Steven Louiso Dalkowski (born June 3 1939 in New Britain, Connecticut^[1]) is a retired left-handed pitcher in minor league baseball. He is sometimes called the fastest pitcher in baseball history and had a fastball that may have exceeded 100 mph (161 km/h). Some experts believe it went as fast as 110 mph (177 km/h), others that his pitches travelled at 105 mph (169 km/h) or less.^[2] The Guinness Book of Records records the fastest pitch ever as 100.9 mph (162.4 km/h) by Nolan Ryan.^[3] As no radar gun or other device was available to measure the speed of his pitches precisely, the actual top speed of his pitches remains unknown. Regardless of its actual speed, his fastball earned him the nickname "White Lightning".^[4]

Dalkowski was also famous for his unpredictable performance and inability to control his pitches. His alcoholism and violent behavior off the field caused him problems during his career and after his retirement. After he retired from baseball, he spent many years as an alcoholic, making a meager living as a migrant worker. He recovered in the 1990s, but his alcoholism has left him with dementia and he has difficulty remembering his life after the mid-1960s.

Screenwriter and film director Ron Shelton played in the minor leagues alongside Dalkowski. His 1988 film Bull Durham features a character named "Nuke" LaLoosh (played by Tim Robbins) who is based loosely on Dalkowski.^[5][6] Also in the film The Scout, Brendan Fraser's character is loosely based on him.^[7]

Baseball career

Dalkowski began playing baseball in high school, and also played football as a quarterback for New Britain High School. During his time with the team, they won the division championships twice in 1955 and 1956. However, he excelled the most in baseball, and still holds a Connecticut state record for striking out 24 batters in a single game.^[8]

After graduating from high school in 1957, Dalkowski was immediately signed by the Baltimore Orioles franchise for a $4,000 bonus, and initially played for their Class D minor league affiliate in Kingsport. He spent his entire career in the minor leagues, playing in nine different leagues during his nine-year career. His only appearance at the Orioles' Memorial Stadium was during an exhibition game in 1959, when he struck out the opposing side.^[8]

Dalkowski's reputation has as its centerpiece the high velocity with which he was able to throw his fastball. But Dalkowski also often had extreme difficulty controlling his pitches; many times they would go wild on him, sometimes so wild they would end up in the stands. Often, he would walk more batters in a game than he would strike out. Batters found his wild pitches intimidating. Oriole Paul Blair stated that "He threw the hardest I ever saw. He was the wildest I ever saw".^[9][10] During a typical season in 1960, while pitching in the California League, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters and walked 262 in 170 innings.^[2] Dalkowski for 1960 thus figures at both 13.81 K/9IP and 13.81 BB/9IP (see lifetime statistics below). In comparison, Randy Johnson currently holds the major league record for strikeouts per nine innings in a season with 13.41.^[11] On the other hand, a pitcher is generally considered wild if he averaged four walks per nine innings, and it's safe to say that a pitcher of average repertoire who consistently walked as many as nine men per nine innings would shortly be out of work. But such was the allure of Dalkowski's velocity; the Orioles gave him chance after chance to harness his stuff, knowing that if he ever were able to control it, he'd be unstoppable.

During a game at Kingsport on August 31, 1957, Dalkowski struck out 24 Bluefield hitters in a single minor league game, yet lost 8–4. He had issued 18 walks, hit four batters, and threw six wild pitches. Dalkowski pitched a total of 62 innings in 1957, struck out 121 (averaging 18 strikeouts per game), but won only once because he walked 129 (8 more than he struck out) and threw 39 wild pitches.^[8]

During the 1960s under Earl Weaver, then the manager for the Orioles' double-A affiliate in Elmira, New York, his game began to show improvement. Weaver had given all of the players an IQ test and discovered that Dalkowski had a lower than normal IQ.^[12] Armed with this knowledge, it became apparent why Dalkowski had had such difficulty keeping his game under control: he did not have the mental capacity. 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. This allowed him to concentrate on just throwing the ball for strikes; Weaver knew that not only was his fastball practically unhittable no matter where it was in the strike zone, but that if Dalkowski missed his target, he might just end up throwing it on the corners for a strike anyway.^[13] Under Weaver's leadership, he had his best season in 1962.

