulty of handling the spitball pitchers who dominated pitching staffs.For Catchers, The Name of the Game is Defense, by George Vass, Baseball Digest, May 2005, Vol. 64, No. 3, Richard Kendall of the Society for American Baseball Research devised an unscientific study that ranked Ruel as the fifth most dominating fielding catcher in major league history.

With the exception of The Washington Post, Elias's book was not widely reviewed in national print publications but has been reviewed in various on-line sites that focus on books, baseball, or a combination of both. Traditional and on-line media outlets, combined, offered mixed reviews of the book. Some reviewers lauded Elias' exhaustive research dating back well over 100 years as well as his ability to craft a political argument using sports as a metaphor while others criticized the book's strident tone.Roberts, Steven V. (February 21, 2010) "Pitching Politics" The Washington Post. Retrieved October 17, 2013 McGill, William J. (February 10, 2010) "The Empire Strikes Out" Spitball Magazine.

A predecessor to what became a storied rivalry, this race featured such controversial moves as the trade of Patsy Dougherty to the Highlanders for Bob Unglaub. The climax of the season occurred on the last, dramatic doubleheader at the Highlanders' home stadium, Hilltop Park. In order to win the pennant, the Highlanders needed to win both games. With Jack Chesbro, the Highlanders' 41-game winner, on the mound, and the score tied 2–2 with a man on third in the top of the ninth, a spitball got away from Chesbro and Lou Criger scored the go-ahead run on one of the most famous wild pitches in history.

Also, pitchers could manipulate the ball through the use of the spitball. (In 1921 use of this pitch was restricted to a few pitchers with a grandfather clause). Additionally, many ballparks had large dimensions, such as the West Side Grounds of the Chicago Cubs, which was to the center field fence, and the Huntington Avenue Grounds of the Boston Red Sox, which was to the center field fence, thus home runs were rare, and "small ball" tactics such as singles, bunts, stolen bases, and the hit-and-run play dominated the strategies of the time.Daniel Okrent, Harris Lewine, David Nemec (2000) "The Ultimate Baseball Book", Houghton Mifflin Books, p. 33.

Griffith continued to have faith in Neuer during the exhibition season, and said he could potentially be "one of the greatest ever in the twirling line." Instead of working on his control during that time, which was considered the main thing he needed to work on, he practiced throwing the knuckleball and spitball. Griffith encouraged him to do so, believing that developing these trick pitches would allow him to become a great pitcher, and as a result, he practiced these pitches until, according to one sportswriter, "he was so wild he couldn’t hit the grand stand." In one exhibition game against Atlanta, he appeared in relief of Jack Chesbro, and allowed four runs in less than an inning due to his lack of control.

Eventually, a particularly fast Phillies player, Hans Lobert, was able to catch up with him and grab the offending item. As a result of this incident, AL president, Ban Johnson, decreed that any pitcher in his league caught using sandpaper to alter the baseball, would be suspended for 30 days and fined $100. This rule became the forebearer of the rule banning other pitches as well, including the spitball. In his 37 games pitched in 1914, 28 were as the starting pitcher. His win–loss record was 11–11, and he lowered his ERA down to 3.07 in 214 innings pitched. Lavender got off to quick start in 1915, pitching a complete game victory against St. Louis on April 16.

Robert T. Mathews (November 21, 1851 - April 17, 1898) was an American right- handed professional baseball pitcher who played in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the National League of Major League Baseball and the American Association for twenty years beginning in the late 1860s. He is credited as being one of the inventors of the spitball pitch, which was rediscovered or reintroduced to the major leagues after he died. He is also credited with the first legal pitch which broke away from the batter. He is listed at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 140 pounds, which is small for a pro athlete even in his time, when the average height of an American male in the mid-19th century was 5 foot 7.

The home run's place in baseball changed dramatically when the live-ball era began after World War I. First, the materials and manufacturing processes improved significantly, making the now-mass-produced, cork-centered ball somewhat more lively. Batters such as Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby took full advantage of rules changes that were instituted during the 1920s, particularly prohibition of the spitball, and the requirement that balls be replaced when worn or dirty. These changes resulted in the baseball being easier to see and hit, and easier to hit out of the park. Meanwhile, as the game's popularity boomed, more outfield seating was built, shrinking the size of the outfield and increasing the chances of a long fly ball resulting in a home run.

