RECOUNT!

Baseball's greatest pitches of all-time (David Schoenfield, , May 15, 2002, ESPN.com)

"I never saw anything like it. I didn't think there was a man in the world who had so much speed. I have heard a great deal about Johnson's speed, but now I know. There isn't a man in the world who can touch him. He is in a class by himself."
-- Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Nap Rucker on Walter Johnson, 1912

Ninety years later, it's easy to imagine Nap Rucker saying the same superlatives about another Johnson. From Walter to Randy, there have been many great pitchers. Some, like Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal, relied on a variety of pitches, mixing speeds and location with a good fastball. Others, like the Johnsons, could depend on one dominating pitch. Here is one list of the 10 greatest pitches of all time (in no particular order):

Walter Johnson's fastball
Johnson's heater was so fast, he earned the nickname "The Big Train." Delivered with an easy sidearm motion, it was so fast he relied on it almost exclusively, developing a curveball only late in his career. Nonetheless, he led his league in strikeouts 12 times. Some analysts doubt Johnson approached the speed of modern-day hurlers throwing across his body like he did, and appeared faster than his contemporaries only because he threw hard every pitch. Of course, it doesn't really matter, does it? The Big Train used his fastball to register 417 wins.

The list looks pretty good, though I'm dubious as regards Hoyt Wilhelm's knuckler. One problem is that a couple of the most dominant pitches I've ever seen--Mike Scott's splint-finger and Kerry Wood's slider (they called it a curve, but c'mon)--effectively destroyed the guys' arms. If you recall the great 1986 playoff between the Mets and Astros, they played the tensest 6th game in sports history because if it went to the 7th the Mets would have lost to Scott. Think about that. Everyone knew, on both sides, that the Mets weren't going to beat Scott in Game 7. I don't ever remember another pitcher in my lifetime who we all knew the other team just had no chance against. But Scott got such a devastating break on such a hard thrown pitch that it was ridiculous. Similarly, Wood--and you can see it in the film of the one-hitter where he k'ed 20--was throwing a hard curve that was so tightly wrapped and had such wicked rotation that no one could have hit him with any consistency. But the human arm, which isn't really well designed to pitch at all, sure as heck isn't designed to throw either of those pitches

The Astros in fact used to ban their young pitchers from learning the slider--Daryl Kile supposedly had a great one in college but they made him go with only his curve for a breaking pitch, and he developed the best curve of the last few years. Conversely, back when Whitey Herzog was running the farm system, the Mets had Gary Gentry, who used to cock his wrist before he threw (David Cone did something similar for awhile). They talked about trying to get him to throw properly but Herzog decided he'd rather have Gentry be great for a couple years and then get hurt rather than be just decent for a longer time. The Devil Rays are doing something similar now with Joe Kennedy, who throws across his body. The Rangers got a few useful years out of Roger Pavlik recently, using the same style, but then he got hurt because you're essentially using your own shoulder as a pivot point. Bad idea...

Also interesting (well, to it is anyway) is that at the same time that Herzog and the Mets were producing Gentry, they also brought out the three most mechanically perfect pitchers ever to come through one system at the same time : Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Nolan Ryan. All used their rather thick lower bodies to take the workload off of their arms and they ended up pitching for around 60 years between them. It sounds ridiculous now but when Ryan and Steve Carlton were closing in on Johnson's strikeout record, there was a spate of stories about how Ryan better enjoy his brief bit of fame because Carlton would be throwing for years after he was retired. But Ryan relied on the fastball, the easiest pitch to throw, and Carlton lived by the slider, and thus their fates were sealed.

(via The Weigh In)

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 16, 2002 12:43 PM