Torque refers to the bodys (and especially the hips and shoulders) twisting motion and thereby imparting power to the pitch. Ever heard of Steve "Dalko" Dalkowski (1939 - 2020)? [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. Thats when Dalkowski came homefor good. 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. Less than a decade after returning home, Dalkowski found himself at a place in life he thought he would never reachthe pitching mound in Baltimore. The stories surrounding him amaze me to this day. It is certain that with his high speed and penchant for throwing wild pitches, he would have been an intimidating opponent for any batter who faced him. Instead, he started the season in Rochester and couldnt win a game. 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. 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. 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. Hed let it go and it would just rise and rise.. Reporters and players moved quickly closer to see this classic confrontation. Hes the fireballer who can summon nearly unthinkable velocity, but has no idea where his pitch will go. Here are the four features: Our inspiration for these features comes from javelin throwing. Instead, it seems that Dalko brought together the existing biomechanical components of pitching into a supremely effective and coherent whole. 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. He was 80. 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. After he retired from baseball, he spent many years as an alcoholic, making a meager living as a manual laborer. Bill Dembski, Alex Thomas, Brian Vikander. Ripken volunteered to take him on at Tri-Cities, demanding that he be in bed early on the nights before he pitched. Cain brought balls and photos to Grandview Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center for her brother to sign, and occasionally visitors to meet. 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! He had a great arm but unfortunately he was never able to harness that great fastball of his. 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. Thats why Steve Dalkowski stays in our minds. 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. [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. Moreover, even if the physics of javelin throwing were entirely straightforward, it would not explain the physics of baseball throwing, which requires correlating a baseballs distance thrown (or batted) versus its flight angle and velocity, an additional complicating factor being rotation of the ball (such rotation being absent from javelin throwing). Its tough to call him the fastest ever because he never pitched in the majors, Weaver said. the Wikipedia entry on Javelin Throw World Record Progression). 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. 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. Our team working on the Dalko Project have come to refer to video of Dalko pitching as the Holy Grail. Like the real Holy Grail, we doubt that such video will ever be found. That, in a nutshell, was Dalkowski, who spent nine years in the minor leagues (1957-65) putting up astronomical strikeout and walk totals, coming tantalizingly close to pitching in the majors only to get injured, then fading away due to alcoholism and spiraling downward even further. 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. He asserted, "Steve Dalkowski was the hardest thrower I ever saw." . 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. The fastest pitcher ever may have been 1950s phenom and flameout Steve Dalkowski. 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. Shelton says that Ted Williams once faced Dalkowski and called him "fastest ever." 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. McDowell said this about Dalkowskis pitching mechanics: He had the most perfect pitching mechanics I ever saw. Cal Ripken Sr. guessed that he threw up to 115 miles per hour (185km/h). That lasted two weeks and then he drifted the other way, he later told Jordan. He was the wildest I ever saw".[11][12]. That was because of the tremendous backspin he could put on the ball., That amazing, rising fastball would perplex managers, friends, and catchers from the sandlots back in New Britain, Connecticut where Dalkowski grew up, throughout his roller-coaster ride in the Orioles farm system. 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. Ron Shelton once. Who was the fastest baseball pitcher ever? The problem was he couldnt process all that information. Before getting COVID-19, Dalkowskis condition had declined. Arizona Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson's fastest pitch came when he was 40 years old, tipping the scales at 102 mph. But none of it had the chance to stick, not as long as Dalkowski kept drinking himself to death. Steered to a rehab facility in 1991, he escaped, and his family presumed hed wind up dead. The minors were already filled with stories about him. Home for the big league club was no longer cozy Memorial Stadium but the retro red brick of Camden Yards. How do we know that Steve Dalkowski is not the Dick Fosbury of pitching, fundamentally changing the art of pitching? He could not believe