Walter Johnson Pitching Mechanics & Game Highlights BEST QUALITY 

Fucking love that!😂

Was the "Babe" sober? Most folks heard "The Train". Just sayin'.

A line like that today would be followed with a mic drop.

Hahahaha!!!

Battle of titans :babe ruth s walter johnson

Wow ty cobb had trouble with walter johnson fastball

@@lloydkline1518 He did until he realized Johnson was too nice a guy to pitch inside to him, so Cobb started crowding the plate. Cobb ended up hitting .366 in his career off Johnson.

@@royrowland5763 did, know that that

Curious what equipment was used to record this footage? 8 mm 16mm? Was it hand cranked with or without mechanical gears to try and give speed some consistency? Was sound captured simultaneously? Or was sound captured with other equipment then synchronized after the fact?

@@johns6795 That's an interesting comment that I never considered. I can only hope that the pitching footage was captured in real speed because the how quickly the body is moving is an important element to pitching mechanics. Also, I've been working on an updated video today after discovering a 1080p hi-def version of the 1924 World Series highlights. I have been sitting on some extra footage to put into a new video but my idea is to combine them into the footage from this video so people don't have to click multiple videos to watch all his best footage and highlights

He had a whipping motion. Less stress on his body over a long period I guess. And he was probably also a flexible guy. Looks limber.

He didn't play for the Nationals (which teams did not exist then), he played for the Senators.

@@gregb6469 you've believed that whole life?

@@jameshudson169 -- I've been following baseball since the mid-70s. I remember a team called the Montreal Expos. I remember when that franchise moved to DC and was renamed the Nationals. I also know that the first team that used to be the Washington Senators is now known as the Minnesota Twins, and the second team that used to be the Washingon Senators is now known as the Texas Rangers.

@@gregb6469 did you know that the senators was another name for the nationals? that the team's official name from '05 to '55 was the nationals?

@@jameshudson169 -- Nobody called them the Nationals, not the fans, not the press, not the baseball cards, not the radio announcers, not the baseball encyclopedias, no one.

Not a knee slammer.

@@seabas22 He looks like one to me though

He was nothing impressive compared to todays pitchers. Watching his follow through you can tell he would've had trouble hitting 90mph.. It's all arm action.

@@Hardkoretan Some pitchers don't really have much of a follow through like Brusdar Graterol but can still bring the ched. I personally find it hard to believe he was barely touching 90mph, especially when he was young. I know a guy who was throwing 93mph as a teenager, which makes it hard for me to believe that the fastest thrower of his time was throwing any slower

@@spcooper94 Brusdar graterol also has 50lbs on the guy and also uses his legs much more.

No doubt he tried different pitching motions, windups, landings, etc, and found this way to the the best for combining velocity and control.

But he did!

Yea, its less like hes throwing the ball and more like hes whipping it towards the catcher.

Most all pitchers pitched that way in that era.

that’s the skipping rocks delivery that’ll take you to 20 skips.

I was at the driving range today thinking of those pitches and it helped. He sets up the rotation with his initial leg plant, but it''s this very quick turn of the hips -- and it's only a few crucial inches that provides the real power -- that happens just before the arm whips through like cracking a whip. The flexible arm helped but the mechanics are possibly as good as any pitcher could hope to have. The guys was pitching complete games two three days apart. He once threw a perfect game for 13 innings (I think). And he was throwing legit smoke.

Side arm is much easier on the shoulder and elbow. I warmed up my arm that way before throwing overhand when I played school ball. Charley Neal, the second baseman for the Dodgers in the 1959 Series, threw side arm. The other unique feature of Johnson is he stands up in place to finish his delivery instead of falling forward like pitchers of today. He is in much better fielding position sooner that way. Amazing.

He would retire 3 years after his WORLD SERIES win. He pitched 4 scoreless innings. They won the 2024 World Series in game 7. They would lose 2025 WORLD SERIES in game 7.

@@laverdadescatolica5 you have a chrystal ball for 2025?

@@rayrussell6258 no I meant 1925 … where they lost a game 7 WORLD SERIES to Pirates … 😀

@@laverdadescatolica5 lol OK.... I wondered if I should consult with you about making some wagers!!!!

