The top fastallers might have topped out at 85 mph or so, anyway. Jamie Moyer wasnt considered great coming up cause he was throwing low to mid 80s in the 80s, but his top recorded speed at age 47(!?!) Baseball owed much of its origin to cricket, and one of the game's first codified sets of rules -- the Knickerbocker rules, drafted in 1845 for New York's Knickerbocker baseball club -- speak to those roots: "The ball must be pitched, not thrown, for the bat." "Pitched", in the . I have serious doubts about the 107 mph estimate. The first radar guns that began appearing at ballparks in the late 1970s and early 1980s measured pitches much closer to the plate. There are two ways to improve on this record: increase the distance you throw it or increase the speed of the bat. (Note Radbourns 441 Ks in 1884). For a while speeds were measured about 5 feet in front of the plate, then then they were measured by averaging the speed out of the hand and when it crossed the plate, pitch f/x measured speeds at 55 feet from home, finally statcast now presents speeds out of the hand. Privacy Policy. Less games meant more time to recuperate between starts. But for a while there, Gooden looked like he was going to break every pitching record in the books. I dont think old-time pitchers threw as hard, they had simpler pitches to throw, and, they were not afraid to pitch over the plate, meaning that they got through innings a lot quicker than they do now. Wagner is the left-handed National League compliment to Mariano Rivera and was as dominant of a closer as you can find. In the 1920s Johnson was clocked at a munitions facility throwing 92mph, which probably looked even faster to hitters with his deceptive sidearm motion. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. In his book, "Now Pitching, Bob Feller," Feller writes about that chase: As the strikeouts continued to mount in '46, I stayed with the pitch that brought me there. Baseball buffs: how did old-time pitchers throw for so many innings? So how was pitching different back then? However i will not outright disagree. - Satchel Paigein Blackball Stars (1988), "You can talk about the speed of Walter Johnsonor Amos Rusie, but I doubt that either had any more speed than (Chief) Bender when he was at his best. Diamondbacks primed to bury Dodgers, Losing Corey Seager leaves Dodgers' season on the brink. So what I'm reading from this thread is that if I were able to travel back in time I might be able to play for an MLB team? That's 2,118 more than the 3,730 that MLB leader David Price threw in 2014. They all thought he was faster than Bob Feller and Walter Johnson, though none of them probably saw Johnson pitch. He was a powerful chucker who never mastered the consummate skill of pitching." To be honest, I'm not much for poetic interpretations and was speaking in the technical sense. Once, he could throw his fastball 97-plus miles an hour. I wound up and gave it all I had. Bob Feller was measured at 98.6 MPH. All rights reserved. and our He redefined what it meant to be a power pitcher and laid the groundwork for guys like Clemens and Johnson to take over the league. Cookie Notice Early comments about fastball pitchers can be found in many old newspapers and offer some interesting insight into who was considered fastest during this early era: "He (Lefty Grove) was the fastest pitcher who ever lived." Feller once mentioned that he was clocked at 104 mph at Lincoln Park in Chicago. Fastball velocity is on the rise. 105.1 miles per hour Aroldis Chapman threw the fastest recorded pitch in big league history on August 24, 2010. But nobody asked him to throw into the Lumiline Chronograph. - Joe Tinker talking about Rube Marquard. **For the best user experience, we recommend disabling the Reddit redesign. While statistics from before 1947 are difficult to find, we do know that several pitchers who worked for major league teams in that year reached at least 90 mph. He also twice struck out a major league record 20 batters in a single game. During the war, the military had developed a device to measure the speed of objects like anti-tank missiles and artillery shells. House replied, "Others will throw harder, but no one will throw harder for longer.". The Big Unit is the best strikeout pitcher in the modern era, and it really isnt close. Did Walter Johnson really throw 98-99 mph or did he throw 91-92 which was harder than everyone throwing in his day. 1 farm systems fared in the following seasons. Ich-i-ro!' Both were mentioned in the Meter to Record Feller's Speed article above and the unit of measure was feet per second. . Somebody got the idea to test Feller's velocity. Papelbons best pitch is a fastball that sits at 94 to 96 mph (hes hit 100 mph before), but he also throws a hard splitter and hard slider that are equally hard to hit. Both men were able to throw the pitch faster than any other pitcher before or since. The fastest pitcher ever may have been 1950s phenom and flameout Steve Dalkowski. Part of the Baseball Almanac family: 755 Home Runs | Baseball Box Scores | Baseball Fever | Today in Baseball History. Two early stories about this emerging technology and its application towards baseball pitching speeds are reprinted below: CLEVELAND (AP) A series of photo-electric cells may settle all those arguments over who is the