Not really into baseball but I was wondering why the pitcher stands on a mound now.
Was looking at older photos and no mound.
I suppose it improves speeds since you are able to fall off the mound in momentum?
Does it not screw up a body pitching from up there?
Is it just at higher levels that there is mounds?
Always mounds. No mounds in softball.
In baseball the ball travels from high to low and in softball the ball travels from low to high mostly. They even have riseballs in softball, they are incredibly difficult to hit
The mound is there to make the pitch faster. You sort of lean or fall off of it with your butt and it adds velocity
The mound is actually lower now than it used to be. Think they changed it back in the 60s or 70s after a particularly bad offensive season.
After the 1968 season.
They lowered it because the 1968 season produced the lowest BA ever at .230 and a .339 SLG that was the lowest since the dead ball era. The 5 inch difference in the mound produced a .248 BA the next year while SLG improved to .369.