@@rayrussell6258 haha! I bet you the Yankees will win World Series sometime in the next 100 years 😀

Great comment, Bob. Yes, his arm and body flow gracefully as he throws.

@@mikewhitney8615 Players today would crush that pitch.

@@RatedRex1 You're a perfect example of a an illiterate, no-talent, stupid Hoboken bastard.

@@mikewhitney8615 Such an internet coward. You would never talk that way to me in person, they would be picking you up off the ground. Why are you so offended by the truth? You and I had this conversation years ago. You were childishly name-calling then and I see you haven't changed. I was hoping you had grown up. BTW, in our last conversation, we realized that we really were more alike than different.

@@RatedRex1 Maybe you would crush me in a fight. Does that make you feel better? I'm 74 years old. 50 years ago I'd have given you the fuckin fight of your life, even if you are in a heavier weight division. I was a natural welterweight. And I don't care how alike we may have thought about some things. If you're stupid enough to have drunk the kool aid about the superiority of modern players, then I can't help you. Intelligent people understand the greatness of Walter and of Cobb and of Wagner and of Gehrig and Dimaggio and Mantle and Aaron and Ted Williams and Mays. You have revealed yourself to be a baseball illiterate with the ignorance you have about this game.

Yes I remember! It was a great card

Yep, it was fun!

Dizzy Dean too

Crazy to hear that. His dialect also went extinct in people born after the 30’s :(

@@wicketandfriendsparody8068 Interesting. I'm not knowledgable at all about the history of his Kansas dialect from around 100 years ago or when it faded away but there is more footage of him talking in this video here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7wT67s9QwJc.html. . . . I downloaded it from a different source and for some reason his voice sounds different but you can also listen to him speak for much longer from an old 1939 radio broadcast he did if you search online for it.

@Paul Rosenthal You can watch a little more footage from the clip in the beginning of this video with this link. His voice sounds a little different but I downloaded the entire footage from a different source than the one I used for this video. It's a great watch! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7wT67s9QwJc.html

@@spcooper94 Thanks, Coop! Walter was incomparable!

@@wicketandfriendsparody8068 I agree. His dialect was more genuine, I think. So many of the players of that time sounded similar to that. Today we modulate our voices to fit news broadcasters' tones or to make ourselves sound intelligent. We are a more egocentric people today, always striving to make ourselves more pleasing. Johnson's voice was the real deal - no put on, no voice modulation. And think about it: the late 1920s would have been about the time talkie movies came in and everyone began to sound like the celebrities sounded.

In another context, drummers often use the “Moeller method” when playing, which essentially teaches you to play with a whipping motion to increase speed and power while reducing arm strain. Maybe pitchers today could learn something from both Johnson and John Bonham. Anyway, good observations.

Walter johndon most unhittable fadtball

Johnson was 6 feet 1.

Agreed, side-arm delivery has less stress on throwing mechanics (with tendons, ligaments, bones, muscles) - which helps with pitching longevity. Another advantage - batters normally don't see this type of motion or release - it makes it difficult to project ball location and speed - it's definitely coming in fast but the release and ball flight (midpoint) doesn't convey that. Some of the footage shows a slightly higher side-arm delivery - this is most likely a curve ball and I'm sure keen batters picked-up on this "tell."

I thought Johnson was bigger than that.

And Shirlkey Povich, in his last column, quoted Walter Johnson when Povich asked him, about 1930, who hit hardest: Ruth, Gehrig, of Foxx. "I can't compare all these fellows, but I can say that when Babe Ruth hit 'em, they got smaller quicker".

Really, babe ruth had trouble with walter johnson fastball

@@lloydkline1518 Ruth hit .280 against Johnson lifetime. Cobb, .333.

I have an old Stratomatic baseball game with all the old vintage teams and players.

Goose Goslin was from Salem, NJ as was Penn State/Baltimore Colt great Lydell Mitchell as is Indianapolis Colt RB Jonathon Taylor.

@@hondaphan4172 I loved Lydell Mitchell and Taylor is a pretty cool dude too. Played for Wisconsin ... that's where I live. Maybe I should move to Salem, NJ since I seem to like the people who are from there! :)

I love Goose Gossage. Hell of a mustache!

what film is this from?

​@@SwoteOffical It's a quote. What do you mean?

