The fact that professional, collegiate, and many high school pitchers can throw a rock at ridiculous speeds with such precision that it frequently hits precisely the spot for which they were aiming some 60′ 6″ away … well, it’s very impressive to me. I usually miss my garbage can from anything over three feet.
Still, not every pitch is perfect. In fact, sometimes they’re almost unbelievably far off the mark:
This is quite possibly the worst wild pitch ever, or the craftiest throw to third base ever… pic.twitter.com/2jWabmuBmj
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 6, 2017
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How about the physics of that thing? Man, sometimes baseballs do really weird stuff.
Were you simply look at a still of the ball in flight, you might think the pitcher somehow figured out how to throw to third base out of the side of his body:
In the end, it could have been worse. The runner at first advanced only one base, and the pitch counts as only one ball.
Really, though, shouldn’t there be an adjustment? If a pitch is *that* wild, I’m thinking it counts as two balls. And maybe the pitcher has to wear a sad face emoji on his uniform for the rest of the game.
I kid, I kid. The young man shouldn’t be too embarrassed. Just this week, one of the best pitchers in Cardinals history, Adam Wainwright – a true professional – spiked a wild pitch only slightly less egregious than this college pitcher. Of course, Wainwright, the crafty vet, later said he did it on purpose.