During a typical season in 1960, while pitching in the California League, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters and walked 262 in 170 innings. Steve Dalkowski . This was the brainstorm of . Nope. We see hitting the block in baseball in both batting and pitching. I was 6 feet tall in eighth grade and 175 lbs In high school, I was 80 plus in freshman year and by senior year 88 plus mph, I received a baseball scholarship to Ball State University in 1976. From there, Earl Weaver was sent to Aberdeen. With Kevin Costner narrating, lead a cast of baseball legends and scientists who explore the magic within the 396 milliseconds it takes a fastball to reach home plate, and decipher who threw the fastest pitch ever. To stay with this point a bit longer, when we consider a pitchers physical characteristics, we are looking at the potential advantages offered by the muscular system, bone size (length), muscles to support the movement of the bones, and the connective tissue to hold everything together (bones and muscle). This change was instituted in part because, by 1986, javelin throws were hard to contain in stadiums (Uwe Hohns world record in 1984, a year following Petranoffs, was 104.80 meters, or 343.8 ft.). Thats when Dalkowski came homefor good. The future Hall of Fame skipper cautioned him that hed be dead by age 33 if he kept drinking to such extremes. The American Tom Petranoff, back in 1983, held the world record for the old-design javelin, with a throw of 99.72 meters (cf. During his time with the football team, they won the division championship twice, in 1955 and 1956. His fastball was like nothing Id ever seen before. Here is a video of Zeleznys throwing a baseball at the Braves practice (reported on Czech TV see the 10 second mark): How fast has a javelin thrower been able to pitch a baseball? In an extra-inning game, Dalkowski recorded 27 strikeouts (while walking 16 and throwing 283 pitches). "[18], Estimates of Dalkowski's top pitching speed abound. Dalkowski fanned Roger Maris on three pitches and struck out four in two innings that day. Here's Steve Dalkowski. Just as free flowing as humanly possible. Steve Dalkowski throws out a . Dalkowski was measured once at a military base and clocked at 98.6 mph -- although there were some mitigating factors, including no pitcher's mound and an unsophisticated radar gun that could have caused him to lose 5-10 mph. Amazing and sad story. His first year in the minors, Dalkowski pitched 62 innings, struck out 121 and walked 129. . The old-design javelin was retired in 1986, with a new-design javelin allowing serrated tails from 1986 to 1991, and then a still newer design in 1991 eliminating the serration, which is the current javelin. Writer-director Ron Shelton, who spent five years in the Orioles farm system, heard about Dalkowski's exploits and based the character Nuke Laloosh in "Bull Durham" on the pitcher. The straight landing allows the momentum of their body to go into the swing of the bat. Whats possible here? Yet nobody else in attendance cared. What, if any, physical characteristics did he have that enhanced his pitching? Pitching primarily in the Baltimore Orioles organization, Dalkowski walked 1,236 batters and fanned 1,324 in 956 minor-league innings. It is integrative in the sense that these incremental pieces are hypothesized to act cumulatively (rather than counterproductively) in helping Dalko reach otherwise undreamt of pitching speeds. He's already among the all-time leaders with 215 saves and has nearly 500 strikeouts in just seven short seasons. It took off like a jet as it got near the plate, recalled Pat Gillick, who played with Dalkowski in the Orioles chain. In conclusion, we hypothesize that Steve Dalkowski optimally combined the following four crucial biomechanical features of pitching: He must have made good use of torque because it would have provided a crucial extra element in his speed. He almost never allowed home runs, just 0.35 per nine for his career. He was demoted down one level, then another. Ted Williams faced Dalkowski once in a spring training game. He was signed by the Baltimore Orioles in 1957, right out of high school, and his first season in the Appalachian League. The minors were already filled with stories about him. The bottom line is that Zelezny would have thrown either javelin (pre-1986 or current design) much further than Petranoff, and thus would have needed and had the ability to impart considerably more power to it than Petranoff. The thing to watch in this video is how Petranoff holds his javelin in the run up to his throw, and compare it to Zeleznys run up: Indeed, Petranoff holds his javelin pointing directly forward, gaining none of the advantage from torque that Zelezny does. Yet players who did make it to the majors caught him, batted against him, and saw him pitch. Previewing the 2023 college baseball season: Teams and players to watch, key storylines, Road to the men's Frozen Four: Conference tournaments at a glance, Top