Wow, ty cobb had trouble with walter johnson fastball

@@lloydkline1518 hit .333 against Johnson, so not that hard.

@@HankFinkle11 young babe ruth face oldie, walter johnson , ty cobb were more simular ages with walter johnson

@alien observer Cy Young is so overrated.

Got my vote

@@chisatofan2 500 plus wins ; enough said ; pitching award has his name

Walter johnson strike josh gibson on three pitches

@@lloydkline1518 they wouldn’t pull anyone in those days. They threw slower so they lasted longer and it was the deadball era. Completely incomparable.

...and Johnson's .433 average in 1925 is the highest ever for a starting pitcher in a full season.

Not "greatest in history". You can only compare in pre-1947 and post-1947 terms.

@@fishbone3333 Can't compare post 1961 either. Do you know what expansion is? That's when 100 minor leaguers are instantly promoted to the major leagues. Walter Johnson was so good he would have been the same great pitcher in 1950, 1970, 1990 or 2021. In fact he probably strikesout even more batters with the way these current MLB hitters swing for the fence and apparently have no sense of pitch awareness. If you believe the hype of these current speed guns which only measure the speed right out of the pitcher's hand then you need to do some historical baseball study. MLB hitters who have played in the last 40 years or so have often said that you can barely see a real 98mph fastball, let alone hit it. Some of you people act like Johnson, Gehrig, Ruth & Gehringer played 300 years ago. BTW, Satchel Paige called Charlie Gehringer next to Josh Gibson, the best hitter he ever faced and Paige faced most of the better hitters from the 1920s to the 1950s including Williams & DiMaggio.

​@@nobodyaskedbut Pre- and post- expansion era are definitely lines of demarcation that are legitimate, but no line is a stark as when at least half of the best available athletes were shut out of the game. Just about everything else you can measure in the world of sports is improving, but you're trying to tell me that the Big Train was as good 114 years ago as any pitcher now? Johnson topped out at the low 90;'s and his average fastball was probably in the high 80's and he was considered fearsome. Now, a lot of high schoolers see 88 MPH fastballs. By your logic: Jesse Owens ran as fast as Usain Bolt. And Bob Petit is as good as Tim Duncan. And Johnny Unitas is as good as Peyton Manning and Don Budge is as good as Roger Federer. LOL.

@@nobodyaskedbut Great comment about these hyped up speed guns! They're pure commercial bull.

For me I'd say Randy Johnson, and outside of all the sideshow distractions, Roger Clemens. But I agree, the older players grew up tough and had an edge about them because you absolutely needed it to survive in their world.

Mays was afraid because Drysdale was a head hunter.

Drysdale threw sidearm also.

Don Drysdale referred Hank Aaron as bad Henry.

Gibson and Marichal also. Gibson had that hurky jerky delivery and Marchal with the high leg kick. The ball was upon you before you knew it. I went to a game that Nolan Ryan pitched. The crowd was small, maybe 4,000 people. We got up close. Just the grunting sounds he made was enough to scare anyone.

Randy is his great great grandson

I think part of the mystery is solved by his unnaturally long arms

There were plenty of sidearmers, particularly in the early days. Carl Mays was one example. I've often wondered if early pitchers developed by throwing rocks instead of baseballs. Sidearm is more natural without a round object to spin.

Oh my gosh, the next hitter is a lefty, no way our guy can pitch to both a righty and lefty!! Between that, and the damn defensive shifts. Don't know which I hate the wost.

do you have any tips on how to do this delivery? I've been trying to learn his mechanics but it's a bit difficult

@@neutronscorner7304 assuming youre a right (just swap the directions if youre a lefty) move your left foot forward, keeping your body and foot looking towards third, your foot should feel anchored in, during this motion also pull your throwing arm back into position. Next lean back a little before full going into the pitch. As you pitch, swing your hips in time with your arm, which you should be whipping forward, if you perfect this motion its just as good as any other delivery

it appears i do it slightly differently than johnson but it works

Because they are all white????

@@DiogenesOfCa -Yeah, that’s why I said that, because they’re all white. Try not to be so stupid in life because it’s a ridiculous statement on your part. I used to see Lou Dials quite often in the latter part of his life, great person. I watched Mays, Mantle, both Bonds, Banks, Cepeda, Lincecum and many more. Never saw or thought about the color of their skin. Oh yeah, I worked in the industry at one time. So do me and yourself a favor, “try to think before you say something ridiculous…plain and simple, stupid.”

