WHO?

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.