

Much like today, they were constantly trying to find that balance between offense and defense. Real early MLB pitchers threw underhanded.īaseball leaders tweaked the rules quite often in the latter half of the 19th century. In fact, pitching the baseball overhand was prohibited until 1884. In Major League Baseball, overhand pitching has dominated for much longer than underhand hurling.


Pitchers can take better advantage of height and gravity coming off an elevated pitcher’s mound use torque from their body in the process of throwing to increase energy and propel the momentum of body weight toward home plate when throwing from over the shoulder. Several reasons make today’s baseball pitchers throw almost exclusively overhand. However, very, very few choose to do so because it is much easier to throw baseballs at faster velocities, and with more movement and other trickery, than when tossing a ball underhanded. It is not against the rules in baseball to pitch underhand. Still, if you wanted to, could you pitch underhand in baseball? Historically, pitches have been thrown overhand, or where the arm and hand start high before snapping hard in a downward motion, and the ball is released (mostly) from a point above the hip level. In baseball, a pitch is the act of throwing the ball toward home plate, where the batter stands waiting to hit, to begin play. Also, as an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
