Radio Days

[YankeeLinks]

I just learned a baseball term that I hadn't encountered before. What's a "radio ball"?

[Skip]

Sounds like something they used to give away when you subscribed to Sports Illustrated. ;)

[Skip]

Actually though, I think its just another term for a good fastball.

[YankeeLinks]

You're on the right track, Skip, but can you elaborate?

[Dr. Memory]

So fast you can't see it, you can only hear it hit the catcher's mitt? Just a guess.

[Skip]

Can't really elaborate, YL - I just have memory of it meaning a good hard fastball. Not sure where you're going here. And I have no idea where the term comes from.

[Max Power]

It's what Roy Sievers called Herb Score's fastball.

Catfish Metkovich also said it about Max Surkont's fastball.

Doc Mem is right.

[YankeeLinks]

Good guess, Doc. "You can hear it, but you can't see it."

I just read about it in the new Koufax book by Jane Leavy, which I HIGHLY recommend.

Here's a quote from the same paragraph: "Umpires often can't see where Koufax pitches go, so they have judge from the sound of them hitting the catcher's glove. He's very tough on umps who are hard of hearing."

Who said that?

[Dr. Memory]

That sounds like the Ol' Perfesser to me.

[YankeeLinks]

Stengel it is. WTG, Doc.

[Dr. Memory]

All this talk of a "radio ball" reminds of Joe Morgan's description in Ball Four of a "m-----f------ curve."