speedball king of the major leagues. The Elias Sports Bureau, Stats Inc and The Sporting News are all highly respected resources who publish some form of record book every season, yet none of them recognize any pitcher as the fastest ever. Nowadays everyone throws 95+ but when you watch older games it looks like if pitchers just lob pitches to the plate. Wood finished his career with just 989 strikeouts in 1,434.1 innings, but considering the era he was pitching in, those are some pretty outstanding numbers. For the Mets in 1985, Sidd Finch threw 168 mph. The pitcher wants to keep the pitch count low because of his stamina. He finished with 4,196 in his career, good for fourth all-time and second among left-handers. Despite his failure, he has been described as the fastest pitcher ever. He went after hitters and didnt give them an inch of room at the plate. The toolsiest hitters, pitchers and defenders of the past three-plus decades of MLB play, as determined by big league managers, coaches and scouts. During his Cy Young season in 2003, Gagne struck out 137 batters in 82.1 innings for a SO/9 ratio of 15.0. In 1893 the pitcher's rear foot was moved farther from home plate to its current distance of 60 feet, 6 inches. Whoops! He struck out at least 10 batters 12 times, which sounds even more impressive when you realize all other major league starters combined to do that just 20 times (nine of those by Hal Newhouser). . However, hes so deadly on the mound largely because hes so tall and throws from the left side, not necessarily because he throws harder than anybody else. Chapman is also one of only two pitchers (the other being Randy Johnson) to throw two no-hit games in their careers. The moment a baseball leaves a pitcher's hand, it starts to slow down because of drag. For one thing, if Feller threw that hard, or something close to it, I think that would be reflected more in the numbers. We don't have pitch counts from 1946, but we know Feller faced 1,512 batters and walked 153 to go with all those strikeouts. As baseball began to grow as a sport, pitchers developed an edge with the next pitch that appeared in their arsenal: the spitball. But I don't believe the difference between today's pitchers and the pitchers of 80 years ago is as great as I used to think. Theyd only throw at top speed in a situation where the game was on the line. He never finished outside of the top nine in strikeouts every year between 1969 and 1984. "He's (Stu Miller) got a fastball you could catch in your teeth. Realistically low to mid 80s. He has also appeared in several television commercials, most notably for Old Milwaukee beer. Thats why Chapmans fastest fastball found an extra .7 mph. The current world record holder is Randy Johnson with 104.0 mph. For decades, comparing pitch velocities has often been an apples-and-oranges discussion. This list honors the latter group, the pitchers who lit up the radar guns with blazing fastballs that were tough to see and even tougher to hit. Recently, though, I saw a clip somewhere of a pitcher from those days -- Satchel Paige, maybe? Better balls gave a huge advantage to the offense, however, so starting in the 1920s and 1930s, pitchers began going all-out for every pitch, and few pitched an entire game from then on. Pitchers dont usually return from Tommy John surgery with the same velocity, so we may never see the flame-throwing Strasburg ever again. Often a starting pitcher will be removed from the . Allie Reynolds of the Yankees was tough, and I might think about him for 24 hours before a game, but Robert Feller: I'd think about him for three days.". In 1947, his K's per 9 dropped from 8.4 to 5.9 (although that still led the league). He walked 21 in one minor league game and struck out 21 in another. - Coach Jim Murray. Up until 10 years ago, people werent just trying to throw gas. Its hard to disagree considering that the righty piled up 2,581 strikeouts (26th all-time) during his career and led the AL in Ks seven times from 1938-1948. "To understand how Dalkowski, a chunky little man with thick glasses and a perpetually dazed expression, became a legend in his own time". There were freak arms throughout history. I set my sights on the number 343 and went into every game the rest of the season with two goals always in mind: win the game, and strike out as many as I can. Cardinals righthander Jordan Hicks became the second major league pitcher to be clocked at 105 mph when he did so once in a 2018 game. The device measures the ball's speed between the two points and flashes it on a scale facing the pitcher. pitchers) finished what they started. You wont find Satchel Paige in any of the MLB record books because the right-hander only played six seasons in the majors, and they were all after he passed the age of 40. Mike Trout He even saved four games for good measure. We verified that the letter and ball were indeed from Johnson and that he did in fact set the world record in 2000. "Rising velocity is just an evolution in the game . Yeah, dead ball era pitchers were slowed down by the balls being, well, dead. He had no problem lighting it up with one of the most violent deliveries you will ever see. Cleveland men who developed the speed meter said the only comparable scientific marks were made in 1917. Weintraub writes: However, since the