What is "fosh"

Fosh or FOSH can refer to:

• The Fosh, a race in the fictional Star Wars universe
• Fosh (Haganah unit), an elite Jewish strike force
• Fosh (baseball), a type of baseball pitch
• Free and open source hardware

The Fosh (, an abbreviation for Plugot Sadeh , lit. Field Companies) was an elite Jewish strike force established as the commando arm of the Haganah in 1937, during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine in the British Mandate of Palestine. Its members were hand-picked by Yitzhak Sadeh, commander of the Jewish Settlement Police. By March 1938 the Fosh had 1,500 trained fighters divided into 13 regional groups. They were armed with stolen British SMLEs, grenades, rifles and some small arms, and attacked Arab villages in swift raids with Charles Orde Wingate's Special Night Squads, taking full advantage of their mobility.

The Fosh was disbanded in 1939 to create a larger force known as the Hish (Heil Sadeh, "Field Force"). During World War II Fosh veterans were trained by the British for commando night raids.

The fosh, fosh ball, or fosh change is a seldom used pitch in Major League Baseball described as "a cross between a split-fingered pitch and a straight change-up". It is designed to fool a batter expecting a fastball to have to contend with a slower pitch. The pitch has a grip like a fastball, but the index and middle fingers are spread slightly across the baseball, and the ring and little finger wrap around the side of the ball. If thrown properly, it has characteristics like a breaking change-up or an off-speed split-finger fastball.

The origin of the fosh is unknown. Mike Boddicker was the first pitcher known to throw it, having tried it in the 1980s. As pitching coach for the Boston Red Sox, Al Nipper taught the pitch to Jeff Suppan in 1995, and Tom Gordon and Roger Clemens in 1996. Other pitchers who have used it in a game are Jason Frasor, Trevor Hoffman, Johan Santana, and Carl Pavano, and Carlos Rosa.

There are various etymologies for the term "fosh". According to The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches, three derivations are known. One is that Earl Weaver described it as "a cross between a fastball and a dead fish". Another is a description by David Nied, who said the term sounds "like the perfect word for the movement of the pitch". A third derivation, from Al Nipper, is that fosh is an acronym for "full of ...".