He was finally invited to major league spring training in 1963, and the Orioles expected to call him up to the majors at the end of spring training. On March 23, he was called up as a relief pitcher during a game against the New York Yankees. 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. Some confusion over the cause of his injury exists, however, with some sources contending that he damaged his elbow while throwing to first after fielding a bunt from Yankees' pitcher Jim Bouton.^[14] Either way, he was out for the rest of the 1963 season and his arm never fully recovered.

When he returned in 1964, Dalkowski's fastball had dropped to 90 mph (145 km/h), and midway through the season he was released by the Orioles. He played for two more seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Angels organizations but was unable to overcome his injuries, retiring in 1966.

Dalkowski had a lifetime win–loss record of 46–80 and an ERA of 5.59 in nine minor league seasons, striking out 1396 and walking 1354 in 995 innings.

Pitching speed

Dalkowski's wildness frightened even the bravest of hitters. Ted Williams faced Dalkowski once in a spring training game and that was enough. "Fastest ever," said Williams. "I never want to face him again."^[15]

Estimates of Dalkowski's pitching speed abound. Figures as high as 115 miles per hour (185 km/h) are quoted; however, these are likely to be exaggerations. Most observers agree that he threw somewhere over 100 miles an hour (160 km/h), perhaps between 100–105 mph (160–168 km/h). Radar guns, which are routinely used today, did not exist when Dalkowski was playing, so no evidence beyond the anecdotal supporting this kind of velocity exists. 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. Andy Etchebarren, a catcher for Dalkowski at Elmira, described his fastball as "light" and fairly easy to catch. 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".

Perhaps Dalkowski's greatest legacy is the number of stories (some more believable than others) surrounding his pitching ability. One story states that he once threw a pitch that tore off part of a batter's ear and observers believe that this incident made Dalkowski even more nervous and contributed further to his wildness. Another story says that in 1960 at Stockton, California he threw a pitch that broke an umpire's mask in three places, knocking him 18 feet (5 m) back and sending him to a hospital for three days with a concussion. Dalkowski once won a $5 bet with teammate Herman Starrette who said that he couldn't throw a baseball through a wall. Dalkowski warmed up and then moved 15 feet (5 m) away from the wooden outfield fence. His first pitch went right through the boards.^[8] On another bet, Dalkowski threw a ball over a fence 440 feet (134 m).

The only direct evidence of his pitching speed stems from 1958, when Dalkowski was sent by the Orioles to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, a military installation. Here, using a radar machine, he was clocked at 93.5 miles per hour (0 km/h), a fast but not outstanding speed for a professional pitcher. However, not only had Dalkowski pitched a game the day before, but he also had to throw pitches for 40 minutes before the machine could give an accurate measurement; also, he did not have a pitcher's mound. Therefore, it is fair to assume that the clocked speed was several miles an hour under his true capacity.^[16]

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the current record holder is Nolan Ryan, with a pitch clocked at 100.9 mph (0 km/h) in 1974. The Baseball Almanac claims Mark Wohlers as the fastest pitcher with a 103 mph (166 km/h) pitch that was thrown during spring training in 1995. The current hardest thrower in baseball is recognized as Joel Zumaya, who arguably has thrown the fastest pitch on record at 104 mph (167 km/h). Scientists contend that the theoretical maximum speed that a pitcher can throw is around 100 mph (161 km/h). Beyond that the pitcher would cause himself a serious injury.^[17] There is no doubt that a pitcher who can throw at 100 mph+ is rare, with only a small handful of pitchers every generation being capable of this feat. However, several pitchers have had long, successful careers as the antithesis to pitchers like Dalkowski, such as soft tossing Jamie Moyer and Tom Glavine, who are considered "finesse" pitchers, relying on accuracy and intelligent pitch selections. Their fastballs are in the mid-80s.

