What WAS Satch's Hesitation Pitch?

[hellborn]

I've brought this up on BBF before, but never in the Negro Leagues forum. Maybe somebody here can set me straight.
I've read that Satch's hesitation pitch just involved a delay or stop in the motion that threw the hitter off. But, I can remember watching Ernie Banks throw out the first pitch before a Cubs game years ago, and he did something very strange. He seemed to use a normal throwing motion, but didn't release the ball at the usual time. He followed through in somewhat exaggerated fashion, still holding the ball, and then flipped the ball over his shoulder with his fingers when his arm stopped. The ball didn't quite make it to home and squirted away from the catcher. When Ernie was asked about his trick, he said, "Why, that was Satch's hesitation pitch, of course!"
I figure that Ernie should have known what he was talking about, but have never found another description of that pitch that matched what he threw. Can anybody help me?

BTW, I have messed around with copying what Ernie did, and I guess that I could see learning to throw a strike with it eventually...but, man, it would be really hard for me. Of course, I'm about as far from Satch as a pitcher as I am from Ernie as a hitter...

(edit...did some web research...Satch himself said that the hesitation pitch just had interruptions in the motion...still don't know what Banks did? Or, did he just really throw me off and I thought that he threw the ball from behind his back???)

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Is there any film of Satch's hesitation pitch?

[hellborn]

Is there any film of Satch's hesitation pitch?
I was able to find exactly one pitch by Satch on youtube, which didn't appear to be a hes pitch.

[honus14]

He followed through in somewhat exaggerated fashion, still holding the ball, and then flipped the ball over his shoulder with his fingers when his arm stopped. The ball didn't quite make it to home and squirted away from the catcher. When Ernie was asked about his trick, he said, "Why, that was Satch's hesitation pitch, of course!"
I figure that Ernie should have known what he was talking about, but have never found another description of that pitch that matched what he threw. Can anybody help me?

I have some vague memory of Ernie doing that . . . My take on it is, he was joking about his own inability to throw the ball. Kind of like, if I really screw up a closing argument in court, I might say, "Just like Clarence Darrow did in the Scopes trial!" Sort of the grown-up version of the kid falling in the mud and getting up saying, "I meant to do that!"

This site (http://www.baseball-statistics.com/HOF/Paige.html) quotes Satch in Maybe I'll Pitch Forever on the hesitation pitch:

When the guy at bat was all tightened up waiting for my fastball, I knew he'd swing as soon as I just barely moved. So when I stretched, I paused just a little longer with my arms above my head. Then I'd throw my left foot forward but I didn't come around with my arm right away. I put that foot of mine down, stopping for a second, before the ball left my hand.

Which does sound a little bit like what Ernie tried to do.

[disgrig]

According to Buck O'Neil in I Was Right on Time:

"Plunk (Drake), when he and Satchel Paige were pitching for the Birmingham Black Barons in '27 or so, taught Satchel how to throw "the hesitation pitch," where Satchel would kick his front leg up so high it eclipsed the sun, hold it for a split second, and, just when the batter was wondering when he was going to throw the ball, throw it. That would have batters all tied up in knots trying to hold back on their swing."

[metrotheme]

My uncle saw Satchel Paige pitch at both the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium and he said what Paige did was, he would plant really hard, slow down his motion and let the ball go. It would completely throw off their timing.

[hellborn]

My uncle saw Satchel Paige pitch at both the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium and he said what Paige did was, he would plant really hard, slow down his motion and let the ball go. It would completely throw off their timing.

OK, so nothing like what I thought I saw Banks do. It could be that Ernie completely faked me out with the stop in his motion...
I assume that Satch probably still hummed the ball in there pretty good, despite the interrupted motion? Must have been an armbuster!