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THE LONG, HARD JOURNEY OF STEVE DALKOWSKI – Possibly the Fastest Pitcher Ever!

“I’ve been playing ball for ten years and nobody can throw a baseball harder than that.” -Former Reds’ shortstop Alex Grammas after seeing Steve Dalkowski pitch

There are legends in baseball and then there are LEGENDS. Steve Dalkowski may well fall into the latter category. Why, you may ask? This is a guy who never played a day in the major leagues. Why even bother to write about him? Well, look at it this way. Wouldn’t you want to read about a guy who very well might have been the fastest pitcher who ever lived? And how come he never made it to the majors? The answer is both simple and tragic: Steve Dalkowski never knew where his fastball was going. And just when it appeared he might be close to controlling it, he hurt his arm. His journey was truly a long and very hard one.

Steve Dalkowski was born on June 3, 1939 in New Britain, Connecticut. He played both baseball and football in high school. As a star quarterback he led is team to a pair of division championships. But his strong left arm also made him a baseball star. While in junior high his coach once told a newspaper reporter that his fastball “made a loud buzzing sound.” And in high school he still holds a Connecticut State record by striking out 24 batters in a single game. So it wasn’t surprising when the Baltimore Orioles signed him for a $4,000 bonus as soon as he graduated in 1957.

It wasn’t long before the chunky, 5’11” southpaw started opening eyes with his blinding speed. No one realized then that Dalkowski would spend nine years in the minors playing in nine different leagues, all the while trying to get his blazing fastball to go where he wanted. Even the veteran Orioles players remembered him from the minors and were amazed when they saw him throw. Paul Blair, for example, said, “He threw the hardest I ever saw. He was also the wildest I ever saw.”

Visit the website, “Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher” with the book available for pre-orders

How fast did Steve Dalkowski throw? We’ll never know for sure because he pitched before the days of the radar gun, but it’s pretty apparent by eyewitness accounts that he regularly threw over 100 miles per hour. How much over? Some experts of the day estimated that some of his pitches traveled as fast as 120 miles per hour. Seems impossible, but then again, who knows? What is known is that during his minor league career he struck out more batters and walked more batters per nine innings than any professional pitcher in history. Here are some examples.

Pitching for the Kingsport, Tennessee, Orioles on August 31, 1957 in Bluefield, West Virginia, he struck out 24 hitters while walking 18 and throwing six wild pitches. In 62 innings that season he fanned 121 batters and walked 129 while throwing 39 wild pitches. Not surprisingly, his record was 1-8.

Pitching in the California league in 1960 he struck out 262 hitters in 170 innings. Problem was he also walked 262 batters. In one game he struck out 21 while also walking the same number.

He once threw a one hitter but lost the game, 9-8, because he walked 17 batters.

In April of 1958 he pitched an exhibition game against the Cincinnati Reds. His first warmup pitch was a fastball that sailed ten feet over the catcher’s head. None of the Cincy hitters wanted to get in the box against him. He then faced three hitters – Don Hoak, Dee Fondy and Alex Grammas – and struck them out on 12 pitches. Reds’ Manager Birdie Tebbetts told Grammas, “Stand back in the batters box and don’t take a chance of getting hurt!”

In an extra inning game at Elmira in 1962, Dalkowski had 27 strikeouts, walked 16 and threw a mind-boggling 283 pitches.

It was at Elmira in 1962 that Dalkowski had his best season and showed signs of turning it around. Earl Weaver was the Elmira manager that year and told Dalkowski to just try to throw every pitch right down the middle. Weaver saw how the ball moved and thought by Steve aiming right down the middle he might get some strike calls on the corner. It led him to a just a 7-10 record, but with a fine 3.04 earned run average. He also threw eight complete games and six shutouts. Better yet, in 160 innings he fanned 192 and walked just 114. Was he ready to finally break through at the age of 23?

The next year he was invited to the Orioles spring training and most thought he could get a call-up. But in a March 23, preseason game against the Yankees things changed suddenly. Some say it happened on a pitch to Phil Linz; others on a throw to first after a bunt by Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton. Either way, Steve felt something pop in his left elbow. It was diagnosed as a severe muscle strain, but his arm never fully recovered. His explosive fastball gone, he hung on until 1965 and then called it quits at age 26.

Life after baseball wasn’t easy for Steve Dalkowski. He was always a party guy and alcohol was already a problem. Dalkowski worked as a laborer, but alcohol became a major problem. It took years for him to stop but it took its toll, to the point where he has a hard time remembering the events of the 1960s.

He finished his career with a 46-80 record, threw 970 innings, struck out an amazing 1324 hitters while walking an equally amazing 1274. The man with lightning bolts lurking in his left arm just couldn’t control that unhittable fastball. But oh, what could have been!

One quick story. A 1970 article about Steve in Sports Illustrated said he once faced Ted Williams in a preseason game. He fired his heater which went under the Splendid Splinter’s chin. The story said that Williams dropped his bat and left the cage, later telling reporters he had not seen the pitch, that Steve Dalkowski was the fastest pitcher he ever faced and that he would be damned if he would ever face him again if he could help it.

Bill Gutman

Visit the website, “Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher” with the book available for pre-orders

Check out Bill Gutman’s action-packed baseball-centered novel, Murder on Murderers’ Row, (with the Bambino himself, Babe Ruth, at the center of the action) now available on Amazon in e-book and paperback. While there, check out his many other books, including the highly-acclaimed Mike Fargo Mystery Series.

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