On May 7, 1966, shortly after his release from baseball, The Sporting News carried a blurred, seven-year-old photograph of one Stephen Louis Dalkowski, along with a brief story that was headlined . 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 . 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. Dalko is the story of the fastest pitching that baseball has ever seen, an explosive but uncontrolled arm. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. In Wilson, N.C., Dalkowski threw a pitch so high and hard that it broke through the narrow welded wire backstop, 50 feet behind home plate and 30 feet up. Our hypothesis is that Dalko put these biomechanical features together in a way close to optimal. In 1974 Ryan was clocked with radar technology available at the time, placing one of his fastballs at over 101 mph at 10 feet from the plate. Dalkowski warmed up and then moved 15 feet (5m) away from the wooden outfield fence. 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. Dalkowski was one of the many nursing home victims that succumbed to the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic in Connecticut. Javelin throwers make far fewer javelin throws than baseball pitchers make baseball throws. Perhaps that was the only way to control this kind of high heat and keep it anywhere close to the strike zone. Best Softball Bats After they split up two years later, he met his second wife, Virginia Greenwood, while picking oranges in Bakersfield. In an attic, garage, basement, or locker are some silver tins containing old films from long forgotten times. He had fallen in with the derelicts, and they stick together. That's fantastic. Steve Dalkowski was one of the fastest pitchers in organized baseball history with a fastball thought to be over 100 miles per hours. Instead, we therefore focus on what we regard as four crucial biomechanical features that, to the degree they are optimized, could vastly increase pitching speed. Amazing and sad story. Players seeing Dalkowski pitch and marveling at his speed did not see him as fundamentally changing the art of pitching. It was 1959. Arm speed/strength is self-explanatory: in the absence of other bodily helps, how fast can the arm throw the ball? Ron Shelton once. Insofar as javelin-throwing ability (as measured by distance thrown) transfers to baseball-pitching ability (as measured by speed), Zelezny, as the greatest javelin thrower of all time, would thus have been able to pitch a baseball much faster than Petranoff provided that Zelezny were able master the biomechanics of pitching. Stephen Louis Dalkowski Jr. (born June 3, 1939), nicknamed Dalko, is an American retired left-handed pitcher. "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). For the first time, Dalko: The Untold Story of . Yet his famous fastball was so fearsome that he became, as the. [8] He began playing baseball in high school, and also played football as a quarterback for New Britain High School. Steve Dalkowski, who died of COVID-19 last year, is often considered the fastest pitcher in baseball history. The evidential problem with making such a case is that we have no video of Dalkowskis pitching. On a $5 bet he threw a baseball. 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. In comparison, Randy Johnson currently holds the major league record for strikeouts per nine innings in a season with 13.41. Dalkowski suffered from several preexisting conditions before. But he also walked 262 batters. Can we form reliable estimates of his speed? Papelbon's best pitch is a fastball that sits at 94 to 96 mph (he's hit 100 mph. Here are the four features: Our inspiration for these features comes from javelin throwing. At SteveDalkowski.com, we want to collect together the evidence and data that will allow us to fill in the details about Dalkos pitching. On Christmas Eve 1992, Dalkowski walked into a laundromat in Los Angeles and began talking to a family there. ", 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. The fastest pitcher ever may have been 1950s phenom and flameout Steve Dalkowski. How could he have reached such incredible speeds? I went to try out for the baseball team and on the way back from tryout I saw Luc Laperiere throwing a javelin 75 yards or so and stopped to watch him. Its tough to call him the fastest ever because he never pitched in the majors, Weaver said. He tested positive for the virus early in April, and appeared to be recovering, but then took a turn for the worse and died in a New Britain hospital. But, no matter how embellished, one fact always remained: Dalkowski struck out more batters and walked more batters per nine-inning game than any professional pitcher in baseball history. Here is the video: This video actually contains two throws, one just below the then world record and one achieving a new world record. Reporters and players moved quickly closer to see this classic confrontation. And, if they did look inside and hold the film up to the light and saw some guy, in grainy black and white, throwing a baseball, they wouldnt have any idea who or what they are looking at, or even why it might be significant. 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. No one knows how fast Dalkowski could throw, but veterans who saw him pitch say he was the fastest of all time. I ended up over 100 mph on several occasions and had offers to play double A pro baseball for the San Diego Padres 1986. That meant we were going about it all wrong with him, Weaver told author Tim Wendel for his 2010 book, High Heat. The caveats for the experiment abound: Dalkowski was throwing off flat ground, had tossed a typical 150-some pitches in a game the night before, and was wild enough that he needed about 40 minutes before he could locate a pitch that passed through the timing device. