Stephen Louis Dalkowski Jr. (June 3, 1939 – April 19, 2020), nicknamed Dalko, was an American left-handed pitcher. He was sometimes called the fastest pitcher in baseball history and had a fastball that probably exceeded . Some experts believed it went as fast as , others that his pitches traveled at less than that speed. As no radar gun nor similar device was available at games 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". Such was his reputation that despite his never reaching Major League Baseball (MLB), and finishing his Minor League Baseball career in Class B baseball, a 1966 article in The Sporting News about the end of his career was headlined "Living Legend Released". and he had difficulty remembering his life after the mid-1960s.
Screenwriter and film director Ron Shelton played in the Baltimore Orioles minor league organization soon after Dalkowski. His 1988 film Bull Durham features a character named Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh (played by Tim Robbins) who is based loosely on the tales Shelton was told about Dalkowski. Brendan Fraser's character in the film The Scout is loosely based on him. In 1970, Sports Illustrateds Pat Jordan wrote, "Inevitably, the stories outgrew the man, until it was no longer possible to distinguish fact from fiction. But, no matter how embellished, one fact always remained: Dalkowski struck out more batters and walked more batters per nine-inning game than any professional pitcher in baseball history." Dalkowski was born on June 3, 1939, in New Britain, Connecticut, the son of Adele Zaleski, who worked in a ball bearing factory, and Stephen Dalkowski, a tool and die maker. He began playing baseball in high school. He also played football as a quarterback for New Britain High School. He is reputed to have been able to throw a football 100 yards (91.4 m). During his high school football career New Britain was undefeated,
Dalkowski excelled the most in baseball during high school. He still holds a Connecticut state record for striking out 24 batters in a single game. Dalkowski started the 1957 high school baseball season with consecutive no hitters. and by his unusual "buggy-whip" pitching motion, which ended in a cross-body arm swing. Teammate, and future Hall of Fame executive, Pat Gillick reported Dalkowski had hypermobility in his shoulder and wrists. Dalkowski disagreed with Gillick on that. During Dalkowski's 1960 season with the Stockton Ports in the California League, umpire Doug Harvey observed that Dalkowski was the fastest throwing pitcher in the league, even when throwing at only three-quarters speed. But as to Dalkowski's control, Harvey added, "You think he's going to throw the ball right through the catcher. When he finds the catcher".
Dalkowski initially played for the Orioles' Class D minor league affiliate in Kingsport, Tennessee, the Kingsport Orioles of the Appalachian League. In 1957 at Kingsport, Dalkowski pitched a total of 62 innings, giving up only 22 base hits (3.2 hits per nine innings pitched) and striking out 121 batters, averaging an extraordinary 17.6 strikeouts per nine innings pitched.
Pitching for the Kingsport on August 31, 1957, in Bluefield, West Virginia, Dalkowski struck out 24 Bluefield Dodgers hitters in a single game, while also issuing 18 walks, and throwing six wild pitches. Dalkowski had been unnerved early in the game when one of his pitches hit a batter in the head, sending him to the hospital. Orioles assistant farm director Harry Dalton attended the game, and stated the ball rebounded off the batter’s helmet like a pop up to second base.
In 1958, Dalkowski played for the Class A Knoxville Smokies, the Class B Wilson Tobs, In 1959, he played for the Pheasants and the Class D Pensacola Dons.
In 1960, while pitching for the Stockton Ports in the Class C California League, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters and walked 262, averaging 13.81 strikeouts and walks per nine innings pitched. He had the lowest ERA of his career to date (5.14), a career-high 170 innings pitched and a career-low 11 wild pitches; but his record was 7–15.
Because a pitcher is generally considered wild if he averages four walks per nine innings (a rate considered awful by Sabermetrics) a pitcher of average repertoire who consistently walked as many as nine men per nine innings would not normally be considered a prospect. But such was the allure of Dalkowski's explosive arm that the Orioles gave him chance after chance to harness his "stuff", knowing that if he ever managed to control it, he would be a great weapon.
Playing under Earl Weaver (1959, 1962 to 1964)
thumb|right|[[Earl Weaver managed Dalkowski with the Aberdeen Pheasants in 1959 and for several years with the Elmira Pioneers.]]
In 1959, Dalkowski played under future Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver in Aberdeen. In another telling, it was Weaver who had Dalkowski take an intelligence test along with the team's most intelligent player (Mickey McGuire), for comparison. There is speculation that Dalkowski had a learning disability or behavioral disorder, but it is unquestioned that by this point in his life Dalkowski suffered from alcoholism.)
Weaver reportedly believed that Dalkowski had experienced so much difficulty keeping his pitches under control because he did not have the mental capacity to weigh too many factors while pitching. Weaver made things simpler for Dalkowski by telling him to only throw the fastball and a slider, and to just aim the fastball down the middle of the plate. This allowed Dalkowski to concentrate on just throwing the ball for strikes. Weaver knew that Dalkowski's fastball was practically unhittable no matter where it was in the strike zone, and if Dalkowski missed his target, he might end up throwing it on the corners for a strike anyway. Dalkowski said of his pitching motion before this alteration, “I hit my left elbow on my right knee so often, they finally made me a pad to wear".