While many PCL players went on to play in the major leagues, teams in the league were often successful enough that they could offer competitive salaries to avoid being outbid for their players' services. Some players made a career out of the minor leagues. One of the better known was Frank Shellenback, whose major league pitching career was brief, but who compiled a record PCL total of 295 wins against 178 losses. (It should be mentioned, however, that Shellenback's long career in the PCL was largely due to his use of the spitball, banned in the major leagues in 1920, not the competitive salaries offered by PCL clubs.) Many former major league players came to the PCL to finish their careers after their time in the majors had ended.

He claimed to be the only major league catcher to have made a putout at every base, and once made three assists in one inning. He also became known for his handling of the White Sox pitching staff and his pitch-calling skills. His reputation as a defensive standout is enhanced due to the era in which he played: in the deadball era, catchers played a much greater defensive role than subsequently, given the large number of bunts and stolen base attempts, as well as the difficulty of handling the spitball pitchers who dominated pitching staffs. He had to catch every type of pitch imaginable, including shine balls, spitballs, knuckleballs and emory balls from pitchers such as, Ed Walsh, Eddie Cicotte, Dickie Kerr, Urban Faber and Ted Lyons.

Born to parents of German descent and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Meine served in the United States Army during World War I. "Henry William Meine was born on May 1, 1896 in an unincorporated area called Luxemburg in the predominantly German neighborhood known as Carondelet bordering the Mississippi River in south St. Louis, Missouri. Meine's parents were both children of German immigrants; Henry (born in 1864) and Louisa (nee Kulhman, born in 1873) married in 1891 and had seven children, Lilly, Henry, Edwin, Arthur, Charles, Ferdinand, and Walter, born between 1892 and 1908." After a tip that Meine, who was playing semipro ball in 1920, threw "a good spitball", he was signed to play professional baseball for Beaumont in the Texas League. Meine made his professional baseball debut in 1921 at age 25.

Faber enjoyed the greatest success of his career in the early 1920s. The live-ball era was beginning, but, thanks to a rule change allowing active 17 spitball pitchers to continue throwing it the remainder of their careers after its 1920 ban, he made one of the most successful transitions of all pitchers. He took advantage of Comiskey Park's spacious dimensions, surrendering only 91 home runs—barely one homer per month—from 1920 to 1931. He was one of only six pitchers to win 100 or more games in both the "dead ball" (through 1920) and live ball eras. Faber finished the 1920 season with 23 wins and led the league in games started. During the summer of 1921, Faber and several other players had to leave a road trip in Washington after receiving subpoenas for the Black Sox trial in Chicago.

In order to win the pennant, New York needed to take both games from Boston. With Jack Chesbro, the Highlanders' 41-game winner, on the mound, New York seemed to have a good chance of winning the first game. However, in the top of the ninth inning with the score tied 2–2 with a man on third in the top of the ninth, a spitball got away from Chesbro allowing Boston's Lou Criger to score the go-ahead run on one of the most famous wild pitches in history. Unfortunately the NL champion New York Giants had previously declined to play any postseason series, fearing it would give their New York rivals credibility (they had expected the Highlanders to win), but a sharp public reaction led to the two leagues immediately turning the World Series into a permanent championship, starting in 1905.

Nemec is a member of SABR, [the Society for American Baseball Research] and a recipient of a lifetime Henry Chadwick Award, which was established in 2009 to honor baseball's greatest researchers. Among his most recent baseball books are, Major League Baseball Profiles: 1871-1900, vols. 1 & 2; "The Rank and File of 19th Century Major League Baseball, a trilogy of biographies of every 19th century player, major owner, manager, league official and regular umpire; and "Forfeits and Successfully Protested Major League Games: A Complete Record 1871-2013". Other works of his have been anthologized in Survival Prose," Twilight Zone, Crimes of 20th Century, Baseball and the Game of Life, Nine, Spitball Magazine, A History of Baseball in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Four Dynasties of the New York Yankees, Base Ball, Working Artist, and Contemporary Authors.

Despite playing for a team with a losing record, Cunningham led the Southern Association with a .667 winning percentage. On August 15, 1915, the Lookouts sold Cunningham back to the Detroit Tigers with the caveat that he need not report to Detroit until the Lookouts' season had ended. On March 29, 1916, Cunningham pitched a shutout in a spring training game with E. A. Batchelor writing that the spitball was his "most deadly weapon". Cunningham remained with the Tigers for a total of four years from 1916 to 1919, pitched in 123 games for the Tigers, including 36 as a starter, and compiled a record of 16–25 with a 3.13 earned run average (ERA) in 477 innings pitched. During the 1917 season, he ranked among the American League leaders with 44 pitching appearances (tenth) and 24 games finished (second).