@@marions.120 I must have touched a nerve as you went off on a diatribe. Take your meds and take a nap old man.

🖕No, didn’t touch a nerve, just reminded me that there still people out there that blame everything on the color of your skin instead of getting out there and making something of themselves….other than just being a cunt.

@@marions.120 I never said any of that, keep seething though.

Walter Johnson commonly just seemed to lob the ball softly if he was being video taped. That's one of the reasons I wanted to make this video. . . . I wanted to include all of the game footage I could find of him so people wondering how he threw so hard can see what it looked like when he wasn't lobbing it in there for the camera. . . . Of course I included some footage of him warming up to show some different angles of his motion & for the better frame rates but my favorite clip is when he threw to Babe Ruth because I know that's when he was throwing his hardest without any restraint.

@@spcooper94 Yes! Very good clip of him throwing to Ruth. Well done

@@spcooper94 thanks for being so outstandingly informative!

@@seahorsesebastiano2506 Thank you! I try. I just constantly find myself in the debate of if athletes of the past could compete or compare with athletes of today and I guess that might be a factor in what makes me like to find out all of the info I can about certain past athletes like Walter Johnson.

@@spcooper94 Those guys would have no chance against todays players if you could just take them from the 20's and put them on todays field. Todays players would be baseball gods if you could put them on a 20's field. All that being said if the 20's players had access to todays coaching, training, nutrition, equipment and money then they could compete in todays game. By the same token if todays players were placed in the 20's without access the those things then they could still compete but wouldn't be baseball gods.

You mean 'all the advancements' that have today's pitchers going ''under the knife'' within a couple of years of having first stepped on a major league mound and garnering praise for managing to go 6 innings . The modern day version of 'Our nation's pastime ' has become a joke. The ''sabermetrics'' tyrants have dismantled the once great art of pitching and have sabotaged the competitive spirit harboring within

@@manofiske3318 they don’t pitch today. It’s all throwing, knowing that after 100 pitches, you’re done, regardless. Pitching is knowing you’re expected to go nine innings and getting batters out when your fastball has lost a few MPH. Greg Maddux pitched. So did Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Jim Palmer, Ferguson Jenkins and Nolan Ryan.

@@HankFinkle11 Do not forget Steve Carlton. Best bad team pitcher I ever saw.

@@HankFinkle11 Exactly.

@@manofiske3318 you have to realize that old-time pitchers took it easy for a lot of the game the mindset was there was only a couple of batters you worried about and you paced yourself to finish the game. Today pitchers throw as hard as they can with every pitch and every batter is considered dangerous. The game has totally evolved

Your dad saw ( hear)Walter johnson smoke 🚬 fastball

Me too. You'd have ShitYerDrawers.

私のビデオを見てくれてありがとう

Probably not.

What other pitch did Johnson have?

It's interesting you brought this up & were able to notice it just by the naked eye. The biography Walter's grandson wrote about him lists a couple of great quotes he once said that are exactly related to what you mentioned. "When I used to see ("Smoky" Joe) Wood pitch, although I admired his speed and control, it made my own shoulders ache to watch his delivery. That pitching with the arm alone, that wrenching of the muscles in the shoulder, would wear out my arm, I am sure, much quicker than the easy, swinging motion I always aim to use." To demonstrate his point Johnson said, "Try it without a ball. Hold your left hand on your right shoulder and try both ways. See how many more muscles seem to be put into severe play overhand against sidearm." ("Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train", p. 59)

@@spcooper94 Good post. The proof is in the pudding. Walter pitched 800 games, mostly as a starter, and 5000+ innings. I don't care if you're pitching against snowmen holding broomsticks, the physical toll must be enormous. Yet Walter was strong enough to win 20 games TWICE in his late thirties and help the Senators win two pennants and a World Series!

No follow through whatsoever. His right leg doesn’t land forward after release, his back arches little if at all. Go out in the yard and see how much speed you can muster without using your back or following through. The reason deadball era pitchers could throw 350-450 innings per year is that they were throwing 45-60 mph.

