51s coach’s novelty pitch endures after nearly 30 years

Dave LaRoche, the 51s pitching coach, was a two-time All-Star who compiled 126 saves and had a 3.53 ERA over a 14-year major league career.

The 61-year-old also is the proud father of Pittsburgh Pirates infielders Adam and Andy LaRoche.

But nearly 30 years after garnering national acclaim for his 20-foot-high curveball -- which once was clocked at 28 mph -- LaRoche still is remembered for his LaLob pitch.

"(That's) because it happened in New York, and everything in New York is magnified," he said recently at Cashman Field. "It was fun. It worked for two years, and the fans liked it."

LaRoche, one of the majors' top relief pitchers in the 1970s, developed LaLob late in his career while warming up in the bullpen.

"It was kind of on a dare," he said. "Back then, it was nothing to get up three or four times in a game. I was always working on my spin, and I kept flipping it slower and a little bit higher.

"The guys wanted to know how high I could throw it and have it still be a strike. I got good at throwing strikes with it."

LaRoche first unveiled his blooper pitch in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers in his final appearance of the 1980 season, his last with the California Angels.

Mixing in LaLob with other pitches in his arsenal, LaRoche retired the last 20 batters in a row, but to little fanfare.

"No one said anything except the guys in the bullpen," he said. "But the next year I went to the Yankees, and it was huge."

It was in New York where LaRoche's slow curveball became known as LaLob, taking its place in baseball lore beside Rip Sewell's "Eephus pitch," Steve Hamilton's "folly floater" and a bevy of other blooper balls.

"I just said it was my curve, but they said, 'You've got to name it,' " he said. "Finally, I said, 'It's my lob,' and someone said 'LaLob,' and it stuck."

Named by a New York writer, LaLob was a favorite of fans and LaRoche's teammates alike.

"Every time I'd get an out with it, I'd turn around and look at our infielders, and Bucky (Dent), Willie Randolph and (Graig) Nettles would have their gloves up (to their faces) laughing," he said. "But I had to keep a straight face."

Several opposing hitters also secretly asked LaRoche to "throw me one more" LaLob.

But not everyone was enamored with the novelty pitch, most notably Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

"One time George told me to quit throwing it. But I said, 'No,' because it worked," LaRoche said. "Plus, when I'd come in for long relief and we were losing, it'd get the fans going."

In fact, in the aforementioned Sports Illustrated article, LaRoche said, "What can I do? ... George may not like it, managers may not like it, but people boo me when I don't throw it."

While LaLob intrigued some opponents, it infuriated others, none more so than Brewers slugger Gorman Thomas, who famously shattered his batting helmet after striking out on the pitch in a key two-on, two-out situation in September 1981.

"He threw his helmet up in the air and smoked it. It just exploded," LaRoche said. "The biggest piece left over was his earflap. He signed it and sent it over to me after the game."

LaRoche gave Thomas a chance to get even the next season, feeding him seven straight lobs, and Thomas eventually blooped a single into left field.

LaLob also baffled Bobby Bonds. A former teammate of LaRoche's who vowed, "There's no way you'd ever get me to swing at that; I wouldn't embarrass myself," Bonds couldn't resist when offered the pitch.

"The next time I faced him, I got him 0-2, so I threw it, and he took it. So I threw it again, and he could not lay off it the second time," LaRoche said. "He hit a little popup behind second. I just smiled at him.

"He was mad -- at himself probably for swinging at it. But it was too tempting. He couldn't lay off."

LaRoche went 4-1 with a 2.49 ERA for the Yankees in 1981 and pitched a perfect inning in the 1981 World Series before retiring in 1983.

As a pitching coach for several big league organizations since then, LaRoche has been discouraged from teaching prospects how to throw his patented pitch.

He thinks LaLob might have cost him his job with the Kansas City Royals.

When Royals ace Zack Greinke was a 19-year-old prospect pitching at Triple-A Omaha, he asked LaRoche about LaLob and "started screwing around with it, but it was just like a real slow curve."

But then Greinke got called up to Kansas City and threw it in a game.

"I don't know if it had anything to do with it," LaRoche said. "But I was gone the next year."

Despite that "lob story," LaRoche still thinks LaLob can work in LaBigLeagues.

"It's effective in the right situations," he said.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.