I was a professional javelin thrower. But such was the allure of Dalkowski's explosive arm that the Orioles gave him chance after chance to harness his "stuff", knowing that if he ever managed to control it, he would be a great weapon. by Handedness, Remembering Steve Dalkowski, Perhaps the Fastest Pitcher Ever, Sunday Notes: The D-Backs Run Production Coordinator Has a Good Backstory, A-Rod, J-Lo and the Mets Ownership Possibilities. This was how he lived for some 25 yearsuntil he finally touched bottom. At Kingsport, Dalkowski established his career pattern. He also learned, via a team-administered IQ test, that Dalkowski scored the lowest on the team. What do we mean by these four features? [21] Earl Weaver, who had years of exposure to both pitchers, said, "[Dalkowski] threw a lot faster than Ryan. [13] In separate games, Dalkowski struck out 21 batters, and walked 21 batters. Over the years I still pitched baseball and threw baseball for cross training. For a time I was tempted to rate Dalkowski as the fastest ever. 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. 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. Baseball pitching legend from the 1960's, Steve Dalkowski with his sister, Patti Cain, at Walnut Hill Park in New . How do you rate somebody like Steve Dalkowski? He grew up and played baseball in New Britain, CT and thanks to his pitching mechanics New Britain, CT is the Home of the World's Fastest Fastballer - Steve Dalkowski. He's already among the all-time leaders with 215 saves and has nearly 500 strikeouts in just seven short seasons. Even . What made this pitch even more amazing was that Dalkowski didnt have anything close to the classic windup. Some suggest that he reached 108 MPH at one point in his career, but there is no official reading. 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. So here are the facts: Steve Dalkowski never played in the majors. No one else could claim that. Beyond that the pitcher would cause himself a serious injury. Papelbon's best pitch is a fastball that sits at 94 to 96 mph (he's hit 100 mph. 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. 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. It was good entertainment, she told Amore last year. He was said to have thrown a pitch that tore off part of a batter's ear. But we have no way of confirming any of this. Whats possible here? For the first time, Dalko: The Untold Story of . Dalkowski, who once struck out 24 batters in a minor league game -- and walked 18 -- never made it to the big leagues. Used with permission. From there he was demoted back to Elmira, but by then not even Weaver could help him. "I hit my left elbow on my right knee so often, they finally made me a pad to wear", recalled Dalkowski. 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. Zelezny seems to have mastered the optimal use of such torque (or rotational force) better than any other javelin thrower weve watched. 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. When in 1991, the current post-1991 javelin was introduced (strictly speaking, javelin throwers started using the new design already in 1990), the world record dropped significantly again. That was it for his career in pro ball. The fastest unofficial pitch, in the sense that it was unconfirmed by present technology, but still can be reliably attributed, belongs to Nolan Ryan. They soon realized he didnt have much money and was living on the streets. But before or after, it was a different story. It mattered only that once, just once, Steve Dalkowski threw a fastball so hard that Ted Williams never even saw it. The story is fascinating, and Dalko is still alive. He is sometimes called the fastest pitcher in baseball history and had a fastball that probably exceeded 100mph (160kmh). "He had a record 14 feet long inside the Bakersfield, Calif., police station," Shelton wrote, "all barroom brawls, nothing serious, the cops said. Dalkowski was invited to major league spring training in 1963, and the Orioles expected to call him up to the majors. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. On Christmas Eve 1992, Dalkowski walked into a laundromat in Los Angeles and began talking to a family there. 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. Tommy John surgery undoubtedly would have put him back on the mound. Add an incredible lack of command, and a legend was born. The cruel irony, of course, is that Dalkowski could have been patched up in this day and age. But during processing, he ran away and ended up living on the streets of Los Angeles. His ball moved too much. They couldnt keep up. What set him apart was his pitching velocity. Whenever Im passing through Connecticut, I try to visit Steve and his sister, Pat. Is there any extant video of him pitching (so far none has been found)? - YouTube The only known footage of Steve Dalkowski and his throwing motion. That is what haunts us. Some uncertainty over the cause of his injury exists, however, with other sources contending that he damaged his elbow while throwing to first after fielding a bunt from Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. He was back on the pitching mound, Gillick recalls. In Wilson, N.C., Dalkowski threw a pitch so high and hard that it broke through the narrow . 