We give the following world record throw (95.66 m) by Zelezny because it highlights the three other biomechanical features that could have played a crucial role in Dalkowski reaching 110 mph. [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. On March 23, Dalkowski was used as a relief pitcher during a game against the New York Yankees. In 1970, Sports Illustrateds Pat Jordan (himself a control-challenged former minor league pitcher) told the story of Williams stepping into the cage when Dalkowski was throwing batting practice: After a few minutes Williams picked up a bat and stepped into the cage. Note that we view power (the calculus derivative of work, and thus the velocity with which energy operates over a distance) as the physical measure most relevant and important for assessing pitching speed. The catcher held the ball for a few seconds a few inches under Williams chin. Moreover, to achieve 110 mph, especially with his limited frame (511, 175 lbs), he must have pitched with a significant forward body thrust, which then transferred momentum to his arm by solidly hitting the block (no collapsing or shock-absorber leg). He struck out 1,396 and walked 1,354 in 995 innings. No one else could claim that. Steve Dalkowki signed with the Baltimore Orioles during 1957, at the ripe age of 21. Good . Here's Steve Dalkowski. Nope. Koufax was obviously one of the greatest pitchers in MLB history, but his breaking balls were what was so devastating. The Orioles brought Dalkowski to their major league spring training the following year, not because he was ready to help the team but because they believed hed benefit from the instruction of manager Paul Richards and pitching coach Harry Brecheen. By George Vecsey. there is a storage bin at a local television station or a box of stuff that belonged to grandpa. During his time with the football team, they won the division championship twice, in 1955 and 1956. Just as free flowing as humanly possible. 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). Why was he so wild, allowing few hits but as many walks as strike outs. Ron Shelton once. Note that Zeleznys left leg lands straight/stiff, thus allowing the momentum that hes generated in the run up to the point of release to get transferred from his leg to this throwing arm. "Steve Dalkowski threw at 108.something mph in a minor league game one time." He was? The evidence is analogical, and compares Tom Petranoff to Jan Zelezny. In other words, instead of revolutionizing the biomechanics of pitching, Dalko unknowingly improved on and perfected existing pitching biomechanics. Javelin throwers call this landing on a straight leg immediately at the point of releasing the javelin hitting the block. This goes to point 3 above. That gave him incentive to keep working faster. When he throws, the javelin first needs to rotate counterclockwise (when viewed from the top) and then move straight forward. What set him apart was his pitching velocity. Our aim is to write a book, establish a prize in his honor, and ultimately film a documentary about him. Skip: He walked 18 . Also, when Zelezny is releasing the javelin, watch his left leg (he throws right-handed, and so, as in baseball, its like a right-hander hitting foot-strike as he gets ready to unwind his torque to deliver and release the baseball). If you told him to aim the ball at home plate, that ball would cross the plate at the batters shoulders. He was cut the following spring. He's already among the all-time leaders with 215 saves and has nearly 500 strikeouts in just seven short seasons. Thats where hell always be for me. With Kevin Costner, Derek Jeter, Denard Span, Craig Kimbrel. Such an absence of video seems remarkable inasmuch as Dalkos legend as the hardest thrower ever occurred in real time with his baseball career. The tins arent labeled or they have something scribbled on them that would make no sense to the rummagers or spring cleaners. It is incremental in that the different aspects or pieces of the pitching motion are all hypothesized to contribute positively to Dalkos pitching speed. Plagued by wildness, he walked more than he . "To understand how Dalkowski, a chunky little man with thick glasses and a perpetually dazed expression, became a legend in his own time." Pat Jordan in The Suitors of Spring (1974). Dalkowski fanned Roger Maris on three pitches and struck out four in two innings that day. The fastest pitch ever recorded was thrown by current Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. He was sentenced to time on a road crew several times and ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. Yet his famous fastball was so fearsome that he became, as the. On Christmas Eve 1992, Dalkowski walked into a laundromat in Los Angeles and began talking to a family there. What made this pitch even more amazing was that Dalkowski didnt have anything close to the classic windup. Instead Dalkowski almost short-armed the ball with an abbreviated delivery that kept batters all the more off balance and left them shocked at what was too soon coming their way. Not an easy feat when you try to estimate how Walter Johnson, Smoky Joe Wood, Satchel Paige, or Bob Feller would have done in our world of pitch counts and radar guns. 