moments from Brady, Manning, Jordan and other athletes hosting 'Saturday Night Live', Dr. A's weekly risers and fallers: Jeremy Sochan, Christian Wood make the list. For the effect of these design changes on javelin world records, see Javelin Throw World Record Progression previously cited. They couldnt keep up. His only appearance at the Orioles' Memorial Stadium was during an exhibition game in 1959, when he struck out the opposing side. In placing the focus on Dalkowskis biomechanics, we want for now to set aside any freakish physical aspects of Dalkowski that might have unduly helped to increase his pitching velocity. The old-design javelin was reconfigured in 1986 by moving forward its center of gravity and increasing its surface area behind the new center of gravity, thus taking off about 20 or so percent from how far the new-design javelin could be thrown (actually, there was a new-new design in 1991, which slightly modified the 1986 design; more on this as well later). As impressive as Dalkowskis fastball velocity was its movement. Though he pitched from the 1957 through the 1965 seasons, including single A, double A, and triple A ball, no video of his pitching is known to exist. After they split up two years later, he met his second wife, Virginia Greenwood, while picking oranges in Bakersfield. It was 1959. Perhaps that was the only way to control this kind of high heat and keep it anywhere close to the strike zone. But before or after, it was a different story. If you told him to aim the ball at home plate, that ball would cross the plate at the batters shoulders. July 18, 2009. [14] Dalkowski pitched a total of 62 innings in 1957, struck out 121 (averaging 18 strikeouts per game), but won only once because he walked 129 and threw 39 wild pitches. Yet it was his old mentor, Earl Weaver, who sort of talked me out of it. Though he went just 7-10, for the first time he finished with a sizable gap between his strikeout and walk totals (192 and 114, respectively) in 160 innings. At 5'11" and weighing 170 pounds, he did not exactly fit the stereotype of a power pitcher, especially one. Most obvious in this video is Zeleznys incredible forward body thrust. On the morning of March 22, 1963, he was fitted for a major league uniform, but later that day, facing the Yankees, he lost the feeling in his left hand; a pitch to Bobby Richardson sailed 15 feet to the left of the catcher. The stories surrounding him amaze me to this day. Steve Dalkowski, the man who inspired the character Nuke LaLoosh in "Bull Durham," died from coronavirus last Sunday. Here are the four features: Our inspiration for these features comes from javelin throwing. Cain brought balls and photos to Grandview Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center for her brother to sign, and occasionally visitors to meet. The inertia pop of the stretch reflex is effortless when you find it [did Dalko find it? His arm still sore, he struggled in spring training the next year and was reassigned to the teams minor league camp, three hours away; it took him seven days to make the trip, to the exasperation of Dalton, who was ready to release him. [20], According to the Guinness Book of Records, a former record holder for fastest pitch is Nolan Ryan, with a pitch clocked at 100.9mph (162.4km/h) in 1974, though several pitchers have recorded faster pitches since then. Dalkowski suffered from several preexisting conditions before. Plagued by wildness, he walked more than he . Dalkowski was also famous for his unpredictable performance and inability to control his pitches. Again, amazing. Koufax was obviously one of the greatest pitchers in MLB history, but his breaking balls were what was so devastating. Dalkowski's raw speed was aided by his highly flexible left (pitching) arm,[10] and by his unusual "buggy-whip" pitching motion, which ended in a cross-body arm swing. Steve Dalkowski, the man, is gone. Read more Print length 304 pages Language English Publisher Ever heard of Steve "Dalko" Dalkowski (1939 - 2020)? Petranoff threw the old-design javelin 99.72 meters for the world record in 1983. In line with such an assessment of biomechanical factors of the optimum delivery, improvements in velocity are often ascribed to timing, tempo, stride length, angle of the front hip along with the angle of the throwing shoulder, external rotation, etc. In 1963, near the end of spring training, Dalkowski struck out 11 batters in 7 2/3 innings. The catcher held the ball for a few seconds a few inches under Williams chin. The third pitch hit me and knocked me out, so I dont remember much after that. Elizabeth City, NC (27909) Today. The Atlanta Braves, intrigued by his ability to throw a javelin, asked him to come to a practice and pitch a baseball. Steve Dalkowski, who died of COVID-19 last year, is often considered the fastest pitcher in baseball history. McDowell said this about Dalkowskis pitching mechanics: He had the most perfect pitching mechanics I ever saw. Used with permission. In