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March 15

Why is it called a changeup?

I know that a changeup pitch in baseball is one designed to make the batter think it's going to be a fastball, but which actually comes much more slowly. But why is it called a changeup? The "up" would seem to me to imply faster, not slower. HiLo48 (talk) 08:04, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A common phrase is "change [something] up" (presumably because [WAG] one is hoping for an improvement or upturn, as also in "shake things up"). Clarityfiend (talk) 08:45, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am in agreement with Clarityfiend. I do not think "up" connotes increased speed. Instead, it connotes tossing a conventional perception up in the air, creating a moment of confusion to gain an advantage. Cullen328 (talk) 09:10, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at my copy of "The Dickson Baseball Dictionary" (1989 edition), it presents an interesting history. The original term, in the 1880s, was "change of pace", which merely indicated varying the speed of delivery. It could be either an increase or a decrease. In time it came to be synonymous with a "slow ball", a pitch delivered with the same motion as a fast ball, in order to confuse the batter, as Cullen suggests. In the early 1950s, the term "change of pace" had become kind of passé, and the term "change-up" or "changeup" replaced it. It means taking some speed off a pitch, and theoretically can apply to either a fastball or curveball. What it doesn't say is exactly how the "up" part of it came to be. But as Clarity indicates, "up" is a very adaptable word. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:06, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Up" doesn't necessarily mean what it implies in English. If you turn the air conditioning "up", are you making it colder or hotter? Changing something "up" can easily mean the opposite of what some people think and exactly what other people think. 75.136.148.8 (talk) 11:10, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. I've sometimes heard "slow up" when the speaker actually means "slow down". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:12, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And not surprisingly, we have an article: Changeup. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:12, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I'd already found that article. (I forgot to mention that. Sorry.) But it doesn't explain the "up". If you look at the Talk page, you will see I've asked the same question there. Realising an answer there was unlikely to appear quickly, I came here, with much more success. Maybe we can update the article once we figure we have the right answer here. HiLo48 (talk) 22:56, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note the many uses of "up":[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:56, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looking for the term in Newspapers.com, it seems to have originally been a verb, e.g. a coach telling a pitcher to "change up". And the term was used for other things, such as changing up the members of an organization or whatever. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:23, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

page for an actor

hello please help to upload a page for a working actor. thanks Sevenforwiki (talk) 13:41, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm assuming this is in regards to Raayo S. Bakhirta? You were given multiple notices indicating what was wrong with your draft: it did not indicate notability, had no citations, and read like an advertisement. That's disappointing, but creating a new article at Wikipedia is very hard (see Help:Your first article for more) and the general advice we give people is no not do that. At least at first. Start by editing and fixing other articles until you get a feel for what a decent article should look like. Some of the helpful hints provided on your talk page indicate you may have a conflict of interest with the subject. Creating an article about a friend or someone you're a fan of may seem like a good idea, but it really isn't: having an article about you on Wikipedia is not always a good thing. Matt Deres (talk) 14:19, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

thank you Sevenforwiki (talk) 14:57, 15 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]