15 Best BBCOR bats 2023 2022 [Feb. Update], 10 Best Fastpitch Softball Bats 2022-2023 [Feb. Update], 10 Best USA bats 2023 2022 [Feb. Update], 14 Best Youth Baseball Bats 2023 -2022 [Updated Feb.]. 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. He was a puzzle that even some of the best teachers in baseball, such as Richards, Weaver, and Rikpen, couldnt solve. "Steve Dalkowski threw at 108.something mph in a minor league game one time." He was? Such an analysis has merit, but its been tried and leaves unexplained how to get to and above 110 mph. He married a woman from Stockton. And if Zelezny could have done it, then so too could Dalko. 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, who died of COVID-19 last year, is often considered the fastest pitcher in baseball history. Davey Johnson, a baseball lifer who played with him in the. Steve Dalkowki signed with the Baltimore Orioles during 1957, at the ripe age of 21. They were . 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. At 5'11" and weighing 170 pounds, he did not exactly fit the stereotype of a power pitcher, especially one. However, he excelled the most in baseball, and still holds a Connecticut state record for striking out 24 batters in a single game. 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. In his 1957 debut stint, at Class D Kingsport of the Appalachian League, he yielded just 22 hits and struck out 121 batters in 62 innings, but went 1-8 with an 8.13 ERA, because he walked 129 and threw 39 wild pitches in that same span. Ive been playing ball for 10 years, and nobody can throw a baseball harder than that, said Grammas at the time. Back where he belonged.. Thats where hell always be for me. 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. Bob Gibson, a flame thrower in his day (and contemporary of Dalko), would generate so much torque that on releasing his pitch, he would fly toward first base (he was a righty). 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. Stephen Louis Dalkowski Jr. (born June 3, 1939), nicknamed Dalko, is an American retired left-handed pitcher. 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. It really rose as it left his hand. The Wildest Fastball Ever. 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. Unable to find any gainful employment, he became a migrant worker. 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. 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. That meant we were going about it all wrong with him, Weaver told author Tim Wendel for his 2010 book, High Heat. There in South Dakota, Weaver would first come across the whirlwind that was Steve Dalkowski. The future Hall of Fame skipper cautioned him that hed be dead by age 33 if he kept drinking to such extremes. In an effort to save the prospects career, Weaver told Dalkowski to throw only two pitchesfastball and sliderand simply concentrate on getting the ball over the plate. Dalkowski began his senior season with back-to-back no-hitters, and struck out 24 in a game with scouts from all 16 teams in the stands. 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. In an extra-inning game, Dalkowski recorded 27 strikeouts (while walking 16 and throwing 283 pitches). 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. Known for having trouble controlling the strike zone, he was . there is a storage bin at a local television station or a box of stuff that belonged to grandpa. Bill Huber, his old coach, took him to Sunday services at the local Methodist church until Dalkowski refused to go one week. This was the brainstorm of . If standing on the sidelines, all one had to do was watch closely how his entire body flowed together towards the batter once he began his turn towards the plate Steves mechanics were just like a perfect ballet. Here, using a radar machine, he was clocked at 93.5 miles per hour (150.5km/h), a fast but not outstanding speed for a professional pitcher. Petranoff, in pitching 103 mph, and thus going 6 mph faster than Zelezny, no doubt managed to get his full body into throwing the baseball. He had an unusual buggy-whip style, and his pitches were as wild as they were hard. He was signed by the Baltimore Orioles in 1957, right out of high school, and his first season in the Appalachian League. 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. Dalkowski began the 1958 season at A-level Knoxville and pitched well initially before wildness took over. Hed suffered a pinched nerve in his elbow. When his career ended in 1965, after he threw out his arm fielding a bunt, Dalkowski became a migrant worker in California. Javelin throwers develop amazing arm strength and speed. In 2009, he traveled to California for induction into the Baseball Reliquarys Shrine of the Eternals, an offbeat Hall of Fame that recognizes the cultural impact of its honorees, and threw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game, rising from a wheelchair to do so. Steve Dalkowski was one of the fastest pitchers in organized baseball history with a fastball thought to be over 100 miles per hours. 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. 