Candy Cummings was the best pitcher of the 1870’s,
According to The Sporting Life.
He’s even in the Hall of Fame, with 21 wins
And 22 losses!
Don’t scratch your head or doubt the fact.
Do your due diligence and hit the books
(Or the search engine). It’s not a trick. He didn’t make it
As a manager like Lasorda or as an umpire.
Candy, at a beach one day, observed
The trajectory of seashells thrown into the breeze
Not so directly, and he mused about applying physics to pitches
More instinctively than scientifically.
He wondered about the flight of a ball thrown
Not directly to a batter, and he then experimented
Much as a true scientist searching for a cure might do
— and Candy invented the curve ball, a sweet creation
More for future generations than for himself
And his eye-blink two-year pro career
(A colorful one with the Dark Blues and then the Reds).
Often, the shortest distance to an out
Is not a straight line, after all.