Tell a MLB batter who just struck out on a "rising fastball" that the pitch did not rise !!!!
And cureballs don't curve!!!
And sliders don't slide!!!!!
The physics aspect not withstanding, yes right Gibson knew about physics as did Satch Paige, baseball is baseball---lets not get too deep into science here
TR,
So we shouldn't ever look at video? Let's face it the tools are out there to show exactly what happens to a baseball. Curves, curve. Sliders, slide. They just don't curve or slide as sharply as they look like they do from the batter's perspective. Fastballs don't rise unless they are thrown from a low point toward a high point and nobody can throw a fastball that rises relative to it's initial trajectory. Pitch fx tracks the ball from release and it is possible to see almost exactly how almost every single pitch thrown in the major leagues moves.
When you combine these tools with baseball experience they can be pretty valuable. The tools can be used to find out what is happening with a pitcher and then baseball experience and knowledge can be used to correct the problems.
Yes, right there were a lot of people who knew that the earth was flat.
Here's an interesting case - Rivera's cutter. It turns out that although his best cutters have a nasty break of up to 5 inches that much of the time it has very little horizontal movement and that much of his success may even be attributed to an ability to get much less sink on the ball than most pitchers when he doesn't get the horizontal movement. Those pitches with 10+ inches of vertical movement relative to a ballistic trajectory are the ones that appear to be rising fastballs. They are actually dropping a little over a foot relative to the original trajectory. BTW, those cutters that are tailing only an inch or two are being hit off the handle because the typical fastball tails about 4 to 6". The graph is from the catcher's perspective so the green dots are the one's that have tailed a lot. As one can see from the graph around a third of Rivera's cutters actually tail a bit.
So we shouldn't ever look at video? Let's face it the tools are out there to show exactly what happens to a baseball. Curves, curve. Sliders, slide. They just don't curve or slide as sharply as they look like they do from the batter's perspective. Fastballs don't rise unless they are thrown from a low point toward a high point and nobody can throw a fastball that rises relative to it's initial trajectory. Pitch fx tracks the ball from release and it is possible to see almost exactly how almost every single pitch thrown in the major leagues moves.
When you combine these tools with baseball experience they can be pretty valuable. The tools can be used to find out what is happening with a pitcher and then baseball experience and knowledge can be used to correct the problems.
Yes, right there were a lot of people who knew that the earth was flat.
Here's an interesting case - Rivera's cutter. It turns out that although his best cutters have a nasty break of up to 5 inches that much of the time it has very little horizontal movement and that much of his success may even be attributed to an ability to get much less sink on the ball than most pitchers when he doesn't get the horizontal movement. Those pitches with 10+ inches of vertical movement relative to a ballistic trajectory are the ones that appear to be rising fastballs. They are actually dropping a little over a foot relative to the original trajectory. BTW, those cutters that are tailing only an inch or two are being hit off the handle because the typical fastball tails about 4 to 6". The graph is from the catcher's perspective so the green dots are the one's that have tailed a lot. As one can see from the graph around a third of Rivera's cutters actually tail a bit.
Can you spell "optical illusion"? Your brain expects a certain rate of drop. When it doesn't, it appears to rise.
Wow, I love you guys!! Baseball and physics and quantum mechanics with relativity and all thrown 
into a single thread!! What a great read.
I have to fall on the illusion side of this. When the ball appears to rise it is not dropping like we are use to seeing it. Our eyes are not able to catch the action , and as already pointed out cameras can't capture it either.
Back in "my" good ol' days I had a catcher tell me by fastball would rise. Ain't happen'n. He told me that when I really flipped my wrist in a hard downward motion just before release. I figured I was getting just a little more pop on the ball.
I tried to talk to the team I was helping coach(must have been 13u) one time about Magnus force one Saturday afternoon and you could see the kids eyes glaze over, discussion (rather my talk) did not last long. They all felt that curve balls were not an illusion!
I have to fall on the illusion side of this. When the ball appears to rise it is not dropping like we are use to seeing it. Our eyes are not able to catch the action , and as already pointed out cameras can't capture it either.
Back in "my" good ol' days I had a catcher tell me by fastball would rise. Ain't happen'n. He told me that when I really flipped my wrist in a hard downward motion just before release. I figured I was getting just a little more pop on the ball.
I tried to talk to the team I was helping coach(must have been 13u) one time about Magnus force one Saturday afternoon and you could see the kids eyes glaze over, discussion (rather my talk) did not last long. They all felt that curve balls were not an illusion!
