legal serve

Tanner Unknown Asked 16 years ago

Is it legal to throw the ball backwards a little? Because I thought you had to throw it straight up. It seems like if you threw the ball backwards and put a little spin on the ball before you hit it (when you threw the ball up) you could get a lot more spin on the ball. Is this legal?

Alois Rosario Answered 16 years ago

Hi Tanner,

You are right, you do have to throw the ball up near vertical.  The umpires usually allow a bit of leaniency but if you start throwing it back and generating more spin because of it they will pick you up on it.