"sneaky fas"t in baseball

[Laurence Horn]

Frak Abate writes:
>
>There is today use of the term "sneaky fast" to refer to a pitcher's
>fastball that is FASTER (in velocity) than it usually is.  That is, he
>sometimes throws a fastball that seems to or actually does come up ("sneak
>up") faster than his normal fastball, whether because of actually velocity,
>arm angle, angle of delivery, the fact that it jams the batter (is thrown
>near the batter's hands), or whatever.  To the batter, such a pitcher seems
>to have two different fastballs, a "normal" one and a "sneaky" one.

It's also used to describe certain pitchers' normal fastball.  These
pitchers are said to be or throw "sneaky fast" when batters find the
ball arriving more quickly than the pitcher's delivery suggests.  In
such cases, the pitcher himself (or his regular pitches) are
described as "sneaky fast".  As Frank says, this might be due to the
arm angle, the spin, or whatever.  (Fernando Valenzuela was a case in
point, and the Florida Marlins' rookie pitcher Willis may be a new
one.)

Larry