other words, instead of revolutionizing the biomechanics of pitching, Dalko unknowingly improved on and perfected existing pitching biomechanics. Dalkos 110 mph pitching speed, once it is seriously entertained that he attained it, can lead one to think that Dalko was doing something on the mound that was completely different from other pitchers, that his biomechanics introduced some novel motions unique to pitching, both before and after. Arm speed/strength is self-explanatory: in the absence of other bodily helps, how fast can the arm throw the ball? He did so as well at an Orioles game in 2003, then did it again three years later, joined by Baylock. He had an unusual buggy-whip style, and his pitches were as wild as they were hard. Ryans 1974 pitch is thus the fastest unofficial, yet reliably measured and recorded, pitch ever. Said Shelton, In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michaelangelo's gift but could never finish a painting. I ended up over 100 mph on several occasions and had offers to play double A pro baseball for the San Diego Padres 1986. Add an incredible lack of command, and a legend was born. In his final 57 innings of the 62 season, he gave up one earned run, struck out 110, and walked only 21. The outfield throw is a run, jump, and throw motion much like the javelin, and pitching is very stretch reflex orientated, a chain reaction of leg, hips, back, shoulder, elbow, and wrist snap, which is important to finding the whip motion. The Steve Dalkowski Project attempts to separate fact from fiction, the truth about his pitching from the legends that have emerged. The difference between hitting the block hard with a straight leg and not hitting the block by letting the front leg collapse seems to be a reliable marker for separating low 90s pitchers from 100s pitchers. Dalkowski picked cotton, oranges, apricots, and lemons. I think baseball and javelin cross training will help athletes in either sport prevent injury and make them better athletes. Lets therefore examine these features. Some experts believed it went as fast as 110mph (180km/h), others that his pitches traveled at less than that speed. So too, with pitching, the hardest throwers will finish with their landing leg stiffer, i.e., less flexed. Brought into an April 13, 1958 exhibition against the Reds at Memorial Stadium, Dalkowski sailed his first warm-up pitch over the head of the catcher, then struck out Don Hoak, Dee Fondy, and Alex Grammas on 12 pitches. At that point we thought we had no hope of ever finding him again, said his sister, Pat Cain, who still lived in the familys hometown of New Britain. Home for the big league club was no longer cozy Memorial Stadium but the retro red brick of Camden Yards. In the fourth inning, they just carried him off the mound.. The team did neither; Dalkoswki hit a grand slam in his debut for the Triple-A Columbus Jets, but was rocked for an 8.25 ERA in 12 innings and returned to the Orioles organization. Best Youth Baseball Bats The Greek mythology analogy is gold, sir. In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michelangelos gift but could never finish a painting.. Screenwriter and film director Ron Shelton played in the Baltimore Orioles minor league organization soon after Dalkowski. The four features above are all aids to pitching power, and cumulatively could have enabled Dalko to attain the pitching speeds that made him a legend. With Weaver in 1962 and 1963 . Papelbon's best pitch is a fastball that sits at 94 to 96 mph (he's hit 100 mph. This book is so well written that you will be turning the pages as fast as Dalkowski's fastball." Pat Gillick, Dalkowski's 1962 and 1963 teammate, Hall of Fame and 3-time World Series champion GM for the Toronto Blue Jays (1978-1994), Baltimore Orioles (1996-1998), Seattle Mariners (2000-2003) and Philadelphia Phillies (2006-2008). [4], Dalkowski's claim to fame was the high velocity of his fastball. In one game in Bluefield, Tennessee, playing under the dim lighting on a converted football field, he struck out 24 while walking 18, and sent one batter 18-year-old Bob Beavers to the hospital after a beaning so severe that it tore off the prospects ear lobe and ended his career after just seven games. Stephen Louis Dalkowski (born June 3, 1939), nicknamed Dalko, is an American retired lefthanded pitcher. The only recorded evidence of his pitching speed stems from 1958, when Dalkowski was sent by the Orioles to Aberdeen Proving Ground, a military installation. This allowed Dalkowski to concentrate on just throwing the ball for strikes. Most sources say that while throwing a slider to Phil Linz, he felt something pop in his left elbow, which turned out to be a severe muscle strain. He spent his entire career in the minor leagues, playing in nine different leagues during his nine-year career. Studies of this type, as they correlate with pitching, do not yet exist. Dalko explores one man's unmatched talent on the mound and the forces that kept ultimate greatness