Baseball card of Grimes Grimes played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1916 and . Before the 1918 season, he was sent to the Brooklyn Dodgers in a multiplayer trade. When the spitball was banned in 1920, he was named as one of 17 established pitchers who were allowed to continue to throw the pitch. According to Baseball Digest, the Phillies were able to hit him because they knew when he was throwing the spitter. He then pitched for the New York Giants (), the Pirates again (–), the Boston Braves () and the St. Louis Cardinals (1930-). He was traded to the Chicago Cubs before the 1932 season in exchange for Hack Wilson and Bud Teachout. He returned to the Cardinals in 1933 and , then moved to the Pirates (1934) and the New York Yankees (1934). Grimes was nicknamed "Ol' Stubblebeard", related to his habit of not shaving on days in which he was going to pitch.

He made the Sporting News All-Star team for the third time in his career. He narrowly missed his second Gold Glove, finishing fourth in the voting among American League outfielders. He finished with 17 game-winning hits, second to AL MVP Reggie Jackson's 18. On July 13, Murcer hit three home runs for the second time in his career, and drove in all five runs in a 5–0 win over the Kansas City Royals. On June 30, 1973, baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn fined Murcer $250 for saying that Kuhn didn't have the "guts" to stop Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry from throwing the spitball. That night, Murcer hit a two-run homer off Perry that put the Yankees ahead in a 7–2 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Murcer had made his original comment about Kuhn after Perry beat New York the previous week, which ended the Yankees' eight-game winning streak.

The techniques used to prepare a spitball are analogous to the techniques still used to condition the ball in cricket. As was the case in pre-1920s baseball, usually a single cricket ball is used for a long period of time (almost 500 deliveries in international cricket), wherein the newer ball, because of its condition, swings naturally, losing the swing as it becomes more used. The fielding team progressively attempts to make one side of the ball more shiny than the other to create phenomena such as reverse swing, the aerodynamic opposite of conventional swing. Some techniques, such as physically polishing the ball against the player's clothing, or applying sweat and saliva, are entirely legal and are used widely; other techniques are illegal (known as ball tampering), including practices such as altering the ball's state by the use of artificial substances such as sun block or dirt, degradation by fingernails or other hard substances, intentionally returning the ball along the ground to abrade it, or picking the seam.

The invention of the spitball has been credited to several pitchers. Corridon is one of them. He claimed to have originated the pitch while playing for the Providence Grays of the International League, when discovered that a ball which had landed in a puddle and was wet on one side did an unexpected effect on its flight when he threw it. He later wet the ball during games and went on to have a respectable major league career. Corridon entered the majors in 1904 with the Chicago Cubs, appearing for them in 24 games before joining the Philadelphia Phillies (1904–1905, 1907–1909) and St. Louis Cardinals (1910). His most productive season came with the 1907 Phillies, when he posted career-numbers in wins (18), starts (32), complete games (23) and innings pitched (274.0), while collecting a 2.46 ERA. He finished 14–10 with a 2.51 ERA the next season, and went 11–7 with a career-high 2.11 in 1909. He faded to 6–14 with the Cardinals in 1910, his last major league season.

However, Shocker rejoined Huggins and the Yankees in 1925. In March 1918 his draft number came up and he reported for service on May 31 of that year.Huhn, David, pp. 69Faber, Charles, pp. 68 After he served overseas he returned to the Browns in April 1919. The right-handed hurler had four consecutive 20-win seasons with the Browns in the early 1920s, during which he was one of the dominant pitchers in baseball. Urban was the last Yankees pitcher to legally throw a spitball, as he and a handful of other pitchers were grandfathered to continue the practice after it was banned by baseball in 1920. Shocker lived with a heart condition so severe some books say he had to sleep either sitting or standing up. By the early fall of 1927, he was too ill to maintain his place in the starting lineup. His career totals for 412 games include a 187–117 record, a .615 winning percentage, 317 games started, 200 complete games, 28 shutouts, 72 games finished, 25 saves, and an ERA of 3.17 in 2,681.2 innings pitched. He compiled a career .