Best arms you ever saw play

[Tyrus4189Cobb]

Big Daddy Vladdy, Yadier Molina, and Reggie Smith.


How was Killebrew's arm?

[hellborn]

A lot of people don't know that Jimmy Piersall blew his arm out in 1954 in a throwing contest with Willie Mays before a Red Sox/Giants exhibition game at Fenway. That probably was one the reasons "skills competitions" went by the wayside.

I didn't know that either. It would only take that kind of thing happening once or twice to make teams think really hard about the wisdom of such contests, huh?

Gator92, thanks for the comment on the Gorbous throw speed. I know how carefully you model this stuff and trust your judgement, but am still surprised that the running start makes that big of a difference. I guess when we say that a pitcher throws 100mph, we're probably not talking about the ball speed when it leaves his hand, though.

[hellborn]

A lot of people don't know that Jimmy Piersall blew his arm out in 1954 in a throwing contest with Willie Mays before a Red Sox/Giants exhibition game at Fenway. That probably was one the reasons "skills competitions" went by the wayside.

I didn't know that either. It would only take that kind of thing happening once or twice to make teams think really hard about the wisdom of such contests, huh?

Gator92, thanks for the comment on the Gorbous throw speed. I know how carefully you model this stuff and trust your judgement, but am still surprised that the running start makes that big of a difference. I guess when we say that a pitcher throws 100mph, we're probably not talking about the ball speed when it leaves his hand, though.

[scribe114]

Great info about the throwing contests. Interesting that Walker and Lewis beat out Ruth and Speaker, at least on that particular day!

A lot of people don't know that Jimmy Piersall blew his arm out in 1954 in a throwing contest with Willie Mays before a Red Sox/Giants exhibition game at Fenway. That probably was one the reasons "skills competitions" went by the wayside.

[gator92]

Great info about the throwing contests. I wonder what HitTracker would say about that 120mph estimate for Gorbous' initial velocity...

I would say it sounds in the right ballpark, so to speak. Manny Ramirez hit a homer yesterday that went about 435 feet, and came off the bat at about 120 mph, and there was a slight wind against him (across/against, really).

I'm interested to hear from the guys who think Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth hit a ball 600 or 700 feet: how fast do you suppose the ball would have to come off the bat to do that? ( a hint, it's a number that's "unbelievable", in the literal sense of the word)...

[hellborn]

Great info about the throwing contests. Interesting that Walker and Lewis beat out Ruth and Speaker, at least on that particular day!
I never would have guessed this, but it seems like the maximum distances I've heard for throwing and fungoing a baseball are pretty close...Gorbous was almost 446 feet, and I think that Ruth hit a fungo about 440 feet. Without thinking about it, I would have said that the fungo distance should be a lot farther. I know that I could hit a ball out of my hand about 370 feet with a regular wood bat when I was younger and am sure that I couldn't throw a ball nearly that far on a fly then...but, my power was always better than my arm, anyway.
I wonder what HitTracker would say about that 120mph estimate for Gorbous' initial velocity...I think that maybe 110mph would be more typical for a HR of that length off the bat. A running start makes a big difference, of course, but 120mph sounds too high when the fastest pitchers throw about 100mph off a mound without the running start. Although, who knows what Dalkowski threw...

[BoSox Rule]

Ankiel last night was really something

[scribe114]

That I have seen live at games......

C
Ivan Rodriguez
Parrish
Santiago
Sundberg (Saw him throw out Lance Parrish at 2B tagging up on a pop-up behind home plate)

1B
Hernandez
McGwire
Gallaraga

2B
Whitaker
Frank White

3B
Caminiti
Aurelio Rodriguez
Fryman

SS
Burleson (Before he tore his rotator cuff he used to gun every throw. Trammell, Yount and Ripken took notes and added years to their careers)
Dunston
Ripken
Templeton
Fernandez

OF
Junior
Buhner (Saw him gun down three runners at the plate in one game)
Barfield
Winfield
Glenn Wilson
Higginson
V.Guerrerro

[csh19792001]

I do seem to remember that one of top players hurt his arm engaging in a throwing competition...was it Cobb?

