100 miles/hour : The Science behind this pitch

As you all out there may already know, I am a big surfing fan and jump in the sea at least twice a day to enjoy the beautiful ocean and its waves. However, you probably don’t know that my favorite sport isn’t actually surfing, but rather BASEBALL. Yes you are reading correctly, that is Baseball. Me mates have always made fun of me because baseball is an American sport that is not played very much here in Australia (even though we did participate in the World Baseball Classic last year).

I played baseball as a kid and enjoyed sneaking into the bars on Friday nights to watch the New York Yankees play. I guess I don’t have to do that now since I have my own bar with American satellite channels. Anyways one of the things that has always fascinated me about baseball is not how hard or powerful the players can hit the ball, but rather the speed and accuracy at which a pitcher can throw the ball. After watching last night’s Caribbean World Series between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, I was impressed to see that the Venezuelan player who was about 170 pounds, was throwing the ball at 99 miles/hour while the Dominican pitcher who weighed about 230 pounds was only throwing it at 87 miles/hour. This completely startled as to how a person 60 pounds lighter could have more strength to throw the ball and led me to think that maybe there is more science involved in throwing a pitch than just pure strength. Well I was right. There seems to be more science, physics, and natural anatomical factors involved than just pure arm force.

The Magazine Current Science contains an interesting article called “Fireball Physics”, that explains how biomechanics and anatomy is the key to a 100 miles/hour pitch, known as a “Fireball” or a “Flamethrower” (Jozefowics 10). According to the article, a ball traveling at this speed will reach the glove of the catcher in less than one second, putting the pitchers through one of the fastest mechanical motions a person’s body is capable of carrying out, and forces his arm to nearly a breaking point. (10).

Even though there is no official record of this statistic, the fastest pitch ever recorded was clocked at an amazing 103 miles/hour in 1995 by Braves pitcher Mark Wohlers (Yes mates, I was watching that game alright). (10). Much more than an arm was involved in this pitch however; muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints, all the way from the TOES to the tip of our fingers all play a part in carrying out this movement. I understand you are probably confused, so I’ll explain a bit better. The biomechanics begins in our toes, and just like a wave, it starts to gain strength as the force moves from our feet to our leg muscles, than passes on to our pelvis and abdominal areas, and then in a matter of an instant that force is fired from our shoulders to the tip of our index and thumb. (11)

Now listen to this mates. “The fastest pitchers reach a peak arm speed of about 7,500 degrees per second, or fast enough to rotate the arm completely(360 degrees) 21 times in ONE second!”(11). More amazingly, their tendons and ligaments reach a point where they almost completely tear apart, meaning that a minimal amount of extra force could shatter their elbows or shoulders. This clearly explains why we barely see any pitchers throwing a “Fireball”. “That 100 mile ceiling isn’t an illusion; it’s a basic property of human physiology”, states Jozefowics (11).

Researchers however think otherwise. After performing several experiments on cadavers, they found that a well developed arm with strong ligaments and tendons would have enough ability to throw a ball well over 120 miles/ hour. They do agree however, that if some “genetic wonders”(11) are able to throw the ball this fast, they wouldn’t be able to do so accurately and would probably injure themselves after a few pitches. (11).

It is no wonder then why teams spend so much money on their pitchers and take so much care of them, regularly checking up on their ligaments, tendons, and all sort muscles not just in their arm but throughout their body. One example is pitcher Kurt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox. In 2004, he was diagnosed with tendonitis in his left ankle due to excessive pitching pressure on his foot. He underwent several surgeries and later went on to win the World Series with Boston while pitching with a bloody sock.

The article also explains that, “Team owners prefer a fast pitcher they can keep around for a long time rather than a super-fast pitcher that is always injured” (11). So next time you are flipping through the channels and see a pitcher throwing a nice fast pitch into strike zone, remember all the physics and science that is involved in that split second movement. Good day mates!

Jozefowics, Chris. “Fireball Physics.” Current Science. Volume 91.Issue 2 (September 2005): pages 10-11. EBSCO Host Research Databases. UNC- Chapel Hill. 30 January 2007.