Over the past week, we’ve taken a dive into the history books to discuss how several of baseball’s most popular pitches came into existence. We’ve gone over how Fred Goldsmith and Candy Cummings each claimed to invent the curveball, pinpointed the knuckleball to either Toad Ramsey or Eddie Cicotte, found two possible origins for the slider separated by two decades, and traced the evolution of the splitter from the fastball and changeup through the forkball to the modern-day pitch. What we have not yet discussed, however, is where we will wrap up our series today: illegal pitches.
Against the Law: The origin of the spitball and emery ball