Final playing years
Dalkowski was invited to major league spring training in 1963, and the Orioles expected to call him up to the majors. On March 23, Dalkowski was used 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 uncertainty over the cause of his injury exists, however, with other sources contending that he damaged his elbow while throwing to first after fielding a bunt from Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton. Either way, his arm never fully recovered. He pitched only 41 innings in 1963, 12 of which were with the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, the highest baseball level Dalkowski ever reached. The Jets returned Dalkowski to the Orioles before the 1965 season. He started 15 games for Tri-City in the Orioles’ farm system, but was acquired by the Los Angeles Angels and finished the season, and his career, with the Class A San Jose Bees. He pitched a three-hit shutout during his time at San Jose, with six strikeouts and nine walks; but averaged over eight walks per game and less than eight strikeouts per game for the Bees. San Jose released him in May 1966, after not playing in any games.
Dalkowski had a lifetime win–loss record of 46–80 and an ERA of 5.57 in nine minor league seasons, striking out 1,396 and walking 1,354 in 995 innings. In MLB history, for pitchers throwing over 70 innings in a season, Shane Bieber holds the record with 14.2 strikeouts per nine innings in a season; and Gerrit Cole holds the record for those pitching over 200 innings, with 13.8 strikeouts per nine innings (through 2025). Dalkowski averaged over 17 strikeouts per nine innings with Kingsport in 1957, and Knoxville and Aberdeen in 1958; over 15 strikeouts per nine innings at Aberdeen in 1959; and 13.9 strikeouts per innings at Stockton in 1960. Dalkowski averaged 20.4 walks per nine innings with Knoxville, 18.7 with Kingsport, 17.1 with Tri-City and 16.8 (1959) and 16.3 (1958) with Aberdeen. faced Dalkowski once in a spring training game. "Fastest ever", said Williams. "I never want to face him again". Longtime umpire Doug Harvey also cited Dalkowski as the fastest pitcher he ever had seen, faster than such pitchers as Hall of Famers Koufax, Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson, stating: "Nobody could bring it like he could." Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan has the most strikeouts of any pitcher in baseball history, averaging over one strikeout per inning pitched; and during the 1960s McDowell led the American League in strikeouts five times (twice with over 300 in a season) and averaged nearly a strikeout per inning as a starter over his career. A full biography of Dalkowski was published in 2020, Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball's Fastest Pitcher. In Sam McDowell's foreword to the book, he writes: "I will tell you this about Steve Dalkowski with absolute certainty, after seeing and listening to his fastball, and witnessing some very wild pitches: I truly believe he threw a lot harder than I did! It's likely he delivered the fastest pitch I ever saw!"
Estimates of Dalkowski's top pitching speed abound. Cal Ripken Sr., who was both Dalkowski's catcher for the Wilson Dobs in 1958 and Pensacola Dons in 1959, and his manager with the Tri-City Atoms in 1965, guessed that Dalkowski threw up to . Ripken said that Nolan Ryan's pitching speed did not compare to Dalkowski's.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, a former record holder for fastest pitch is Nolan Ryan, with a pitch clocked at in 1974, though several pitchers have recorded faster pitches since then. That seems to be because Ryan's speed was recorded from the plate, unlike 10 feet from release as it is was later measured, costing him up to . Earl Weaver, who had years of exposure to both pitchers, said Dalkowski "was unbelievable . . . He threw a lot faster than Ryan. It's hard to believe, but he did". Chapman also has thrown 9 of the 12 fastest piches on record, with Ben Joyce and Jordan Hicks being the only other pitchers who have reached .
Life after baseball
In 1965, Dalkowski married schoolteacher Linda Moore in Bakersfield, California, but they divorced two years later. Unable to find any gainful employment, he became a migrant worker. Dalkowski experienced problems with alcohol abuse. He drank heavily as a player and his drinking escalated after the end of his career. He received help from the Association of Professional Ball Players of America (APBPA) 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. The APBPA stopped providing financial assistance to him because he was using the funds to purchase alcohol. Dalkowski participated in the BAT program, but was unable to control his drinking. In a 2003 interview, Dalkowski said that he was unable to remember life events that occurred from 1964 to 1994. Sports Illustrateds 1970 profile of Dalkowski concluded, "His failure was not one of deficiency, but rather of excess. He was too fast. His ball moved too much. His talent was too superhuman... It mattered only that once, just once, Steve Dalkowski threw a fastball so hard that Ted Williams never even saw it. No one else could claim that". Billy DeMars, who managed Dalkowski in Aberdeen (1958)
Notes
References
Online
- Steve Dalkowski Page
- No Crying in Baseball
- The Birdhouse: The Phenom, an interview with Steve Dalkowski in October 2005
- Vecsey, George "A Hall of Fame for a Legendary Fastball Pitcher" The New York Times, Sunday, July 19, 2009
- Posnanski, Joe. "How do you solve a problem like Dalkowski?" NBC Sportsworld (April 2015)
Literary
- Brooks, Ken (1986). That Last Rebel Yell. .
- Eisenberg, John (2001). From 33rd Street to Camden Yards: An Oral History of the Baltimore Orioles. .
- Jordan, Pat (1973). The Suitors of Spring. .
Personal
- Krieger, Kit: Posting on SABR-L mailing list from 2002. Used with permission. (See talk).
- Beverage, Dick: Secretary-Treasurer for the Association of Professional Ballplayers of America.