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. Look at the video above where he makes a world record of 95.66 meters, and note how in the run up his body twists clockwise when viewed from the top, with the javelin facing away to his right side (and thus away from the forward direction where he must throw). Torque refers to the bodys (and especially the hips and shoulders) twisting motion and thereby imparting power to the pitch. This may not seem like a lot, but it quickly becomes impressive when one considers his form in throwing the baseball, which is all arm, with no recruitment from his body, and takes no advantage of his javelin throwing form, where Zelezny is able to get his full body into the throw. Our content is reader-supported, which means that if you click on some of our links, we may earn a commission. Consider the following remark about Dalkowski by Sudden Sam McDowell, an outstanding MLB pitcher who was a contemporary of Dalkowskis. In comparison, Randy Johnson currently holds the major league record for strikeouts per nine innings in a season with 13.41. Steve Dalkowski, the man, is gone. How could he have reached such incredible speeds? Unlike Zelezny, who had never thrown a baseball when in 1996 he went to a practice with Braves, Petranoff was an American and had played baseball growing up. Steve Dalkowski Rare Footage of Him Throwing | Fastest Pitcher Ever? This was the brainstorm of . Yet as he threw a slider to Phil Linz, he felt something pop in his elbow. July 18, 2009. Thats when Dalkowski came homefor good. Steve Dalkowski, who entered baseball lore as the hardest-throwing pitcher in history, with a fastball that was as uncontrollable as it was unhittable and who was considered perhaps the game's. Hed let it go and it would just rise and rise.. The Gods of Mount Olympus Build the Perfect Pitcher, Steve Dalkowski Was El Velocista in 1960s Mexican Winter League Baseball, Light of the World Scripture Memorization Course. Then he gave me the ball and said, Good luck.'. Stephen Louis Dalkowski Jr. (June 3, 1939[1] April 19, 2020), nicknamed Dalko,[2] was an American left-handed pitcher. Given that the analogy between throwing a javelin and pitching a baseball is tight, Zelezny would have needed to improve on Petranoffs baseball pitching speed by only 7 percent to reach the magical 110 mph. He's the fireballer who can. Dalkowski was also famous for his unpredictable performance and inability to control his pitches. This website provides the springboard. Steve Dalkowski. Dalkowski signed with the Orioles in 1957 at age 21. 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. (See. Aroldis Chapmans fastest pitch (see 25 second mark): Nolan Ryans fastest pitch (from MLB documentary FASTBALL): So the challenge, in establishing that Dalkowski was the fastest pitcher ever, is to make a case that his pitching velocity reached at least 110 mph. We werent the first in this effort and, likely, will not be the last. He has been a recurring guest on MLB Network and a member of the BBWAA since 2011. 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. Stay tuned! To me, everything that happens has a reason. 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. Said Shelton, In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michaelangelo's gift but could never finish a painting. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. His first year in the minors, Dalkowski pitched 62 innings, struck out 121 and walked 129. Previously, the official record belonged to Joel Zumaya, who reached 104.8 mph in 2006. First off, arm strength/speed. Thats why Steve Dalkowski stays in our minds. [4] Such was his reputation that despite his never reaching the major leagues, and finishing his minor league years in class-B ball, the 1966 Sporting News item about the end of his career was headlined "Living Legend Released."[5]. His story offers offer a cautionary tale: Man cannot live by fastball alone. Steve Dalkowski, the man who inspired the character Nuke LaLoosh in "Bull Durham," died from coronavirus last Sunday. It really rose as it left his hand. Unlike a baseball, which weighs 5 ounces, javelins in mens track and field competitions weigh 28 ounces (800 g). The stories surrounding him amaze me to this day. FILE - This is a 1959 file photo showing Baltimore Orioles minor league pitcher Steve Dalkowski posed in Miami, Fla. Dalkowski, a hard-throwing, wild left-hander who inspired the creation of the . How do we know that Steve Dalkowski is not the Dick Fosbury of pitching, fundamentally changing the art of pitching? Stephen Louis Dalkowski (born June 3, 1939), nicknamed Dalko, is an American retired lefthanded pitcher. A left-handed thrower with long arms and big hands, he played baseball as well, and by the eighth grade, his father could no longer catch him. [3] As no radar gun or other device was available at games to measure the speed of his pitches precisely, the actual top speed of his pitches remains unknown. For the season, at the two stops for which we have data (C-level Aberdeen being the other), he allowed just 46 hits in 104 innings but walked 207 while striking out 203 and posting a 7.01 ERA. In Wilson, N.C., Dalkowski threw a pitch so high and hard that it broke through the narrow . When I think about him today, I find myself wondering what could have been. He threw so hard that the ball had a unique bend all its own due to the speed it traveled. Pitchers need power, which is not brute strength (such as slowly lifting a heavy weight), but the ability to dispense that strength ever more quickly. Players seeing Dalkowski pitch and marveling at his speed did not see him as fundamentally changing the art of pitching. The Wildest Fastball Ever. Then add such contemporary stars as Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman, and youre pretty much there. For years, the Baseball Assistance Team, which helps former players who have fallen on hard times, tried to reach out to Dalkowski. Cal Ripken Sr. guessed that he threw up to 115 miles per hour (185km/h). ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steve_Dalkowski&oldid=1117098020, Career statistics and player information from, Krieger, Kit: Posting on SABR-L mailing list from 2002. Living Legend Released, wrote The Sporting News. Steve Dalkowski Steve Dalkowski never pitched in the major leagues and made only 12 appearances at the Triple-A level. During a typical season in 1960, while pitching in the California League, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters and walked 262 in 170 innings. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, That was because of the tremendous backspin he could put on the ball.. Though radar guns were not in use in the late 1950s, when he was working his way through the minors, his fastball was estimated to travel at 100 mph, with Orioles manager Cal Ripken Sr. putting it at 115 mph, and saying Dalkowski threw harder than Sandy Koufax or Nolan Ryan. The greatest javelin thrower of all time is Jan Zelezny, who holds the world record at 98.48 meters, set in 1996, for the current javelin (older javelins, with different specifications, could be thrown farther more on this shortly). Reporters and players moved quickly closer to see this classic confrontation. The fastest unofficial pitch, in the sense that it was unconfirmed by present technology, but still can be reliably attributed, belongs to Nolan Ryan. Nine teams eventually reached out. [3] Dalkowski for 1960 thus figures at both 13.81 K/9IP and 13.81 BB/9IP (see lifetime statistics below). Before getting COVID-19, Dalkowskis condition had declined. High 41F. In camp with the Orioles, he struck out 11 in 7.2 innings. 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. After all, Zelezny demonstrated that he could have bested Petranoff in javelin throwing by a distance factor of 20 percent. Its reliably reported that he threw 97 mph. He was 80. There are, of course, some ceteris paribus conditions that apply here inasmuch as throwing ability with one javelin design might not correlate precisely to another, but to a first approximation, this percentage subtraction seems reasonable. This is not to say that Dalkowski may not have had such physical advantages. 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. Though of average size (Baseball-Reference lists him at 5-foot-11, 175 pounds) and with poor eyesight and a short attention span, he starred as a quarterback, running back, and defensive back at New Britain High School, leading his team to back-to-back state titles in 1955 and 56 and earning honorable mention as a high school All-American. Both were world-class javelin throwers, but Petranoff was also an amateur baseball pitcher whose javelin-throwing ability enabled him to pitch 103 mph. Ted Williams faced Dalkowski once in a spring training game. [15] Weaver believed that Dalkowski had experienced such difficulty keeping his game under control because he did not have the mental capacity. Opening day, and I go back to 1962 -- the story of Steve Dalkowski and Earl Weaver. At 5 11 and 175 pounds, Dalko gave no impression of being an imposing physical specimen or of exhibiting some physical attributes that set him apart from the rest of humanity. 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. On September 8, 2003, Dalkowski threw out the ceremonial first pitch before an Orioles game against the Seattle Mariners while his friends Boog Powell and Pat Gillick watched. Steve Dalkowski, who died of COVID-19 last year, is often considered the fastest pitcher in baseball history. During his time in Pensacola, Dalkowski fell in with two hard-throwing, hard-drinking future major league pitchers, Steve Barber and Bo Belinsky, both a bit older than him. [28], Kingsport Times News, September 1, 1957, page 9, Association of Professional Ball Players of America, "Steve Dalkowski had the stuff of legends", "Steve Dalkowski, Model for Erratic Pitcher in 'Bull Durham,' Dies at 80", "Connecticut: Two Games, 40 K's For Janinga", "Single-Season Leaders & Records for Strikeouts per 9 IP", "Steve Dalkowski Minor League Statistics & History", "The Fastest Pitcher in Baseball History", "Fastest Pitchers Ever Recorded in the Major Leagues - 2014 post-season UPDATES thru 10/27", "The Fastest Pitch Ever is Quicker Than the Blink of an Eye", "New Britain legend Dalkowski now truly a baseball immortal", The Birdhouse: The Phenom, an interview with Steve Dalkowski in October 2005, "A Hall of Fame for a Legendary Fastball Pitcher", "How do you solve a problem like Dalkowski? Over the course of the three years researching our book on Dalko, we collectively investigated leads in the USA, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, looking for any motion pictures of Steve Dalkowski throwing a baseball. "He had a record 14 feet long inside the Bakersfield, Calif., police station," Shelton wrote, "all barroom brawls, nothing serious, the cops said. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. [4], Dalkowski's claim to fame was the high velocity of his fastball. I threw batting practice at Palomar years later to cross train, and they needed me to throw 90 mph so their batters could see it live. Hes the fireballer who can summon nearly unthinkable velocity, but has no idea where his pitch will go. He appeared destined for the Major Leagues as a bullpen specialist for the Orioles when he hurt his elbow in the spring of 1963. Baseball pitching legend from the 1960's, Steve Dalkowski with his sister, Patti Cain, at Walnut Hill Park in New . Harry Dalton, the Orioles assistant farm director at the time, recalled that after the ball hit the batters helmet, it landed as a pop fly just inside second base., He had a reputation for being very wild so they told us to take a strike, Beavers told the Hartford Courants Don Amore in 2019, The first pitch was over the backstop, the second pitch was called a strike, I didnt think it was. But in a Grapefruit League contest against the New York Yankees, disaster struck. Some observers believed that this incident made Dalkowski even more nervous and contributed further to his wildness. At Kingsport, Dalkowski established his career pattern. in 103 innings), the 23-year-old lefty again wound up under the tutelage of Weaver. [16] Either way, his arm never fully recovered. He was back on the pitching mound, Gillick recalls. Dalkowski warmed up and then moved 15 feet (5m) away from the wooden outfield fence. Instead, it seems that Dalko brought together the existing biomechanical components of pitching into a supremely effective and coherent whole. Our hypothesis is that Dalko put these biomechanical features together in a way close to optimal. "I never want to face him again. Gripping and tragic, Dalko is the definitive story of Steve "White Lightning" Dalkowski, baseball's fastest pitcher ever. But plenty of players who did make it into the MLB batted against him or saw him pitch. The Steve Dalkowski Project attempts to uncover the truth about Steve Dalkowskis pitching the whole truth, or as much of it as can be recovered. There is a story here, and we want to tell it. Ever heard of Steve "Dalko" Dalkowski (1939 - 2020)? 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. Steve Dalkowski, a career minor leaguer whose legend includes the title as "the fastest pitcher in baseball history" via Ted Williams, died this week in Connecticut at 80. And . Players who saw Dalkowski pitch did not see a motion completely at odds with what other pitchers were doing. The ball did not rip through the air like most fastballs, but seemed to appear suddenly and silently in the catchers glove. As a postscript, we consider one final line of indirect evidence to suggest that Dalko could have attained pitching speeds at or in excess of 110 mph. The American Tom Petranoff, back in 1983, held the world record for the old-design javelin, with a throw of 99.72 meters (cf. [10] Under Weaver's stewardship, Dalkowski had his best season in 1962, posting personal bests in complete games and earned run average (ERA), and walking less than a batter an inning for the first time in his career. At Pensacola, he crossed paths with catcher Cal Ripken Sr. and crossed him up, too. He was able to find a job and stay sober for several months but soon went back to drinking. I still check out his wikipedia page once a month or so just to marvel at the story. Here is the video: This video actually contains two throws, one just below the then world record and one achieving a new world record. We'll never know for sure, of course, and it's hard to pinpiont exactly what "throwing the hardest pitch" even means. To see this, please review the pitches of Aroldis Chapman and Nolan Ryan above. Weaver knew that Dalkowski's fastball was practically unhittable no matter where it was in the strike zone, and if Dalkowski missed his target, he might end up throwing it on the corners for a strike anyway. 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! The next year at Elmira, Weaver asked Dalkowski to stop throwing so hard and also not to drink the night before he pitched small steps toward two kinds of control. 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 almost never allowed home runs, just 0.35 per nine for his career. [8] He began playing baseball in high school, and also played football as a quarterback for New Britain High School. Its comforting to see that the former pitching phenom, now 73, remains a hero in his hometown. During his 16-year professional career, Dalkowski came as close as he ever would to becoming a complete pitcher when he hooked up with Earl Weaver, a manager who could actually help him, in 1962 at Elmira, New York. 