How did the eephus start?

Bob Tewksbury remembers the day nicely.

Mark McGwire had arrived in Minnesota within the midst of his record-smashing 1998 marketing campaign with the Cardinals. He had hit 36 house runs in simply 73 video games, together with a monstrous shot off Twins pitcher Mike Trombley the evening earlier than.

The 37-year-old Tewksbury, however, was within the swan track of an excellent 13-year MLB profession. He had a curve and a fastball that typically stayed within the mid-to-upper 80s — possibly 90 mph on day. But … he additionally had one other pitch.

[A version of this story originally ran in August 2020].

A type of secret weapon he had developed within the mid-Nineties and pulled out solely when the timing was proper. What some would name a junk pitch. An ultra-slow curve that got here floating in to hitters at a cartoonish 50 mph.

“I remember I did it in San Diego in ’96,” Tewksbury informed MLB.com over the cellphone. “I threw it to Willie McGee and he wouldn’t talk to me for the next three days.”

Tewksbury thought the pitch may additionally work towards an influence hitter like McGwire, who feasted on fastballs. But he would solely throw it to him if he bought the primary two batters out in entrance of him. He informed teammates of his plan, and so they have been greater than excited when the time got here within the high of the primary.

“I get the first two guys out and there’s this thunderous noise of footsteps coming from the clubhouse down to the field to watch me throw this pitch,” Tewksbury remembers. “I could hear it on the mound.”

The Twins’ soft-throwing starter adopted by way of on his promise — baffling one in all baseball’s most monstrous house run hitters within the prime of his profession, not as soon as, however twice with — as his son known as it — “The Dominator.” The slowest pitch a pitcher can pitch: the eephus.

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The eephus’ origins go far again in baseball time and may possibly finest be understood from the Hebrew origins of the phrase. It interprets to “nothing.”

Of course, it has been known as different names, too. The balloon ball, the Monty Brewster, the rainbow curve, the Bugs Bunny curve, the Super Changeup, the Soap Bubble (Vicente Padilla), the Fossum Flip (Casey Fossum), the McBean Ball (Al McBean), the Folly Floater (Steve Hamilton).

Whatever the title, they’re normally all the identical — a gradual, high-arcing pitch, typically within the 45-55-mph vary, introduced out to shock the batter searching for a 95-mph fastball and go away him considering, “What in the hell just happened?”

Tewksbury, like many others who practiced the pitch, tailored it on his personal. It was one thing so as to add to his repertoire and make his fastball appear quicker than it’d’ve been. But Rip Sewell, the person who made the eephus well-known, was truly compelled into throwing it to avoid wasting his profession.

After spending years and years within the Minor Leagues, Sewell caught on with the Pirates on the age of 31 and did nicely from 1938-’41 — a 40-32 file, 3.58 ERA and MVP votes within the 1940 season. But then, within the winter of 1941, he shot himself within the foot throughout a searching outing. Sewell could not push off the mound along with his proper toe like he used to, and his fastball and curve suffered for it. So, he ended up growing a brand new pitch to counteract his troubles: a 25-foot excessive, back-spinning slow-ball. He would maintain onto the seam after which flip it towards house plate with three fingers. Bill Phillips, a Nineteenth-century pitcher, was seemingly the one different to ever toss something prefer it. But that was 40 years earlier than; Sewell had introduced the eephus into the Modern Era.

Pittsburgh’s hurler described how batter Dick Wakefield reacted when he first noticed the pitch throughout an exhibition matchup in 1942.

“He started to swing, he stopped, he started again, he stopped, and then he swung and missed it by a mile. I thought everybody was going to fall off the bench, they were laughing so hard.”

It possibly regarded a bit of one thing like this.

After the sport, Sewell’s teammate Maurice Van Robays was the primary to coin the pitch an “eephus.” Reporters requested what that meant and he stated, “Eephus ain’t nothin, and that’s a nothing pitch.” (Efes is definitely the way it’s spelled in Hebrew.)

