He got lower and lower, like a limbo dancer squeezing under a stick, until his release point went lower than the New York Stock Exchange after the 1929 crash. When Bradford came to Hinds, his three-quarter delivery, with a fastball topping out in the upper-80s, continued to evolve. The whole credit goes to Chad Bradford, because I’ve worked with other people dropping them down and nobody’s ever done as well as he has.” We knew we had to find him some movement somewhere, so we kept dropping him down until we found movement and we found movement as we kept dropping him down. But his perfect control had hit-me speed all over the ball. He threw one good curveball I saw in my whole life and he had perfect control. “Chad was a gangly kid and he was about 6-2, 6-3 in the ninth grade. “I taught him to throw low sidearm, but he taught himself to throw submarine,” Perry said. In the book “Moneyball,” Perry was depicted as teaching Bradford his unique delivery, but the veteran coach said that wasn’t entirely the case. Perry, who was Bradford’s minister in addition to his coach, also performed Bradford’s marriage ceremony. He’s just an amazing person and he’s got a great future in coaching.”īradford learned his trade in the pitching game at Byram High School, working under the tutelage of legendary baseball coach Bill “Moose” Perry, who now coaches at Rebul Academy. He has such great experience at the art of training a pitcher, both with mechanics and with the mental side. “Chad is someone who has such a passion to help the individuals in his life, and I think that’s how he’s going to make a big impact on our program. What better place for him to have an impact than at Hinds. They’re always hearing that you’ve got to be able to do it or it’s over. In JUCO, we’ve only got the kids for two years. “He found a niche by doing what he had to do. His release is so low that his knuckles often become raw from their periodic drag on the ground.“I feel like as long as I’ve known him, whenever he’s had his back against the wall, he’s answered,” Temple said. He now wears a pad under his uniform to avoid injuring his knee. Watanabe has an even lower release point than the typical submarine pitcher, dropping his pivot knee so low that it scrapes the ground. Japanese pitcher Shunsuke Watanabe is known as "Mr. Past major league submariners include Carl Mays, Ted Abernathy, Elden Auker, Chad Bradford, Mark Eichhorn, Gene Garber, Kent Tekulve, Todd Frohwirth, and Dan Quisenberry. Kent Tekulve and Gene Garber, two former submarine pitchers, were among the most durable pitchers in baseball history with 1,944 appearances between the two. Though the bending motion required to pitch effectively as a submariner means that submariners may be more at risk of developing back problems, it is commonly thought that the submarine motion is less injurious to the elbow and shoulder. It is not typically a natural style of throwing-it is often a learned style-and because the vast majority of pitchers use an overarm motion, most young pitchers are encouraged to throw overhand. The rarity of submarine pitchers is almost certainly attributable to its unusual technique. This is because the submariner's spin is not perfectly level the ball rotates forward and toward the pitching arm side, jamming same-sided hitters at the last moment, even as the ball drops rapidly through the zone. Submarine pitches are often the toughest for same-side batters to hit (i.e., a right-handed submarine pitcher is the more difficult for a right-handed batter to hit, and likewise for left-handed pitchers and batters). The sinking motion of the submariner's fastball is enhanced by forward rotation, in contrast with the overhand pitcher's hopping backspin. Gravity plays a significant role, for the submariner's ball must be thrown considerably above the strike zone, after which it drops rapidly back through. The "upside down" release of the submariner causes balls to move differently from pitches generated by other arm slots. This is in stark contrast to the underhand softball pitch in which the torso remains upright, the shoulders are level, and the hips do not rotate. In baseball, a submarine is a pitch in which the ball is released often just above the ground, but not underhanded, with the torso bent at a right angle, and shoulders tilted so severely that they rotate around a nearly horizontal axis. Chad Bradford delivers a pitch with a submarine motion.
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