Again and again, the chubby, 6-foot teenager ran toward a net and threw a baseball as hard as he could. His pitching coach stood opposite him with a radar gun in hand. The goal for the day was 80 mph. But every time, Forrest Whitley came up short.



It was his final pitching lesson before he would start ninth grade, and his frustration mounted with every result below his target number. “He’s just getting crushed. He’s pissed,” recalled the coach, Dave Smith, a pitching guru in Whitley’s hometown of San Antonio. As the 78 and 79 mph readings piled up, he threw his glove in anger.



“To think of the numbers he’s throwing now,” Smith said, “it’s kind of funny.” Six-plus years later, a glove throw also followed his fastest-ever crow hop, an eye-popping speed captured on a video that set Twitter ablaze.



You may have seen the five-second clip by now. Posted by Whitley last month, it features the...