More on the F. U.

Whoa!........... Lots of questions about the F .U. I certainly wasn't expecting that. Why is it that all fathers of young boys now feel that they have to be Tim Lincecum’s father?

Firstly, we here at Around The Horn take no responsibility for success, failure or injury for anyone going out and attempting to show their kid the pitch. It's just a blog post. Aside from any strain it might put on the elbow, forearm, fingers or any part of the body, the pitch clearly isn’t appropriate for children or midgets. Logistically a small hand just wouldn’t be able to grip the ball that way!

I would suggest that if you didn’t think it was appropriate for your child to start throwing curveballs yet, this probably isn’t a good idea either. Which brings us to another point; On Sunday the NY Times ran an article “Studies Show That the Curveball Isn’t Too Stressful for Young Arms”.

Uh……… I-don’t-know- about-that. I’m not going to call the article irresponsible because I have my own views on the topic and that doesn’t necessarily make them right, but I tend to agree with Dr. Andrews. It would seem to me while each kid is different, 14 or so would be the absolute earliest I would let a child do it. In all honesty, if you could teach your kid spot his fast ball, throw both a 2 and 4 seamer, and throw a change-up – that’s the way to go.

As for the F. U. and all the questions about how it works - the picture in this post shows the grip from the other side. You can clearly see how the index finger and ring finger pull down on the seams (like a split finger) countering the natural rotation of the middle finger. If you are going to show your kid the pitch, just a suggestion - Change the name so you don't sound like you have Tourette syndrome everytime you go out and have a catch.……………….. I’m sure you can come up with something. I’m sure the networks will. I doubt you are going to hear Ron Darling say that that Strasburg struck out David Wright with a 3-2 F. U. - Mike Gross

Michael Gross, in conjunction with a prominent sports agency runs a strength, conditioning and agility program that many agents send their “to-be-drafted” athletes, prior to being drafted. Many pro athletes have also used the facilities for rehabilitation after injury. Over 90 professional athletes including current MLB ball players have attended his institution during the past 3 years.