*Analysis by Dr. Tom House:* *• "His arms are mirror images of each other, which leads to less stress. He had a long arm at footstrike, but had an inside route as he started to deliver. Walter also had tremendous hip/shoulder separation, so high torque means he could throw hard easier. Love his delivery! A 🐐"* twitter.com/tomhousesports/status/1308428622433316864?s=20 *• "Moves fast once he gets moving down the mound, eyes level, back foot is down and he takes his chest to his glove. Worked with a kid a few years ago who I considered the modern version of Walter Johnson. Worked it up to triple digits. The motion still works!"* twitter.com/tomhousesports/status/1305535212944683013?s=20
Well said Doc. I wonder if modern pitchers used this approach, would they be able to go deeper into games and have longer careers? But perhaps his pitching style only worked due to his arm length.
Would it not be possible for somebody to duplicate the delivery today and see how easy/hard it is, how fast you can be with that exact delivery? Also, why can't pitchers from old eras with even just a small sample of real time game film have their pitches clocked to know what their mph was? It's still 60'6"! Where are the scientists!?
@@paulchandler9241 The thing modern fans miss is the sheer volume Walter produced. He threw 800 games and 5900+ innings. He won several pitching triple crowns, the last of which came in his late 30s! Comparing a guy who throws 100 for five innings, throws 180 innings, and blows his elbow out anyway, is ridiculous.
Rare footage indeed. Finding this video is like finding gold, and in this footage Walter Johnson comes across as a simple man, so easygoing and humble. Imagine that, a humble and gentle-hearted man owning the most powerful arm in baseball history. It makes sense God would bestow the gift of such an arm upon a kind-hearted soul, for it would have been too dangerous to give such lethal power to a cruel and abusive man. Only a noble soul like Walter Johnson was worthy of it.
Most of the nimrods who are judging Walter's speed are looking at him lob pitches as a RETIREE. Here's a clue: Yankee Stadium was built in 1923. Walter retired in 1927. Numbers in uniforms were started in 1929.
I'm going to say something here and I don't know if anyone else in the comments has mentioned it. But the Washington Senators played in a ballpark with a 400 ft left field. If easily 2/3 of all the hitters bat right, there was no such thing as a pull hitter hitting a home run. The ballpark was from the dead ball era. This Babe Ruth business was something new. I have no doubt that he was fast and I have no doubt that that easy motion meant that he wasn't going to hurt himself. I'm just saying that his home ballpark was a batter's nightmare and a wet dream for a right-handed pitcher who didn't really need so much subtlety.
Thanks for checking out this video & pointing out, I guess a critique of Johnson if I might say, in a very respectful way. The dimensions of Griffith Stadium, built in 1911, is definitely worth mentioning when considering Walter Johnson's ERA as well as the fact that it was built during the dead ball era which lasted until 1919. Still, Johnson won 417 games, 2nd all time for mostly losing teams that had terrible offenses despite the advantages both pitchers had in this ballpark, where he played for most of his career. And I hate to reference modern day advances stats because I don't know how reliable they are while having my doubts as to whether they are or not, but if you're into that, his ERA+ & FIP were also extraordinary.
Priceless footage. I had seen some of them before but not all and certainly not all compiled together. You can't have a list of the fastest pitchers of all time without him. If I had to pick a Mount Rushmore of power pitchers it would be Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Nolan Ryan, and Randy Johnson. Thanks for this video. By the way, I have read a lot about Amos Rusie from before Walter Johnson. Does anyone have any interview footage (audio or video) of him?