Career statistics

Year	Club	League	Class	Games	IP	H	BB	SO	W	L	ERA
1957	Kingsport	Appalachian	D	15	62	22	129*	121	1	8	8.13
1958	Knoxville	South Atlantic	A	11	42	17	95	82	1	4	7.93
	Wilson	Carolina	B	8	14	7	38	29	0	1	12.21
	Aberdeen	Northern	C	11	62	29	112	121	3	5	6.39
1959	Aberdeen	Northern	C	12	59	30	110	99	4	3	5.64
	Pensacola	Alabama-Florida	D	7	25	11	80	43	0	4	12.96
1960	Stockton	California	C	32	170	105	262*	262	7	15*	5.14
1961	Kennewick	Northwest	B	31	103	75	196*	150	3	12	8.39
1962	Elmira	Eastern	A	31	160	117	114	192	7	10	3.04
1963	Elmira	Eastern	AA	13	29	20	26	28	2	2	2.79
	Rochester	International	AAA	12	12	7	14	8	0	2	6.00
1964	Elmira	Eastern	AA	8	15	17	19	16	0	1	6.00
	Stockton	California	A	20	108	91	62	141	8	4	2.83
	Columbus	International	AAA	3	12	15	11	9	2	1	8.25
1965	Kennewick	Northwest	A	16	84	84	52	62	6	5	5.14
	San Jose	California	A	6	38	35	34	33	2	3	4.74
Total				236	995	682	1354	1396	46	80	5.59 |colspan="12"|   * - led league

Life after baseball

In 1965 he married schoolteacher Linda Moore in Bakersfield, but the marriage did not last long and they divorced two years later. Unable to find any gainful employment, he became a migrant worker. Already a heavy drinker during his baseball career, his alcoholism escalated, and he was frequently arrested for drunkenness. He received help from the Association of Professional Ballplayers of America periodically from 1974 to 1992 and went through rehabilitation. He was able to find a job and stay sober for several months but soon went back to drinking, and so the organization dropped its support.

Little is known about his life after the 1960s due to his failing memory, and because he did not keep in contact with his family. What is known is that poor health in the 1980s finally prevented him from working altogether, and by the end of the decade he was living in a small apartment in California, penniless and suffering from alcohol-induced dementia. At some point during this time he married again to a motel clerk named Virginia, who moved him to Oklahoma City in 1993. After her death from a brain aneurysm in 1994, one of his former catchers, Frank Zupo—a teammate at Stockton in 1960—and Dalkowski's sister, Pat Cain, brought him back to his home town of New Britain, Connecticut, and placed him in the care of the Walnut Hill Care Center.

After being placed in the Walnut Hill Center's care he was not expected to live very long, but he has endured and is in remarkably good health. In recent times he is managing to stay sober but still suffering from the effects of his years of alcohol abuse. He has difficulty remembering much of his life after 1964; however, he still attends baseball games and spends time with his family. On September 8, 2003 he threw the ceremonial first pitch to relief pitcher Buddy Groom before an Orioles game against the Seattle Mariners.

See also

• Baltimore Orioles
• Bobby Jenks

Notes

References

Online

• Steve Dalkowski Page
• Sports Hollywood, "Celebrating the Worst in Athletics"
• No Crying in Baseball
• Sports Illustrated, "Where Are They Now?"
• The Birdhouse: The Phenom, an interview with Steve Dalkowski in October 2005

Literary

• Brooks, Ken (1986). That Last Rebel Yell. ISBN 0-9616447-0-2.
• Eisenberg, John (2001). From 33rd Street to Camden Yards: An Oral History of the Baltimore Orioles. ISBN 0-8092-2486-0.
• Jordan, Pat (1973). The Suitors of Spring. ISBN 0-396-06711-5.

Personal

• Krieger, Kit: Posting on SABR-L mailing list from 2002. Used with permission. (See ).
• Beverage, Dick: Secretary-Treasurer for the Association of Professional Ballplayers of America.

Persondata
NAME	Steve Dalkowski
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Baseball Pitcher
DATE OF BIRTH	June 3, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH	New Britain, Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH