baseball pitcher

baseball pitcher
The pitcher is vital to the game of baseball. Until a batter hits the ball, the game is a duel between the pitcher (and catcher) and the batter, which is repeated with each at bat. Until about 1870, the pitcher was merely a player assigned to put the ball in play by pitching it to the batter to hit. Now, of the 25 players on a major league club's normal active roster, eleven or twelve are pitchers, five of these being starting pitchers and the remainder constituting the bullpen or relief pitchers. Pitching demands more exact coordination of mental and muscular faculties and more continuous physical exertion than any other position in the game. On each pitch the pitcher is aiming at the strike zone, or a small part of it, 60 feet 6 inches away from the rubber on which his foot pivots in the act of pitching the ball. Pitchers use changes of speed, control (the ability to pitch to specific points in the strike zone), and different grips that affect the flight of the pitch in ord er to confound batters.