My 1912 newspaper covering Walter Johnson’s trip to the Remington Arms Company complex in Bridgeport, Connecticut so that the speed of his fastball could be measured. The result is shown at being 122 feet per second (83MPH). While most baseball fans of today would scoff at such a low number and claim that the talent of yesteryear would struggle to compete with the standards we have now, I’ve taken the time to delve a bit further into this test to see how well it translates to modern methods. The test was performed on October 6, 1912, three days after pitching a complete game shutout to end the season in which he pitched 369 total innings! The test required Johnson to throw a baseball through a small wooden frame 60 feet 6 inches away with trip measuring wires that would start the speed test and a metal plate 15 feet behind the wires that would be struck to end the test. This means, that at the recorded speed, Johnson’s fastball was tested after traveling a total of 75 feet. For the test, Johnson wore dress clothes (including shoes) and would stand on flat ground (no use of cleats or a mound). The apparatus was also set up to measure at shoulder height and the ball had to strike the metal plate behind it, and according to Walter Johnson’s biographer, Johnson had to change from his usual sidearm pitching motion in order for the ball to strike the wires and the plate. The biographer also noted “after some effort and with a consequent loss of speed in an attempt to place the ball accurately” Johnson was able to complete the test as set up. With that being said, today’s speeds are measured 50 feet from home plate, a difference of 25 feet! A physicist measuring speeds of fastballs later corrected the variance and adjusted Johnson’s speed to have been at 93MPH at 50 feet from the plate. Even at the adjustment, no considerations were taken for the other variables and to my knowledge this was the only time his fastball was officially measured. With all of this in mind, it could be said that in playing conditions and modern measuring techniques, Johnson most likely was throwing in the mid 90’s on average, but we can never know for certain!
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