Fastball Fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. "Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thrown fastballs at speeds of (officially) and up to (unofficially). Pitchers who throw more slowly can put movement on the ball, or throw it on the outside of home plate where batters can't easily reach it. The appearance of a faster pitch can sometimes be achieved by minimizing the batter's vision of the ball before its release. The
Miles per hour examining speeds in both kilometres per hour and miles per hour. The judge was quoted as saying the speed seemed "very excessive" at 180 km/h but did not look "as bad" at 112 mph; a reduced fine was still imposed on the speeding driver. Miles per hour is the unit also used in the Canadian rail system, which uses km/h on roads. Nautical and aeronautical applications favour the knot as a common unit of speed. (One knot is one nautical mile per hour, with a nautical mile being exactly 1,852 meters or about 6,076 feet.) In some countries mph may