影響戰後初期臺灣投手變化球及變速球演進因素之探討

本研究目的主要透過早期棒球國手訪談及相關文獻，研究瞭解戰後初期臺灣投手變化球及變速球演進因素之探討，研究發現在臺灣棒球相關文獻引進指叉球等變速球路介紹，和日本球界投手開始出現變速球種年代差距不遠，1953年國防部所發行「棒球初步」及棒協1957年所發行「棒球界」半年刊等文獻，都曾以圖文並茂方式解說變速球或彈指球等投法，是臺灣較早期有記載變速球種投法文獻，但是臺灣戰後投手技術仍是以傳統變化球路為主，經早期棒球國手訪談及相關文獻參考，研究發現會影響到臺灣棒球戰後初期投手變化球及變速球演進因素如下：一、臺灣戰後初期投手投球技術觀念，受1953年早稻田大學總教練森茂雄在臺灣所提出「擁有變化球種才是具備優秀投手條件」說法有關，加上臺灣第一至三屆亞洲盃國家隊教練張朝貴主張投手要勤練變化球路。二、戰後初期棒球教練人數較少，無法專一對投手進行指導，是影響投手投球技術發展重要主因。三、臺灣在戰後1957年高雄市省運代表投手吳明財即曾使用「挾球」，即現今「指叉球」，方水泉在選手期間也曾投過彈指球，比一般媒體記載是譚信民是臺灣投手最早習會彈指球或指叉球等變速球路還要早，但是受限戰後初期相關棒球技術資訊取得困難，大多以日本書籍為主，加上棒球隊教練對於變速球技術並不是很瞭解，是導致臺灣戰後投手變速球種技術無法快速突破主因之一。

關鍵字

變速球；變化球；投手

並列摘要

In 1920, when Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Dave Keeve invented the forkball, the sport reached a new milestone; the emergence of forkball marked the debut of an entirely new form of pitch, the Change-Up. In the first half of the 20th century, though Japan and the United States had many baseball skill exchanges, it was not until 1949 that the first Japanese Shigeru Sugishita used the forkball and became the earliest player to use the Change-Up technique in Japan. In Taiwan, documents that recorded Change-Ups with detailed pictures and explanations appeared around a similar time frame; for instance the ＂Baseball Preliminary＂ published in 1953 by the Ministry of National Defense R.O.C, and the ＂Taiwan Baseball Magazine＂ published by CTBA in 1957 were two of the major publications amongst numerous others. Nevertheless, early post-war pitchers in Taiwan still focused on Breaking-Balls. This study includes interviewing early representatives of the national baseball team and researching related archives, and has discovered that early techniques of post war pitchers in Taiwan still largely follow the Japanese pitching style. The 1953 baseball team from Waseda was the first team to visit Taiwan post war, though there were technique exchanges between the two teams, the prevalent notion at the time was that a ＂good pitcher＂ should master the Breaking-Ball, and this notion was further reinforced by the opinion of first Coach of the Taiwanese national baseball team, Zhang Chao-Gui, who held the opinion that a pitcher should focus on Breaking-Balls. Also, there was a scarcity of baseball coaches during the post war period, which led to difficulties in effectively training the athletes; many pitchers therefore did not master Change-Ups. Additionally, there were major difficulties in acquiring baseball information and techniques because most books were in Japanese. Because of these reasons the Change-Up pitch technique did not have major breakthroughs in post war Taiwan.