Yes, but not a throwing competition exactly. Apparently he hurt if fooling around, trying to throw trick pitches, IIRC.

This courtesy of Bill Burgess:

At a long-distance baseball throwing contest in Oct.,1872, John Hatfield of Mutual club, won the contest with a heave of 133 yrds, 1 foot, 7.7 inches. He was followed by Andy Leonard of Boston club(119 yds. 1 ft. 10 inches), George Wright of Boston club(117 yrds. 1 ft. 1 inch), Bill Boyd of Mutual club(115 yrds. 1 ft. 7 inches), Wes Fisler of Athletics club(112 yrds. 6 inches), Adrian C. Anson of Athletics club(110 yds. 6 inches)

Ned Crane threw a baseball 117 yards(351 feet) in a contest at Worcester, MA in 1879.

At Cincinnati baseball grounds on Sunday, Oct. 9,1910, Sheldon Lajeune of the Evansville baseball Club, threw a baseball 426 feet, 9.5 inches. He had preceded this throw with heaves of 385' 3", 383' 4", both throws against the wind. He then asked if he could throw in the opposite direction. This was granted and he threw 401' 4.5", he then warmed his arm up and then uncorked a mighty heave of 426' 9.5". Previously he had thrown 399' 10.75" on September 11, 1908 at the Cincinnati grounds.

Joe Jackson threw a baseball 132 yards (396'9") on September 27, 1917, at Fenway Park, Boston, Mass., in a contest, defeating Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and Babe Ruth. It was at a benefit game for Tim Murnane's widow. Duffy Lewis of the Red Sox and Clarence (Tillie) Walker of the Phil. Athletics tied for second with tosses of 384'6".

I wonder if Guiness has the record for longest distance throwing a regulation baseball...

[west coast orange and black]

lotsa good names.
i'll go along with dunston in the dirt.
out in the grass, willie mcgee's arm has for some reason been overlooked.

[hellborn]

(about Glen Gorbous)
The tradition of having players engage in field day competitions has died out, at all levels of pro baseball. I read stories about Foxx running sprints and Ruth hitting fungos and think about how cool that must have been...I would imagine that teams must have started worrying about players getting hurt (even hitting fungos?) and phased this stuff out. We'll never know how Ichiro and Guerrero compare in raw arm strength head to head, because heads would roll if one of them ended up on the DL after a competition (and the union would probably shoot it down, too).
I do seem to remember that one of top players hurt his arm engaging in a throwing competition...was it Cobb? Part of me thinks that happened when he was messing with a spitball, not sure, but I'm pretty sure he said that he never threw at his best after that.
There are some great stories about Dalkowski taking part in informal throwing contests!

[lovethegame]

Man I forgot Dunston
I was at Shea with a good vantage point when Dykstra hit a ball in the hole and somehow Dunston nailed him
I bet I get bombed for this one but early on ReJax had a big arm

[The Dude]

Geoff Jenkins. Not legendary, but he has a gun.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

I remember watching Dave Parker win the All-Star MVP in the 1979 season on the strength of a throw to third base that nailed Jim Rice. As I recall, Lee Mazzilli hit the game tying homerun and drove home the winning run (with a walk) and I thought Lee should have been the MVP - but that throw by Parker "wowed the crowd."

And Parker nailed Brian Downing at the plate as well on a great throw.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

I found this interesting tidbit.

How long was the world's longest baseball throw?

You'd think that people are getting bigger, stronger and better, but as far as the world's longest baseball throw goes we have to go back nearly half a century.

Glen Gorbous, a Canadian minor leaguer, who had a three year stint in the Majors from 1955 - 1957 still holds the record.

In 1957, after a running start, the ball left his arm at an estimated 120 MPH and it flew and flew and flew.

After all was said and done the baseball covered a total of 445 feet 10 inches before hitting the ground and breaking the old record by a whole nine inches.

Glen Gorbous broke Don Grate's record throw of 445 feet 1 inches set in 1956.

http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long197.html

http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Gorbous.Glen.Obit.html