jsinger - 8:55 pm on Oct 31, 2006 (gmt 0)

I'm sort of an expert on this subject. Son is a college pitcher and I've owned a couple of radar guns including a $900 pro model.

Zumaya was hitting over 100 on ESPN's radar. The Busch Stadium radar, otoh, showed him topping out around 99 when I was at the WS game last Tuesday. (he was very wild, btw). I doubt these guns are precisely calibrated. The networks have a strong incentive to provide a good show.

There are no "official records." But Guiness says:

The greatest reliably recorded speed at which a baseball has been pitched is 100.9 mph by Lynn Nolan Ryan (California Angels) at Anaheim Stadium in California on August 20, 1974.

Some others including minor leaguer Steve Dalkowski were probably faster at times. I've seen 102 on TV.

How fast did old timers throw? (a very popular discussion on baseball groups)

In the 19th century, teams sometimes held various contests between double headers. There are records of players throwing 350 feet on the fly which requires a velocity of more than 90 mph. A critical missing piece of info is whether the thrower was running before the toss, and what the wind was doing.

There were scientific attempts to measure velocity around WWI. They suggest that the fastest were near 90 but those methods "timed" a ball over a distance. The ability to measure a peak reading, from the pitcher's hand (the modern method) waited for the arrival of radar much later.

One thing is clear. Top pitchers haven't gotten much faster over the past 100 years. That contrasts with athletic improvement in almost every other field. Limiting factor is mostly the ability of the skeletal system to withstand the peak forces.