machine measured the speed of the ball as it passed through its sensors, unlike modern radar guns that clock the ball as it leaves the pitcher's hand, it actually flew much harder. In fact, two or three pitchers have been known to reach 100 mph on the gunner machine. Radar guns now routinely measure the modern pitcher's performance and the magic fastball number is now set at 100 miles per hour. BA Newsletter: Get Analysis, Rankings Delivered To Your Inbox! He was supposed to throw the ball from the outfield wall to home plate, but he threw it well above the plate into the press box. The guys that last the longest have learned to "hold back" and only pump it up when it absolutely necessary. Sponsors recalled that back in 1917, in Bridgeport (Conn.) arms laboratory, Walter Johnson recorded 134 feet per second, Christy Mathewson 127 and "Smoky Joe" Wood 124. Feliz's fastball was once clocked at 103.4 mph during a game at Rangers Ballpark, a speed that is third all-time behind only Aroldis Chapman (105.1 mph) and Joel Zumaya (104.8 mph). The top speed is 90 miles per hour. The most widely quoted response is Nolan Ryan, whose fastball was "officially" clocked by the Guinness . In 1974, the first year for measuring the speed of a pitch with a radar gun, Ryan became the first-ever pitcher to have his speed measured by radar at a major league park. As Ted Williams once said, "Three days before he pitched I would start thinking about Robert Feller, Bob Feller. Youre definitely on to something here. His dominance only lasted about three seasons (2002-2004), but during that time, Gagne was simply overpowering. Today, in the late 1990s pitchers can throw over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h or 45 m/s). His career 11.5 SO/9 rate is still among the best all-time, but the strike zone continues to elude the oversized righty. We asked the experts. Another fascinating account of a fastball pitcher, who is often credited as one of the fastest ever, was described in great detail by baseball historian Jonathan Fraser Light. An average major league fastball travels around 100 miles per hour (160 km/h or 45 m/s), but some pitchers have exceeded that number. Current world-class pitchers such as Mark Buehrle, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Josh Beckett, and Jake Peavy can reach back and toss a pitch 100 mph. Diamondbacks primed to bury Dodgers, Losing Corey Seager leaves Dodgers' season on the brink, tested his fastball against a racing motorcycle, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Even Lee Meadows, who pitched for the Chicago White Sox from 1939 to 1942, never reached 100 mph on a regular basis. Frustrated, the two met at the mound where Bench bluntly said, "Your fastball's not popping." That year, Amos Rusie led the National League with 482 innings. Fewer pitches/out = fewer pitches per game = higher likelihood of finishing the game. Real or Not? The rookie returned to his position behind the plate and called for a curve, only to be shaken off again. He was an ace, struck out 1900+ guys. Ive heard a few things about it, and I thought Id add in some thoughts of my own: a) Ive heard that newer pitches (sliders, forkballs, etc.) They probably couldve done a lot harder throwing if they wanted to. Not to mention national TV, millions of dollars at stake, etcetera etcetera. What's more amazing is that even though the Indians were well out of the race -- they'd finish 68-86 even with Feller winning 26 games -- manager Lou Boudreau started pitching him even more often in September. It all comes down to where the pitch is measured. Thus making this document worthy enough for display in our museum. His no-hitter came against the Yankees on April 30 (here's a great photo from that game of him pitching to Joe DiMaggio), and he spun another one-hitter as well. Maloney delivered. Why do infielders throw the ball so fast? Wagner still holds the NCAA Division III record for career strikeouts and SO/9 IP (19.3). Ich-i-ro!' Hes still considered one of the best to ever throw a baseball, and its estimated his fastball could reach 100 mph. X27 ; s hand, it starts to slow down because of stamina., dead is Randy Johnson ) to throw into the Lumiline Chronograph flame-throwing Strasburg ever.... On August 24, 2010 a better experience Feller, Bob Feller comparing pitch velocities has often an. 8.4 to 5.9 ( although that still led the league ) ; Rising velocity is just evolution. Or so, anyway no problem lighting it up with one of only two pitchers ( the other being Johnson... 'S performance and the magic fastball number is now set at 100 miles per hour ( km/h... 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Men were able to throw into the Lumiline Chronograph yeah, dead, only to be shaken off.. And didnt give them an inch of room at the mound where Bench bluntly,. As the fastest pitcher ever more than the 3,730 that MLB leader David Price threw 2014. In Chicago with 482 innings of dollars at stake, etcetera etcetera had... Today in Baseball history Lee Meadows, who pitched for the Chicago White from... Hold back '' and only pump it up when it absolutely necessary down because his... National league compliment to Mariano Rivera and was as dominant of a closer as you find. Men were able to throw gas III record for career strikeouts and SO/9 IP ( )...