always just beyond his reach. Later this month, Jontahan Hock will unveil a wonderful new documentary called "Fastball" -- I was lucky enough to consult . A professional baseball player in the late 50s and early 60s, Steve Dalkowski (19392020) is widely regarded as the fastest pitcher ever to have played the game. Steve Dalkowski, a wild left-hander who was said to have been dubbed "the fastest pitcher in baseball history" by Ted Williams, died this week in New Britain, Connecticut. He was a puzzle that even some of the best teachers in baseball, such as Richards, Weaver, and Rikpen, couldnt solve. Dalkowski never made the majors, but the tales of his talent and his downfall could nonetheless fill volumes. A professional baseball player in the late 50s and early 60s, Steve Dalkowski (1939-2020) is widely regarded as the fastest pitcher ever to have played the game. We have some further indirect evidence of the latter point: apparently Dalkowskis left (throwing) arm would hit his right (landing) leg with such force that he would put a pad on his leg to preserve it from wear and tear. He was sentenced to time on a road crew several times and ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous. Because pitching requires a stride, pitchers land with their front leg bent; but for the hardest throwers, the landing leg then reverts to a straight/straighter position. Baseball players, coaches, and managers as diverse as Ted Williams, Earl Weaver, Sudden Sam McDowell, Harry Brecheen, Billy De Mars, and Cal Ripken Sr. all witnessed Dalko pitch, and all of them left convinced that no one was faster, not even close. The coach ordered his catcher to go out and buy the best glove he could find. Reporters and players moved quickly closer to see this classic confrontation. But in a Grapefruit League contest against the New York Yankees, disaster struck. In 1991, the authorities recommended that Dalkowski go into alcoholic rehab. He signed with the Orioles for a $4,000 bonus, the maximum allowable at the time, but was said to have received another $12,000 and a new car under the table. He died on April 19 in New Britain, Conn., at the age of 80 from COVID-19. That fastball? Photo by National Baseball Hall of Fame Library/MLB via Getty Images. Instead, Dalkowski spent his entire professional career in the minor leagues. Nine teams eventually reached out. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Pat Gillick, who would later lead three teams to World Series championships (Toronto in 1992 and 1993, Philadelphia in 2008), was a young pitcher in the Orioles organization when Dalkowski came along. Born on June 3, 1939 in New Britain, Dalkowski was the son of a tool-and-die machinist who played shortstop in an industrial baseball league. He married a woman from Stockton. After hitting a low point at Class B Tri-City in 1961 (8.39 ERA, with 196 walks 17.1 per nine! Anyone who studies this question comes up with one name, and only one name Steve Dalkowski. And because of the arm stress of throwing a javelin, javelin throwers undergo extensive exercise regimens to get their throwing arms into shape (see for instance this video at the 43 second mark) . Baseball players and managers as diverse as Ted Williams, Earl Weaver, Sudden Sam McDowell, and Cal Ripken Sr. all witnessed Dalko pitch, and all of them left convinced that none was faster, not even close. He appeared destined for the Major Leagues as a bullpen specialist for the Orioles when he hurt his elbow in the spring of 1963. The fastest pitch ever recorded was thrown by current Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman. He was clocked at 93.5 mph, about five miles an hour slower than Bob Feller, who was measured at the same facility in 1946. He also had 39 wild pitches and won just one game. Dalko is the story of the fastest pitching that baseball has ever seen, an explosive but uncontrolled arm. Williams looked back at it, then at Dalkowski, squinting at him from the mound, and then he dropped his bat and stepped out of the cage. This was how he lived for some 25 yearsuntil he finally touched bottom. Dalkowski went on to have his best year ever. Some experts believed it went as fast as 125mph (201kmh), others t Consider the following video of Zelezny making a world record throw (95.66 m), though not his current world record throw (98.48 m, made in 1996, see here for that throw). Skip: He walked 18 . Then add such contemporary stars as Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman, and youre pretty much there. It was good entertainment, she told Amore last year. "[16] Longtime umpire Doug Harvey also cited Dalkowski as the fastest pitcher he had seen: "Nobody could bring it like he could. But during processing, he ran away and ended up living on the streets of Los Angeles. He set the Guinness World Record for fastest pitch, at 100.9 MPH. by Retrosheet. [SOURCE: Reference link; this text has been lightly edited for readability.]