How many times have you heard a line like this: “Pitcher winding for the pitch…here comes the throw…slider struck him out.”

Pretty loaded statement, right? If you think you have heard this on a baseball broadcast, you’re right! And if you insist that the broadcaster is describing a pitching sequence, money in the bank for you!

So knowing that you’ve watched Roger Clemens or Randy Johnson pitch, do you actually understand what they are throwing?

Sliders, sinkers, and forkballs: these are words that describe the variety of baseball pitches. These nouns are in itself adjectives for what a pitcher has in store for a batter.

It takes to know the nature of these pitches. Not only will you raise your understanding of the game but if clarifies further that pitching is not just mere throwing.

Let’s start the ball rolling!

v Forkball—It is an off-speed pitch (meaning it is slow). It is held towards the base of the index and middle fingers giving it a slow speed when thrown. This is an Achilles heel for great fastball hitters and batters who want to whom baseballs in a hurry. This pitch travel a downward tumbling motion giving the effect that it is a strike but it’s not. Also, catchers are having a harder time catching them.

v Split-finger fastball—This is the pitch that made Curt Schilling a force to reckon with. He used this weapon to help the Arizona Diamondbacks win the 2000 World Series against the heavily favored New York Yankees. This pitch is basically the same as the forkball but this baby is held by the end of the middle and index fingers and is thrown very hard. Its traveling motion and its given effect is the same as the forkball.

v Cut Fastball/Sailing Fastball—By the name itself, it sinks (or it has a downward motion towards the plate). This is usually thrown with the seams of a baseball and usually hard to turn into a pop-up or a fly ball. The best of these are impossible to lift. It is as if you’re hitting an anvil with a sugar cane, as ex-MLB catcher Tim McCarver puts it.

v Riding Fastball—Unlike the sinker, this is pitched across the seams to get its riding effect. This pitch targets the upper strike zone of the batter (from the armpit level down to the hip or pelvic area)

v Screwball—If most pitches have a forward spinning motion, the screwball is an exception. You have to turn your hand in and down to execute this. It usually travels towards the middle of the plate and catching it is like a feather. The great Dodger pitcher Fernando Valenzuela became known for this one.

v Change-up/Palmball—If the forkball is an illusion of a pitch being a strike, the change-up is an illusion of a pitch being there. It is held anywhere in the ball so he can deceive a batter with his arm motion and usually in an awkward manner to give an off-speed travel to the ball. If this is successful, batters swing at the arm motion of the pitcher itself.

v Knuckleball—First things first, this is an inappropriately named pitch. It is rarely thrown with the knuckles but rather with a pitcher’s fingertips in a daintily manner. Catchers should not have to handle knuckleballers. The reason? Bob Uecker puts it plain yet precise: “The only way to catch a knuckler is to wait till the ball stops rolling, then pick it up.”

v Slider—Two words: Very tough. The twisting motion is what makes it so hard on the elbow. It travels horizontally and moves parallel to the field. A good slider can be determined by its “dime” or tight spin. The tighter the spin, the faster the ball travels and less likely will a batter detect it. The more erratic the spin, the more that the batter will see the ball and turn it into a disappointing hit for the pitcher. If the spin is a “dime,” the ball’s spin is tight, if it’s a “quarter,” it’s loose.

v Curveball—Few pitchers throw the true curve anymore. A dropping breaking ball, it gives the feet as if a baseball dropped off a table. Nowadays, this pitch is known as the “slurve” and is easy to catch. Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax claims that this is the pitch that made him great. On the other hand, Nolan Ryan could have had a better all-time winning percentage if he hadn’t thrown many of these throughout his career.

v Spitball—Nobody knows anyone (or nobody claims) who throws this pitch. The throwing motion does not matter for this is thrown with the help of saliva, grease, slippery elm or even Vaseline. Heavy like a sinker but breaks much more sharply down, this is a real spin downer and tough to throw for a strike, too. This pitch was outlawed in 1920 for sanitary reasons. Before that year, this is a pitcher’s favorite. Although it is as if it was never banned. Several mound warriors would agree to legalize this for all of them add something to the baseball other than rosin.

v Beanball—This is an illegal pitch. A beanball is practically any of the pitches above, it’s just that this nasty ball hits any part of the batter’s body. If this happens, the batter is entitled to a free walk to first base. It’s included in this list for it is often used by a lot of pitchers to send a message to the batter. Baseball announcers often call this the “dirt ball” because most hitters are being thrown down the dirt once this pitch is executed. As for me, I call this the “curse ball” for it is as if the pitch is equipped with hundreds of curses for the batter to evade.

So there my friends are all of the pitches that are used in baseball. So next time you watch a diamond game, you won’t be like a batter facing Roger Clemens or a Randy Johnson: not knowing what you have just seen and facing humiliation.