I think if players had an approach like the old players they could use the heavier bats. Some of those old guys had short swings oriented towards contact and that's why they could use the heavier bats. They were almost in a check swing stance before the pitch came in. If they went up there like the mass produced cavemen you see in today's game who are living by the "swing hard and hope for the best" motto, they wouldn't be using the heavier bats.
As for the speed of old pitchers, I use personal experience from a field day contest when I was 15 years old. I had the fastest pitch during the event at 81 MPH and the longest throw of 243 feet in the air. Multiple guys in the 1800s recorded throws of over 400 feet in the air. If I topped out at 243 feet (I hit 238,239,243 on the throws and 78-79-79-81-79 on the pitches), then I'd say they had to be throwing harder than 80 MPH to add about 160+ feet to the throws. It's ridiculous to think old pitchers were just lobbing the ball up there at 80 MPH at their best
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Last edited by z28jd; 10-02-2022 at 10:52 AM.
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