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
Hour record (recumbents) the Apeldoorn 250 meter indoor wooden Velodrome in the Netherlands. The Unfaired Recumbent One Hour record was broken three times in quick succession this weekend. Gert-Jan Wijers of the Netherlands set a new mark of 51.287 km (31.868 miles) on a M5 Carbon High-Racer recumbent on October 17. The next day October 18, 2009, Niels van de Wal set a new mark of 51.33 km (31.895 miles) on a M5 mid-racer recumbent called the Nadir. This was slightly lower to the ground than the high-racer version. However, later in the day, Aurélien Bonneteau set a new Unfaired Recumbent One Hour