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, PRAISE FOR DALKO Hes the fireballer who can summon nearly unthinkable velocity, but has no idea where his pitch will go. Yet it was his old mentor, Earl Weaver, who sort of talked me out of it. He did so as well at an Orioles game in 2003, then did it again three years later, joined by Baylock. However, he excelled the most in baseball, and still holds a Connecticut state record for striking out 24 batters in a single game. Koufax was obviously one of the greatest pitchers in MLB history, but his breaking balls were what was so devastating. After all, Uwe Hohn in 1984 beat Petranoffs record by 5 meters, setting a distance 104.80 meters for the old javelin. He became one of the few gringos, and the only Polish one at that, among the migrant workers. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. 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. 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. Dalko, its true, is still alive, though hes in a nursing home and suffers dementia. I couldnt get in the sun for a while, and I never did play baseball again. (See. He drew people to see what this was all about. In camp with the Orioles, he struck out 11 in 7.2 innings. No one else could claim that. 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 catcher held the ball for a few seconds a few inches under Williams chin. Cloudy skies. 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). The performance carried Dalkowski to the precipice of the majors. Its not like what happened in high jumping, where the straddle technique had been the standard way of doing the high jump, and then Dick Fosbury came along and introduced the Fosbury flop, rendering the straddle technique obsolete over the last 40 years because the flop was more effective. [4], Dalkowski's claim to fame was the high velocity of his fastball. 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. Dalkowski signed with the Orioles in 1957 at age 21. He finished his minor league career with a record of 46-80 and an ERA of 5.57. Then he gave me the ball and said, Good luck.'. Studies of this type, as they correlate with pitching, do not yet exist. With Kevin Costner, Derek Jeter, Denard Span, Craig Kimbrel. We were overloading him., The future Hall of Fame manager helped Dalkowski to simplify things, paring down his repertoire to fastball-slider, and telling him to take a little off the former, saying, Just throw the ball over the plate. Weaver cracked down on the pitchers conditioning as well. Plagued by wildness, he walked more than he . Steve Dalkowski met Roger Maris once. It follows that for any javelin throw with the pre-1986 design, one can roughly subtract 25 percent of its distance to estimate what one might reasonably expect to throw with the current design. RIP to Steve Dalkowski, a flame-throwing pitcher who is one of the more famous players to never actually play in the major leagues. The problem was he couldnt process all that information. No high leg kick like Bob Feller or Satchel Paige, for example. In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michelangelos gift but could never finish a painting.. 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. 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. "I never want to face him again. 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). That is what haunts us. Dalkowski had lived at a long-term care facility in New Britain for several years. The problem was that Dalkowski sprayed pitches high, low, inside, and out but not nearly often enough over the plate to be effective. In his final 57 innings of the 62 season, he gave up one earned run, struck out 110, and walked only 21. Zelezny seems to have mastered the optimal use of such torque (or rotational force) better than any other javelin thrower weve watched. Moreover, they highlight the three other biomechanical features mentioned above, leaving aside arm strength/speed, which is also evident. And hes in good hands. In the fourth inning, they just carried him off the mound.. [21] Earl Weaver, who had years of exposure to both pitchers, said, "[Dalkowski] threw a lot faster than Ryan. Did Dalkowski throw a baseball harder than any person who ever lived? We werent the first in this effort and, likely, will not be the last. Back where he belonged.. In Wilson, N.C., Dalkowski threw a pitch so high and hard that it broke through the narrow . 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. It's not often that a player who never makes it to the big leagues is regarded as a legend, yet that is exactly what many people call Steve Dalkowski. That gave him incentive to keep working faster. [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. . Barring direct evidence of Dalkos pitching mechanics and speed, what can be done to make his claim to being the fastest pitcher ever plausible? 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. Follow him on Twitter @jay_jaffe and Mastodon @jay_jaffe. Because of control problems, walking as many as he struck out, Dalkowski never made it to the majors, though he got close. Ive been playing ball for 10 years, and nobody can throw a baseball harder than that, said Grammas at the time. 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. They soon realized he didnt have much money and was living on the streets. Oriole Paul Blair stated that "He threw the hardest I ever saw. Steve Dalkowski Bats: Left Throws: Left 5-11 , 175lb (180cm, 79kg) Born: June 3, 1939 in New Britain, CT us Died: April 19, 2020 (Aged 80-321d) in New Britain, CT High School: New Britain HS (New Britain, CT) Full Name: Stephen Louis Dalkowski View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen Become a Stathead & surf this site ad-free. 