In the heyday of the Yankee dynasty of the late 1990s, New York first baseman Tino Martinez and some of the other players would mess around during batting practice to pass the long afternoons. They would line up on the left side of the infield, field grounders and try to duplicate the strange but effective jump throw that their young shortstop, Derek Jeter, was performing in games to gasps from the crowd.

"We all tried to do it, but man, it's hard," Martinez said.

Fifteen...