Faster Than A Speeding Horsehide

You seldom hear of cars getting snagged by radar at 100 mph, but I found a listing of baseballs that did. Usually, when you see the radar (or Doppler effect) reading on the screen during a ball game, it measures somewhere between 87 and 95 mph. But some of the best pitchers have hit in the three numbers.

Eight out of the nine who hit the radar at exactly 100 mph did it in this century; only one managed that feat in the previous.

Of the eight who went 100.9 to 101.0, three did it in the nineteen-hundreds. That includes Rob Dibble, whose father I worked with at WICC in Bridgeport.

Three more hit 102 mph and the fastest on record made it to 103 mph during Spring Training. Forget Sidd Finch and his 168 mph flamethrower; it was an April Fool’s joke.

There does seem to be a barrier of sorts which keeps pitchers from going much faster than Mark Wohlers’ 103 mph sizzler. It’s physical and there doesn’t seem to be much anyone can do about it. We will probably always see speeds in the mid- to high 90’s.

Not that I know much about baseball – or any sport, for that matter. But I can read as well as the next person and there really are plateaus to what we are able to do without mechanical assistance. We can run just so fast, jump just so far. Swimming records are now set in hundredths of a second. The next record will be 104 mph.