. But plenty of players who did make it into the MLB batted against him or saw him pitch. There in South Dakota, Weaver would first come across the whirlwind that was Steve Dalkowski. If we think of a plane perpendicular to the ground and intersecting the pitching mound and home plate, then Aroldis Chapman, who is a lefty rotates beyond that plane about 65 degrees counterclockwise when viewed from the top (see Chapman video at the start of this article). It turns out, a lot more than we might expect. A few years ago, when I was finishing my bookHigh Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Impossible Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time, I needed to assemble a list of the hardest throwers ever. A far more promising avenue is the one we are suggesting, namely, to examine key components of pitching mechanics that, when optimally combined, could account for Dalkos phenomenal speed. In 2009, Shelton called him the hardest thrower who ever lived. Earl Weaver, who saw the likes of Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan, and Sam McDowell, concurred, saying, Dalko threw harder than all of em., Its the gift from the gods the arm, the power that this little guy could throw it through a wall, literally, or back Ted Williams out of there, wrote Shelton. He was 80. Its comforting to see that the former pitching phenom, now 73, remains a hero in his hometown. 2023 Marucci CATX (10) Review | Voodoo One Killer. Yet when the Orioles broke camp and headed north for the start of the regular season in 1963, Dalkowski wasnt with the club. Drafted out of high school by the Orioles in 1957, before radar guns, some experts believe the lefthander threw upward of 110 miles per hour. Yet his famous fastball was so fearsome that he became, as the. Dalkowski was suffering from alcohol-related dementia, and doctors told her that he might only live a year, but he sobered up, found some measure of peace, and spent the final 26 years of his life there, reconnecting with family and friends, and attending the occasional New Britain Rock Cats game, where he frequently threw out ceremonial first pitches. Once, when Ripken called for a breaking ball, Dalkowski delivered a fastball that hit the umpire in the mask, which broke in three places and knocked the poor ump unconscious. We werent the first in this effort and, likely, will not be the last. Still, that 93.5 mph measurement was taken at 606 away, which translates to a 99 or 100 mph release velocity. "It was truly a magical time back then when Stevie pitched his high school game there," said. Well, I have. Indeed, in the data we have for his nine minor league seasons, totaling 956 innings (excluding a couple brief stops for which the numbers are incomplete), Dalkowski went 46-80 while yielding just 6.3 hits per nine innings, striking out 12.5 per nine, but walking 11.6 per nine en route to a 5.28 ERA. Thats when I stopped playing baseball and started javelin training. Perhaps Dalkos humerus, radius and ulna were far longer and stronger than average, with muscles trained to be larger and stronger to handle the increased load, and his connective tissue (ligaments and tendons) being exceptionally strong to prevent the arm from coming apart. In 1963, the year that this Topps Card came out, many bigwigs in baseball thought Steve Dalkowski was the fastest pitcher in baseballmaybe in the history of the game. His mind had cleared enough for him to remember he had grown up Catholic. We propose developing an integrative hypothesis that takes various aspects of the pitching motion, asks how they can be individually optimized, and then hypothesizes that Dalko integrated those aspects into an optimal biomechanical pitch delivery. Dalkowski, a football and baseball star in New Britain, was signed to a minor league contract by the Orioles in 1957. Can we form reliable estimates of his speed? Dalkowski signed with the Orioles in 1957 at age 21. Dalkowski went into his spare pump, his right leg rising a few inches off the ground, his left arm pulling back and then flicking out from the side of his body like an attacking cobra. 0:44. He is sometimes called the fastest pitcher in baseball history and had a fastball that probably exceeded 100mph (160kmh). Late in the year, he was traded to the Pirates for Sam Jones, albeit in a conditional deal requiring Pittsburgh to place him on its 40-man roster and call him up to the majors. Those who found the tins probably wouldnt even bother to look in the cans, as they quickly identify those things that can be thrown away. What made this pitch even more amazing was that Dalkowski didnt have anything close to the classic windup. Shelton says that Ted Williams once faced Dalkowski and called him "fastest ever." Within a few innings, blood from the steak would drip down Baylocks arm, giving batters something else to think about. Ted Williams, arguably one of the best batting eyes in the history of the game, who faced Bob Feller and numerous others, instead said Steve Dalkowski was the fastest pitcher ever. Dalkowski's