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Most baseball fans don't know that Jackson Showalter, who is credited with inventing the curve ball, was also a U.S. chess champion in the late 1880's or that Henry Chadwick, "The Father of Statistical Baseball" published a number of articles on the contemporary chess scene in the nineteenth century. They are also unaware that chess and baseball both established their first national organizations in New York City only a few months apart. The American Chess Association started in October 1857, while the National Association of Baseball Players began in March of 1858. One of the earliest baseball clubs was even named after chess hero Paul Morphy. In fact, between 1857 and 1860, both contests enjoyed national popularity and set a precedent for future sports in regards to game coverage and statistical analysis...

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Source:

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/art...

But does a curve ball really curve, or is it just an illusion?

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For the better part of the 20th century, the curve ball was a hotly debated topic among fans and players. Many dismissed the ball's sideward movement as an illusion. But Dizzy Dean, the legendary St. Louis Cardinal pitching ace during the 1930s, knew better. "Ball can't curve?" countered Dean, leader of the Cards' famed Gashouse Gang. "Shucks, get behind a tree and I'll hit you with an optical illusion."

In 1959, renowned scientist Lyman Briggs, who served as the third director of today's National Institute of Standards and Technology, vindicated Dean and other masters of the mound. He did it with the aid of several Washington Senator pitchers and a wind tunnel he built in 1918 for pioneering research on aviation aerodynamics. Four decades later, the then-retired Briggs demonstrated that a thrown ball can curve up to 17 1/2 inches over the 60 feet 6 inches that separate pitcher and batter. The unraveling of the mystery of the curve--the ball's spin, rather than speed, causes it to break--captured national interest and was reported in papers from coast to coast. For posterity, Briggs published the results of his work in the American Journal of Physics.

==

Source:

http://www.100.nist.gov/baseball.htm

Wind tunnel photo of curve ball (click image for larger version):

http://www.100.nist.gov/photos.htm

(: Bishop Berkeley :)

P.S. I stumbled on this cool little "pong" video game called "Curve Ball" while browsing the web on this subject. In this game, your opponent is at the other end of a rectangular tunnel. Click the green ball to start, then move your paddle as the ball is returned:

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/fla...

Courtesy of:

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/

(games require "Flash 7", referenced here.)

(: Bishop Berkeley :)

1. e4 is a fastball.

2 d4 is a curveball.

3. Nf3 is a change-up.

4. b3 is a knuckleball.

5 c4 is a slider.

6. f3 is the slow arcing "eephus pitch"

Fred Goldsmith gave a public demonstration of the curve ball in 1870, when Showalter was only ten years old. Candy Cummings is credited by many sources with having used it even earlier.