The myth of the “gyroball” continues to fade
A great new article by Brett Bull has just appeared over at SI.com digging even deeper into the persistent idea that Daisuke Matsuzaka throws a “miracle pitch” called a gyroball - a myth I’ve been arguing is false for over a year now.
I was suspicious from the start because the in all my time in Japan I had never even heard of the gyroball in connection with Daisuke Matsuzaka, or even heard of it at all.
This article only further confirms the fact that the pitch doesn’t really exist, with revelations about the two authors of the book/comic book that first proposed the gyroball (”The Secret Essence of the Miracle Pitch”). For example, one of the authors (the scientist who did the computer simulations) knows nothing about baseball and his simulated trajectories are for the “miracle pitch” are best described as bad forkballs.
Meanwhile the other author, a coach who does know about baseball, claims the gyroball exists, but says that it can only be thrown sidearm and is adamant that Matsuzaka does not throw it. Matsuzaka only throws overhand, he explains, and what people call his “gyroball” is just an ordinary slider.
Hopefully we can finally put this tenacious myth to rest and enjoy Matsuzaka for the amazing pitcher he is, without trying to explain or orientalize his dominance by resorting to riduculous tall tales of “miracle pitches.”
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