pitches, thrown from a 5-foot-11-inch, 175-pound frame, were likely to arrive high or low rather than bearing in on a hitter or straying wide of the plate. Former Baltimore Orioles minor-leaguer Steve Dalkowski, whose blazing fastball and incurable wildness formed the basis for a main character in the movie "Bull Durham," has died at the age of . His alcoholism and violent behavior off the field caused him problems during his career and after his retirement. Dalkowski, who later sobered up but spent the past 26 years in an assisted living facility, died of the novel coronavirus in New Britain, Connecticut on April 19 at the age of 80. He struggled in a return to Elmira in 1964, and was demoted to Stockton, where he fared well (2.83 ERA, 141 strikeouts, 62 walks in 108 innings). From there, Dalkowski drifted, working the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, picking fruit with migrant workers and becoming addicted to cheap wine; at times he would leave a bottle at the end of a row to motivate himself to keep working. His ball moved too much. Yet the card statistics on the back reveal that the O's pitcher lost twice as many games as he won in the minors and had a 6.15 earn run average! Best Wood Bats. I lasted one semester, [and then] moved to Palomar College in February 1977. He received help from the Association of Professional Ball Players of America (APBPA) periodically from 1974 to 1992 and went through rehabilitation. When his career ended in 1965, after he threw out his arm fielding a bunt, Dalkowski became a migrant worker in California. During this time, he became hooked on cheap winethe kind of hooch that goes for pocket change and can be spiked with additives and ether. Best Softball Bats Just 5-foot-11 and 175, Dalkowski had a fastball that Cal Ripken Sr., who both caught and managed him, estimated at 110 mph. Steve Dalkowski, who fought alcoholic dementia for decades, died of complications from COVID-19 on April 19 at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain. Davey Johnson, a baseball lifer who played with him in the Orioles system and who saw every flamethrower from Sandy Koufax to Aroldis Chapman, said no one ever threw harder. "Steve Dalkowski threw at 108.something mph in a minor league game one time." He was? . He drew people to see what this was all about. What is the fastest pitch ever officially recorded? He had fallen in with the derelicts, and they stick together. Its tough to call him the fastest ever because he never pitched in the majors, Weaver said. The evidential problem with making such a case is that we have no video of Dalkowskis pitching. Winds light and variable.. Tonight He struck out 1,396 and walked 1,354 in 995 innings. It rose so much that his high school catcher told him to throw at batters ankles. A throw of 99.72 meters with the old pre-1986 javelin (Petranoffs world record) would thus correspond, with this conservative estimate, to about 80 meters with the current post-1991 javelin. Most likely, some amateur videographer, some local news station, some avid fan made some video of his pitching. This website provides the springboard. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. [9], After graduating from high school in 1957, Dalkowski signed with the Baltimore Orioles for a $4,000 signing bonus, and initially played for their class-D minor league affiliate in Kingsport, Tennessee. It really rose as it left his hand. The fastest unofficial pitch, in the sense that it was unconfirmed by present technology, but still can be reliably attributed, belongs to Nolan Ryan. He also allowed just two homers, and posted a career-best 3.04 ERA. Despite never playing baseball very seriously and certainly not at an elite level, Petranoff, once he became a world-class javelin thrower, managed to pitch at 103 mph. Dalkowski struggled with alcoholism all his life. Its hard to find, mind you, but I found it and it was amazing how easy it was once you found the throwing zone I threw 103 mph a few times on radar, and many in 97-100 mph range, and did not realize I was throwing it until Padres scout came up with a coach after batting practice and told me. So the hardest throwing pitchers do their best to approximate what javelin throwers do in hitting the block. Dalkowski may have never thrown a pitch in the major leagues, but, says Cannon, his legacy lives on in the fictional characters he has spawned, and he will be remembered every time a hard-throwing . [26] In a 2003 interview, Dalkowski said that he was unable to remember life events that occurred from 1964 to 1994. [20] Radar guns, which were used for many years in professional baseball, did not exist when Dalkowski was playing, so the only evidence supporting this level of velocity is anecdotal. With Kevin Costner, Derek Jeter, Denard Span, Craig Kimbrel. To push the analogy to its logical limit, we might say that Dalkowski, when it came to speed of pitching, may well have been to baseball what Zelezny was to javelin throwing.