David Eugene LaRoche is an American former professional baseball pitcher and coach. LaRoche is most famous for throwing his own variant of the eephus pitch, which he called "La Lob". Over his career, LaRoche went 65–58, with 819 strikeouts in 1,0491⁄3 innings pitched. He has a career 3.53 ERA.
Laroche in 1981
Laroche (left) with Gerald Ford in 1976
An eephus pitch in baseball is a very high-arcing off-speed pitch. The delivery from the pitcher has very low velocity and often catches the hitter off-guard. The eephus pitch is thrown overhand like most pitches, but is characterized by an unusual, high-arcing trajectory. The corresponding slow velocity bears more resemblance to a slow-pitch softball delivery than to a traditional baseball pitch. It is considered a trick pitch because, in comparison to normal baseball pitches, which run from 70 to 100 miles per hour, an eephus pitch appears to move in slow motion at 55 mph (89 km/h) or less, sometimes as low as 35 mph (56 km/h).
This image depicts the path of an eephus pitch thrown by pitcher Rip Sewell in the 1946 MLB All-Star Game, which was hit for a home run by Ted Williams.