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. Steve Dalkowski Steve Dalkowski never pitched in the major leagues and made only 12 appearances at the Triple-A level. The fastest pitcher ever may have been 1950s phenom and flameout Steve Dalkowski. In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michelangelos gift but could never finish a painting.. I did hear that he was very upset about it, and tried to see me in the hospital, but they wouldnt let him in.. During a typical season in 1960, while pitching in the California League, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters and walked 262 in 170 innings. He also had 39 wild pitches and won just one game. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. 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. . In what should have been his breakthrough season, Dalkowski won two games, throwing just 41 innings. Include Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax with those epic fireballers. Just seeing his turn and movement towards the plate, you knew power was coming!. 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. . 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. Here is the video: This video actually contains two throws, one just below the then world record and one achieving a new world record. [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? 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. Old-timers love to reminisce about this fireballer and wonder what would have happened if he had reached the Major Leagues. Some advised him to aim below the batters knees, even at home plate, itself. Here's Steve Dalkowski. Stephen Louis Dalkowski (born June 3, 1939), nicknamed Dalko, is an American retired lefthanded pitcher. After they split up two years later, he met his second wife, Virginia Greenwood, while picking oranges in Bakersfield. Dalkowski's greatest legacy may be the number of anecdotes (some more believable than others) surrounding his pitching ability. He has been a recurring guest on MLB Network and a member of the BBWAA since 2011. Just 5 feet 11 and 175 pounds, Dalkowski had a fastball that Cal Ripken Sr., who both caught and managed him, estimated at 110 mph. The evidential problem with making such a case is that we have no video of Dalkowskis pitching. He was able to find a job and stay sober for several months but soon went back to drinking. 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. In comparison, Randy Johnson currently holds the major league record for strikeouts per nine innings in a season with 13.41. Why was he so wild, allowing few hits but as many walks as strike outs. 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. "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). All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. 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. Steve Dalkowski's pitches didn't rip through the air, they appeared under mystified Ted Williams' chin as if by magic. In a few days, Cain received word that her big brother was still alive. Dalkowski struggled with alcoholism all his life. Best BBCOR Bats Yet players who did make it to the majors caught him, batted against him, and saw him pitch. His mind had cleared enough for him to remember he had grown up Catholic. [24], In 1965, Dalkowski married schoolteacher Linda Moore in Bakersfield, but they divorced two years later. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. 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. 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) . The APBPA stopped providing financial assistance to him because he was using the funds to purchase alcohol. Most obvious in this video is Zeleznys incredible forward body thrust. "It was truly a magical time back then when Stevie pitched his high school game there," said. That seems to be because Ryan's speed was recorded 10 feet (3.0m) from the plate, unlike 10 feet from release as today, costing him up to 10 miles per hour (16km/h). In the fourth inning, they just carried him off the mound.. . In 1960, when he pitched in Stockton, California, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters in 170 innings. 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). Dalkowski, 'fastest pitcher in history,' dies at 80, Smart backs UGA culture after fatal crash, arrests, Scherzer tries to test pitch clock limits, gets balk, UFC's White: Miocic will fight Jones-Gane winner, Wolverines' Turner wows with 4.26 40 at combine, Jones: Not fixated on Cowboys' drought, just '23, Flyers GM: Red Wings nixed van Riemsdyk trade, WR Addison to Steelers' Pickett: 'Come get me', Snowboarding mishap sidelines NASCAR's Elliott, NHL trade tracker: Latest deals and grades, Inside the long-awaited return of Jon Jones and his quest for heavyweight glory. Granted, the physics for javelins, in correlating distance traveled to velocity of travel (especially velocity at the point of release), may not be entirely straightforward. What, if any, physical characteristics did he have that enhanced his pitching? Dalkowski once won a $5 bet with teammate Herm Starrette who said that he could not throw a baseball through a wall. 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. 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.