I respect your knowledge of baseball history. I haven't found any footage of Rusie but I bet that it's possible to find some written interviews of him if you're willing to spend an absurd amount of time searching online for old magazine and newspaper scans from that era & search through them all to see if you can find any quotes he gave to the press. I've tried that with Walter Johnson & eventually found some stuff like that... Although it was common at that time for baseball players to have ghostwriters who would write for them in the press but I think the ghostwriting stuff started with Cristy Mathewson or at that time
@@John-cl2uq Walter was really humble but apparently, when Walter saw Bob Feller pitch, Walter said that he thinks he threw harder than Feller... And Feller thinks that Walter threw harder than he did & that he threw harder than Nolan Ryan. It's interesting to hear these stories. Walter once said that no one threw harder than Smoky Joe Wood & you can hear Smoky Joe Wood speaking in this video saying that they threw close in speed, but maybe Walter threw slightly harder if at all.
How he pitched so many innings with that delivery is astounding. Today, he'd have had a Tommy John with 3 revisions. Mind you, i doubt he's throwing in the high-90's, but still.... They don't make 'em like that no more!
Since he had relatively little arm trouble with that delivery, and todays coddled pitchers can't throw 175 innings a year without blowing an arm or shoulder, your logic is probably backwards. Walter threw 800+ games, 110 shutouts, 5000+ innings, and was highly effective in his late 30s. I submit the obsession with radar guns has destroyed more pitchers than it's helped. By a metric shitload.
*Analysis by Brent Pourciau of TopVelocity:* *• "He looks like he got most of his power from his insane ability to close his shoulders off into front foot strike and then power his big trunk rotation into a strong stable front leg. As for his lower half he had a descent back leg drive but looks more like a knee slammer."* twitter.com/TopVelocity/status/1259835990107197442?s=20
Thanks for watching and to respond, it's interesting you mentioned Dennis Eckersley. I just posted a video I found through archival websites because MLB took it down of Al Lester comparing WALTER JOHNSON to Eck you may find interesting twitter.com/ScoopDogg_/status/1660414252874596352?s=20
No way of knowing so scratch the 'probably. Given that smoke throwers like Grove and Feller say he was the hardest thrower they ever saw ... I think 93 is a bit on the low side especially since Bob was known to max out in the 103-107 mph I'd say the Walter topped out at over 100.
@@theccpisaparasite8813 pitchers have been gaining velocity steadily every since radars have been introduced to the mlb, what makes u think someone that played back then could touch 100 mph lol, in the 80s it was basically unheard of, walter started in 1907 lol
He threw what was called an inshoot back in those days, which was pretty much the name back then for a tailing 2-seamer or sinker & you can really see the movement in this video. But what's also interesting is that back then, teams had no pitching coaches and there was really no way of information about pitching to be spread with much if an accessibility like today
Thanks for watching! You're absolutely entitled to your own opinions & I'm not trying to change your mind or anything... All I'm saying is I find it hard to believe that you honestly feel like seeing his fastball "drop on the way to the plate" is somehow all the evidence required to suggest that he couldn't possibly have been a fast pitcher. I agree with you that yes, in some of this footage, some of those throws noticeably did drop a decent amount. Honestly, though, it takes little to no effort at all to realize that he was just lobbing the ball intentionally in those clips. Also, he was retired & coaching when those videos were recorded. So why would you ever pick those clips to base your opinion on?
Oh, so you were there? There were others throwing 85 & in the 90's just like today but there were stand outs just like since him that are special like Koufax, Seaver, Ryan & guys right now.. I'll take the word of the guys that really were there to face him & they all had the same opinion. Guys today aren't supermen they just like 100 years later & mostly are coddled compared to a guy like Johnson.
@@spcooper94 he doesn’t even follow through. If he threw 100 without following through why haven’t we seen that in decades and decades. Especially with the flamethrowers of todays game. You guys need to take off the rose colored glasses. Yes he was unbelievable but he was NOT throwing 100mph. Not even close. A ball will start to hiss in the high 80’s. The crappy balls back then probably hissed at slower speed than that.
Hearing these old timers talk about how they faced the greatest ever is seriously laughable! They wouldn’t stand a chance against today’s type of Pros! Babe Ruth would be maybe be a .215 hitter with 15-20 HRs at most. Walter Johnson would have a 10.00 ERA and be relegated to a 1 or 2 batter bullpen pitcher.
