Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowman
Haven't you heard though? Walter Johnson was throwing 105 for 200 pitches per night, every other night, for twenty years.
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Obviously satire. But the generational Great longevity pitchers exist. Walter, Christy, Sandy, Spahn, Nolan, Johnson, etc. It is possible.
I love the argument of people saying Walter Johnson threw something like 80mph. It's hilarious. Every human male in the United States wanted to be a baseball player, most of them played on town and factory teams. To think throwing 90+ is impossible for the time is laughable. Sure the majority were probably only slinging in the 80s max. But the outliers are obvious, and the player accounts are incredibly numerous of what Walter and Joe Wood did. (Joe probably blew out his arm as one of the earliest examples of what throwing really hard does to the arm). Walter did not throw close to 100. That's a fact, I'd say maybe 95 could've been Walters fastest pitch ever.
There is a common factor to this longevity though. Tall pitchers with long sweeping, very elastic deliveries (barring Nolan, I have zero clue how he pitched so long like that). Is it a coincidence, maybe. But Paul is tall and his delivery is a bit like the sweep of a right handed Randy Johnson.
We shall see.