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. We thought the next wed hear of him was when he turned up dead somewhere. He told me to run a lot and dont drink on the night you pitch, Dalkowski said in 2003. Instead, Dalkowski spent his entire professional career in the minor leagues. Teddy Ballgame, who regularly faced Bob Feller and Herb Score and Ryne Duren, wanted no part of Dalko. The Steve Dalkowski Project attempts to separate fact from fiction, the truth about his pitching from the legends that have emerged. Bill Dembski, Alex Thomas, Brian Vikander. Yet when the Orioles broke camp and headed north for the start of the regular season in 1963, Dalkowski wasnt with the club. Dalkowski, a smallish (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) southpaw, left observers slack-jawed with the velocity of his fastball. In 1960, when he pitched in Stockton, California, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters in 170 innings. 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. Petranoffs projected best throw of 80 meters for the current javelin is unimpressive given Zeleznys world record of almost 100 meters, but the projected distance for Petranoff of 80 meters seems entirely appropriate. 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. We will argue that the mechanics of javelin throwing offers insights that makes it plausible for Dalko being the fastest pitcher ever, attaining pitching speeds at and in excess of 110 mph. Hed suffered a pinched nerve in his elbow. 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. - YouTube The only known footage of Steve Dalkowski and his throwing motion. He was arrested more times for disorderly conduct than anybody can remember. He is sometimes called the fastest pitcher in baseball history and had a fastball that probably exceeded 100 mph (160 km/h). Cloudy skies. With that, Dalkowski came out of the game and the phenom who had been turning headsso much that Ted Williams said he would never step in the batters box against himwas never the same. Its possible that Chapman may be over-rotating (its possible to overdo anything). Except for hitting the block, the rest of the features will make sense to those who have analyzed the precisely sequenced muscle recruitment patterns required to propel a 5-ounce baseball 60 6 toward the target. Extrapolating backward to the point of release, which is what current PITCHf/x technology does, its estimated that Ryans pitch was above 108 mph. [6] . 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. Yet nobody else in attendance cared. 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. Its like something out of a Greek myth. Lets flesh this out a bit. For the first time, Dalkowski began to throw strikes. 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. 9881048 343 KB As impressive as Dalkowskis fastball velocity was its movement. [17] He played for two more seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Angels organizations before returning briefly to the Orioles farm system but was unable to regain his form before retiring in 1966. Best Youth Baseball Bats Javelin throwers make far fewer javelin throws than baseball pitchers make baseball throws. Hamilton says Mercedes a long way off pace, Ten Hag must learn from Mourinho to ensure Man United's Carabao Cup win is just the start, Betting tips for Week 26 English Premier League games and more, Transfer Talk: Bayern still keen on Kane despite new Choupo-Moting deal. Dalkowski signed with the Orioles in 1957 at age 21. [24], In 1965, Dalkowski married schoolteacher Linda Moore in Bakersfield, but they divorced two years later. Although not official, the fastest observed fastball speed was a pitch from Mark Wohlers during spring training in 1995, which allegedly clocked in at 103 mph. Dalkowski, a football and baseball star in New Britain, was signed to a minor league contract by the Orioles in 1957. In what should have been his breakthrough season, Dalkowski won two games, throwing just 41 innings. The Orioles sent Dalkowski to the Aberden Proving Grounds to have his fastball tested for speed on ballistic equipment at a time before radar guns were used. The reason we think he may be over-rotating is that Nolan Ryan, who seemed to be every bit as fast as Chapman, tended to have a more compact, but at least as effective, torque (see Ryan video at the start of this article). But the Yankees were taking. Weaver had given all of the players an IQ test and discovered that Dalkowski had a lower than normal IQ. 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. Davey Johnson, a baseball lifer who played with him in the. 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. [13] In separate games, Dalkowski struck out 21 batters, and walked 21 batters. The fastest pitcher ever may have been 1950s phenom and flameout Steve Dalkowski. The story is fascinating, and Dalko is still alive. "Fastest ever", said Williams. Most obvious in this video is Zeleznys incredible forward body thrust. This page was last edited on 19 October 2022, at 22:42. Despite the pain, Dalkowski tried to carry on. Fastball: Directed by Jonathan Hock. According to Etchebarren his wilder pitches usually went high, sometimes low; "Dalkowski would throw a fastball that looked like it was coming in at knee level, only to see it sail past the batter's eyes".[18]. That's fantastic. Again, amazing. Its tough to call him the fastest ever because he never pitched in the majors, Weaver said. Some experts believed it went as fast as 110mph (180km/h), others that his pitches traveled at less than that speed.