I long for a world in which baseball players serve their country by tossing baseballs instead of grenades, pitch in scuba gear, sell real estate in catcher's gear and play winter ball in Venezuela ...

What’s undeniable is that the spin of a ball has a demonstrable effect of how hitters react to it. In Japan, researchers have studied baseball spin for years. One study at Waseda University ...

On a baseball with medium seams, the Magnus effect can be up to one-third of the weight of a 60- to 80-mph ball spinning at 2,150 rpm. Yet there is more to pitching than painting the strike zone ...