This is a cool documentary on Netflix about the fastest fastballs ever, going back to Walter Johnson. Also talks about the science of trying to see and hit a fastball.

Also, if you've never heard of Steve Dalkowski, check it out. Interesting story.

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Seen it. Enjoyed it. There's one on knuckleballs too.

I've been meaning to check this out.

Dalkowski was a guy who was always talked about as throwing harder than anyone ever. He's sort of become a legend, like Paul Bunyan. Who knows how hard he really threw.

Personally when I see them throw up 103 on the scoreboard for Rob Nen or Aroldis Chapman, I have my doubts. I think it's comical that this Kopech guy supposedly hit 105. The Guinness Book still has Ryan as the fastest at 100.6 mph, for whatever that's worth. That's probably more realistic than teams trying to pump up their fans in the ninth by posting some crazy number.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

You have to watch this doc... you'd love it. They address that issue... the other thing is that modern radar guns measure the speed the minute it leaves the pitcher's hand which gives a distinct advantage. They conclude that Ryan threw the fastest pitch ever recorded (but that doesn't include a lot of guys around before radar guns).

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Did they show them trying to time Feller with a motorcycle?

Also, is there really one on knuckleballs too or was Hockey Gay just talking shit?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Yes, they show Feller against the motorcycle. The main pitchers discussed are W Johnson, Feller, Gibson, Koufax, Dalkowski, Ryan, Gossage, and Chapman. I may be forgetting one.

As for Knuckleball, I don't know. I haven't seen it.

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Ryne Duren?

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

No, at least not that I recall. They mentioned a lot of pitchers throughout the documentary, but they did a special focus on the ones above.

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Bernstein could hit it

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The Knuckleball one is on Netflix too. Or at least use to be.

Going back to the Dalkowski thing, we'll never know for sure, but I tend to believe he was some sort of freak.

If you Google some of his minor league numbers, they are the most ridiculous pitcher stats I've ever seen. He has no-hitters he threw in which he struck out every batter but lost and gave up six runs because of walks and wild pitches. I would have to think there was some sort of generational raw ability there or they would have given up on him at some point.

It's sad to see the guy now, too. After he got hurt, he apparently became an over the top alcoholic and can't remember much of his life after the 60's.

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It pretty much dispells the idea that one could just go try to time a Major League fastball and run into it. It's impossible. Batter's brains aren't actually swinging at where they see the ball cross the plate. There's not enough time. They are swinging based on muscle memory and their read of the ball right after the release point. A Chapman fastball reaches the plate 4.5 feet ahead of, say, a Travis Wood fastball, which makes it nearly impossible to hit without experience staying back and adjusting your swing to NOT coincide with how your mind perceives things.

I thought the most interesting point was that 60 feet, six inches is basically the perfect distance for a mound, given the top speeds that humans can throw, whether it was intentional or not. If you moved the mound in or if you get to guys who can approach 105 - 110 MPH, the human brain is literally not fast enough to process the information and make contact. That's crazy.

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Yeah, I think in some of those minor league seasons he struck out about 2 guys per inning and walked about 2.5.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Yeah, it's insane. Like you said, he has become a mythical figure, but some of the anecdotes are awesome if true (I'm sure they're embellished at the very least).

Supposedly, Ted Williams faced him once and said he never wanted to face him again. Based on his inability to hit the strike zone, though, Williams may have been referencing his preference not to die rather than Dalkowski's ability to pitch. Also, based on the math, I think Williams would have been pretty old during this encounter. One story says it was during BP, and one says it was during a spring training game, which just goes to show that it's been twisted over the years. Still kinda cool, though.

There's another guy who said that Dalkowski threw a baseball through a 1" x 6" fence while shattering the wood.

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I've done that too.

Obtained alcohol-induced dementia?

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No, you dummy

That's what I've always felt about hitting. You aren't exactly seeing what you are hitting, you are feeling it. In my experience, it was like a color appeared mentally when the pitch was thrown with a feeling of white when my body wanted to swing and a kind of blue when it wanted to hold. I could override that but it almost hurt to do.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Yeah, hitting a baseball was by far my worst sports skill in any sport. I pitched, and I was a liability on offense. I have always been a big dude, but I always had a short, compact swing that frequently made no contact at all. Looking back, I probably wasn't seeing the ball well or just lacked that ability to anticipate where it would wind up, so I probably didn't get extended quickly enough. It's split-second.

To your point about not seeing the ball, some of the great hitters they interviewed agreed. They said when you faced a guy like Gibson, if you weren't sitting on a fastball, you wouldn't even see it. That's a tremendous amount of skill to hit the ball that quickly.

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