Fastball

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The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. Its distinctive feature is its high speed. "Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely the speed of the fastball to prevent the ball from being hit and throw fastballs at speeds of 95–105 miles per hour (153–169 km/h) (officially) and up to 108.1 miles per hour (174.0 km/h) (unofficially).^[1] As an alternative to the fastball, pitchers can put movement on slower thrown balls, or throw them towards the inside or outside of home plate where batters cannot easily reach it.

Fastballs are usually thrown with a backspin so that the Magnus effect creates an upward force on the ball. This causes it to fall less rapidly than expected, and sometimes causes an optical illusion often called a rising fastball. Although it is impossible for a human to throw a baseball fast enough and with enough backspin for the ball to actually rise, to the batter the pitch seems to rise due to the unexpected lack of natural drop on the pitch.

A straight pitch fastball is achieved by gripping the ball with the fingers across the wide part of the seam (called a "four-seam fastball") so that both the index and middle fingers are touching two seams perpendicularly. A sinking fastball is thrown by gripping it across the narrow part of the ball (a "two-seam fastball"), so that both the index and middle fingers are along a seam. Lateral motion is achieved by holding a four-seam fastball off-center (a "cut fastball"), and a fastball with sinking action and a lateral break is thrown by splitting the fingers along the seams (a "split-finger fastball").

Colloquially, a fastball pitcher is said to "throw heat" or "put cream on it", among many other variants. ^[2]