That nothing pitch resurrected Sewell’s profession, and from his age-35 season in 1942 to his age-42 in 1949, he’d by no means been higher. He went 103-65 with a 3.36 ERA, together with back-to-back 21-win seasons in ’43 and ’44. Some hitters caught it and fired it again at him, whereas others questioned if it was even authorized. Sewell was additionally an All-Star 3 times throughout that stretch and tried out the toss towards Ted Williams throughout a type of Midsummer Classics. It didn’t go nicely.

Although no person used it as typically as Sewell, many pitchers added the eephus to their arsenal post-1950. Some to nice success, others not a lot.

Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez used it one too many occasions towards Alex Rodriguez in 2002, admitting postgame, “It’s possible it was a mistake.”

Bill Lee had an eephus, due to course he did. He known as it the “space ball” or the “Leephus” and was even daring sufficient to deliver it out throughout a World Series Game 7 in 1975. The Red Sox have been up, 3-0, however not for lengthy. They’d find yourself shedding the sport and the Series, persevering with their lengthy Fall Classic drought.

47-year-old Phil Niekro used it as soon as when he was experiencing chest pains on the mound and did not have the vitality to throw the rest. Mixed in with a knuckle-curve, it typically labored out fairly nicely for him.

Satchel Paige had an eephus that left batters crumbling to the bottom, begging for mercy. We’re simply undecided whether or not that was the one he known as the “Whipsy-Dipsy-Do” or “Wobbly Ball” or one of many different a whole bunch of named pitches he had.

Besides Tewksbury’s battle with McGwire, one of many different extra well-known incidents of the eephus caught on tape needs to be Dave LaRoche’s LaLob to Gorman Thomas in 1981.

LaRoche developed his lob on a dare and used it to nice success and fanfare when he pitched for the Yankees within the early-80s. The two-time All-Star stored flipping it “a little slower and higher” till he bought it to a ridiculous 28 mph. And throughout a sport at Yankee Stadium, LaRoche used his floater three straight occasions towards power-hitting Brewers outfielder Gorman Thomas — two of them for strikes. Would he do it a fourth time to try to get the strikeout? To the group’s delight and Gorman’s helmet-smashing disgust, he did. The outcome is among the finest baseball clips you will ever see.

Somebody possibly extra mad than Thomas in ’81 was the notoriously short-tempered Albert Belle when he confronted Tewksbury in 1997. There does not appear to be any video of the alternate, however please, should you discover any, ship our manner.

Belle knew of Tewksbury’s eephus from earlier conferences, and as Twins catcher Terry Steinbach remembers, the White Sox slugger was truly training the timing of the pitch within the batting cages earlier than the sport.

“During the pitcher and catcher meeting before the game, I said, ‘Tewks, Albert’s over there sittin’ on your eephus pitch,’” Steinbach recalled to MLB.com. “And Tewks said, ‘What?'”

Tewksbury determined to make use of his fastball within the first two at-bats towards Belle, however then within the third and last time, with a 3-1 depend and a person on first, it was time to interrupt out the “two-finger wiggle.”

“I threw him an eephus curveball … and he swung so hard that he jammed himself and he hit a little pop up to [second],” Tewksbury says. “Albert went into the dugout and was staring me down. Robin [Ventura] came up … and told Steinbach, ‘Tewks may need security to go to his car tonight because Albert wants to kill him.'”

It was a a lot completely different response than McGwire’s, who despatched Tewksbury a notice after the sport saying “he’s a sucker for that kind of stuff and he would’ve swung at it all day.”

“Bob was upper 80s, sometimes he’d hit 90,” Steinbach says. “But to be able to throw a 50-mph breaking ball without tipping it off, without slowing your windup down, it’s hard to do. And he did it very well. … It’s a great pitch to put in the back of great hitters’ minds.”

Present-day stars have carried on the eephus custom, throwing their parachuting floaters when hitters least count on it. Yu Darvish all the time has it in his again pocket, Clayton Kershaw makes use of it sparingly and Zack Greinke has used it a number of occasions later in his profession. Take the 53.5-mph curve he lobbed in August 2020 — getting a strike and chuckle from batter Trent Grisham.

You need to assume that Rip Sewell, who began throwing the eephus as a result of he by chance shot himself within the foot, would discover the continued and constant use of his joke pitch fairly comical.

A pitch that actually means nothing became a complete lot of one thing.