eephus pitch

Also Ee·phus pitch,
Or e·phus pitch

[ee-fuhs pich]

noun

Baseball.

1. a junk pitch of extremely low speed and with a characteristically high arc.

   He baffled many a hitter with his eephus pitch.

Word History and Origins

Origin of eephus pitch¹

First recorded in 1940–45; name attributed to Maurice Van Robays (1914–65), outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, for a kind of junk pitch developed in the early 1940s by Truett “Rip” Sewell (1907–89), pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates; further origin uncertain. The proposed derivation from Hebrew efeṣ “nothing, zero” is considered unlikely

Example Sentences

More importantly, Greinke still occasionally throws the archaic “eephus” pitch that lends the movie its title.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He struck out Ohtani looking with a 68 mph eephus pitch.

Read more on Seattle Times

One day after Phillips offered hilarious moments for baseball fans — including a funny pitching delivery, a sliding catch coming off the mound and his 43-mph eephus pitch that was smacked for a grand slam — videos of Phillips made their way around the internet on Tuesday for a more serious and wholesome reason.

Read more on Washington Times

Lee, an All-Star as a left-handed pitcher in 1973 and a Red Sox Hall of Famer, warmed up to thunderous applause before using an eephus pitch to record the strikeout.

Read more on Washington Times

That’s a nice change to these negotiations, which have proceeded at the speed of a Zack Greinke eephus pitch.

Read more on New York Times