It is all in the "spin"

I am kinda stuck trying to decide where to start this gem.

A few weeks ago I used the following statement as simply a filler in a post on The Forum:

And as we all know there is no such thing as a rising fastball, a late breaking curve, and that balls do not speed up on the second bounce on artifical turf.

Man, did that cause a donneybrook, creating two separate threads that were still alive after two months.

That is what I want to talk about.

Threads on internet message boards can have a life of their own if even only one or two people take a position in defiance of logic.

Posters with the screen names of SAump and WhatWasThatBlue still to this instant think the masses are all idiots becasue they (we) "believe" in physics. Why, you may ask?

Look: up in the air

The rising fastball issue is the most important and energy-laden topic. Any sane person knows that once a ball leaves a player's hand, it will eventually come back to earth. That is a given that not even our intrepid anti-scientists will argue about.

Continued...