@@jamesg9609 every 10-12 year old in my little league were hitting 50 some mph. There's no way in hell that's all full grown men throwing. Yeah they weren't hitting mid or upper 90's but go look at any source that's not written by an idiot, guy's in the deadball era were, on average, reaching around 80 mph, with the top fastball pitchers (which Johnson was one of) reaching the upper 80's, maybe low 90's.

One can only wonder, I guess 🤷‍♂️ . . . But I do feel like anyone who's actually watched this whole video should be able to appreciate how great the condition of this footage from the 1910's -1920's still is. . . . As for your question, the only thing I can come up with is that it wasn't until the 1950's that TV's became a common household item, which is probably a big reason why such little footage exists of the sport prior to then.

@@spcooper94 As a baseball historian I still have hopes of the "great find". An attic full of previously unknown footage of MLB from 1900 to the 40s. Cy Young pitching! Walter Johnson! Just imagine

@@jnolette1030 Me too my friend. Me too. I went to great lengths to search for & compile the footage I used to make this video. But before I had worked on this, I had already previously uploaded 2 other videos of Walter Johnson that was either never uploaded to RU-vid or if it was, it was in very low, highly pixelated quality. & so, I always wanted to provide the world with my best effort to create a definitive video of Walter Johnson footage. I took from several different videos so that others wouldn't have to do that anymore.

Yeah, okay. You dated rosie palm and her five finger sisters. Jagoff.

I've always been interested in trying to understand how hard Walter Johnson could throw, which led me to search for as much footage & photos of him as possible to understand the way his mechanics work. Unfortunately, his mechanics were so unique that it is extremely difficult for me to understand where his speed was predominantly generated. But in regards to what the internet mentions for his speed, I question how valid the claims of his fastball measuring at 134 ft./s (91.4 mph) was. I can't find any source for that claim being reported prior to 1939. The claim of his fastball being calculated at 122 ft./s (83.2 mph) seems to be the most reliable account of his speed. In the documentary "Fastball", physicists recalculated his velocity to align with how velocity was measured the when the documentary was being made, which was 93.8 mph (in street clothes). Had they adjusted his velocity to match the out of hand reading of today, 0.6 - 0.7 mph would have been added to that number, and I know this because that is the range of velocity StatCast adds to previously recorded pitches from Pitch F/X.

@@spcooper94 I looked at that study of Walter Johnson I think it was done 1915 or somewhere around there and they couldn't measure him at 60'6" so they doubled the distance which turned out to be 1 second for 122 feet. All sounds good until you start thinking that a baseball comes out of the hand at peak speed and is constantly slowing down all the way to its end. A pitch measured at 83 for 122 would not be 83 for the first half of that flight it would be considerably faster for the first half and if the first half was done in .4 and second half was .6 which sounds about right to me his speed would be around 103 or so which sounds like what the hitters at that time were seeing. I think that there has always been a few pitchers that could really throw hard Johnson, Feller, Newhouser and lots of others it's just that now days with advanced training, better nutrition and just more larger players there are more harder throwers than there was 100 years ago. The equation for figuring MPH is 60.5 divide by .4 times ..682 = 103.1525 now if you believe that the ball arrived at home plate in .45 seconds the speed would be 91.691111 but my gut feeling is that a ,45 and a .55 is not accurate for that distance of 122 feet and I think it's more likely a .4 and a .6 because the ball is constantly slowing down through the entire throw. I remember reading that Sandy Koufax was measured at like 93 MPH but the speed guns they used back than picked up the speed at home plate not out of the pitchers hand like they do today and that might be the main reason they all seem to think they throw much harder now when in reality there isn't that much difference. My guess is that Koufax probably was throwing closer to 100 if measured by today's equipment and Walter Johnson would be to.

@@kannaman211 I saw Koufax pitch---I've seen them all since the early 60's----Koufax was a hard thrower. So hard it was impossible to see the ball in profile from mound to plate. All you heard was the pop of Roseboro's mitt and the smoke that radiated from it when he caught the ball. It sounded like gun fire. Garvey can tell you how hard Koufax threw. He, Ron Cey, & Dusty Baker took BP with Koufax pitching. Misses, foul balls, & broken bats. He put the heart of the Dodger order in a slump for a week.