My brother, John, you state quite eloquently the
reasons for the superiority of the real corkball. You are
right about the break of the pitched ball and the
further distance of the well-hit ball. Even I, with my
shorter fingers, could throw a good splitter with a
corkball, and, yes, everyone could have a slider with a
corkball. I've seen exactly two, both black guys from U.
City, which, Nanook, is where all of us grew up, except
for the richer guys from Clayton like Bennett and
Behrens. These boys say their nieighbor, aged 40 and with
sons in Little League, came out one Sunday and gave up
one run in 27 innnings on a long homer, that he threw
a slider and a fastball. Well, I never hit off him,
but he grew up playing stickball and baseball in New
York, and they take baseball and baseball-type games
seriously there, so maybe he did. Anyway, a corkball makes
for many more options for a pitcher. For a hitter,
the thicker ball means that liners can get out of the
park or at least be doubles or triples; also, a solid
center versus the hollow center of a tennis ball means
fewer tip outs, which is a major difference in corkball
rules, cork or fuzz. All of these are good reasons to go
with the corkball. Let me state first of all that,
even though I hit over .400 and nobody who plays a
full season hits over .300, that I think the corkball
would help me. So in many ways I favor the corkball,
and I see the wisdom of your argument.<br> On the
whole, however, I have to disagree with you and
recommend that we keep on fuzzin'.<br>The reasons are
several (none of them Federal).