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. In doing so, it puts readers on the fields and at the plate to hear the buzzing fastball of a pitcher fighting to achieve his major league ambitions. What do we mean by these four features? 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. 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). Over the years I still pitched baseball and threw baseball for cross training. Said Shelton, "In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michaelangelo's gift but could never finish a painting." Dalko is the story of the fastest pitching that baseball has ever seen, an explosive but uncontrolled arm. Include Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax with those epic fireballers. Weaver kept things simple for Dalkowski, telling him to only throw the fastball and a slider, and to just aim the fastball down the middle of the plate. Because a pitcher is generally considered wild if he averages four walks per nine innings, a pitcher of average repertoire who consistently walked as many as nine men per nine innings would not normally be considered a prospect. Because of control problems, walking as many as he struck out, Dalkowski never made it to the majors, though he got close. They warmed him up for an hour a day, figuring that his control might improve if he were fatigued. Is there any extant video of him pitching (so far none has been found)? Just three days after his high school graduation in 1957, Steve Dalkowski signed into the Baltimore Orioles system. Instead, he started the season in Rochester and couldnt win a game. Dalkowski went on to have his best year ever. He almost never allowed home runs, just 0.35 per nine for his career. By George Vecsey. He struck out 1,396 and walked 1,354 in 995 innings. This is not to say that Dalkowski may not have had such physical advantages. Now the point to realize is that the change in 1986 lowered the world record javelin throw by more than 18 percent, and the change in 1991 further lowered the world record javelin throw by more than 7 percent (comparing newest world record with the old design against oldest world record with new design). Dalkowski, a football and baseball star in New Britain, was signed to a minor league contract by the Orioles in 1957. Thats tough to do. He was the wildest I ever saw".[11][12]. 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. This allowed Dalkowski to concentrate on just throwing the ball for strikes. But during processing, he ran away and ended up living on the streets of Los Angeles. We see hitting the block in baseball in both batting and pitching. 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. Steered to a rehab facility in 1991, he escaped, and his family presumed hed wind up dead. Good . Baseball pitching legend from the 1960's, Steve Dalkowski, shown May 07, 1998 with his sister, Patti Cain, at Walnut Hill Park in New Britain, Conn. (Mark Bonifacio / NY Daily News via Getty Images) We call this an incremental and integrative hypothesis. He was likely well above 100 under game conditions, if not as high as 120, as some of the more far-fetched estimates guessed. This video is interesting in a number of ways: Bruce Jenners introduction, Petranoffs throwing motion, and Petranoffs lament about the (at the time) proposed redesign of the javelin, which he claims will cause javelin throwers to be built more like shot put and discus throwers, becoming more bulky (the latter prediction was not borne out: Jan Zelezny mastered the new-design javelin even though he was only 61 and 190 lbs, putting his physical stature close to Dalkos). How anyone ever managed to get a hit off him is one of the great questions of history, wrote researcher Steve Treder on a Baseball Primer thread in 2003, years before Baseball-Reference made those numbers so accessible. Then, the first year of the new javelin in 1986, the world record dropped to 85.74 meters (almost a 20 meter drop). He set the Guinness World Record for fastest pitch, at 100.9 MPH. 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. They help break down Zeleznys throwing motion. 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]. 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. Ted Williams faced Dalkowski once in a spring training game. Unable to find any gainful employment, he became a migrant worker. Well, I have. 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. the Wikipedia entry on Javelin Throw World Record Progression). [3] Dalkowski for 1960 thus figures at both 13.81 K/9IP and 13.81 BB/9IP (see lifetime statistics below). In an extra-inning game, Dalkowski recorded 27 strikeouts (while walking 16 and throwing 283 pitches). [SOURCE: Reference link; this text has been lightly edited for readability.]. Perhaps he wouldnt have been as fast as before, but he would have had another chance at the big leagues. Steve Dalkowski was considered to have "the fastest arm alive." Some say his fastball regularly exceeded 100 mph and edged as high as 110 mph. His fastball was like nothing Id ever seen before. His mind had cleared enough for him to remember he had grown up Catholic. Women's Champ Week predictions: Which teams will win the auto bids in all 32 conferences? 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). But how much more velocity might have been imparted to Petranoffs 103 mph baseball pitch if, reasoning counterfactually, Zelezny had been able to pitch it, getting his fully body into throwing the baseball while simultaneously taking full advantage of his phenomenal ability to throw a javelin? [15] Weaver believed that Dalkowski had experienced such difficulty keeping his game under control because he did not have the mental capacity.
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