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Steven Louis Dalkowski (born June 3, 1939 in New Britain, Connecticut), nicknamed Dalko, is a retired left-handed pitcher in minor league baseball. He is sometimes called the fastest pitcher in baseball history and had a fastball that probably exceeded . Some experts believed it went as fast as , others that his pitches traveled at or less. As no radar gun or other device was available at games to measure the speed of his pitches precisely, the actual top speed of his pitches remains unknown. Regardless of its actual speed, his fastball earned him the nickname White Lightning. Such was his reputation that despite never reaching the major leagues, and finishing his minor league years in class-B ball, the 1966 ''Sporting News'' item about the end of his career was headlined "LIVING LEGEND RELEASED." Dalkowski was also famous for his unpredictable performance and inability to control his pitches. His alcoholism and violent behavior off the field caused him problems during his career and after his retirement. After he retired from baseball, he spent many years as an alcoholic, making a meager living as a migrant worker. He recovered in the 1990s, but his alcoholism has left him with dementia and he has difficulty remembering his life after the mid-1960s. Screenwriter and film director Ron Shelton played in the Baltimore Orioles minor league organization soon after Dalkowski. His 1988 film ''Bull Durham'' features a character named "Nuke" LaLoosh (played by Tim Robbins) who is based loosely on the tales Shelton was told about Dalkowski. Brendan Fraser's character in the film ''The Scout'' is loosely based on him.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher= IMDB )〕 In 1970, ''Sports Illustrateds Pat Jordan wrote, "Inevitably, the stories outgrew the man, until it was no longer possible to distinguish fact from fiction. But, no matter how embellished, one fact always remained: Dalkowski struck out more batters and walked more batters per nine-inning game than any professional pitcher in baseball history."〔 ==Baseball career== Dalkowski began playing baseball in high school, and also played football as a quarterback for New Britain High School. During his time with the football team, they won the division championship twice, in 1955 and 1956. However, he excelled the most in baseball, and still holds a Connecticut state record for striking out 24 batters in a single game. After graduating from high school in 1957, Dalkowski was immediately signed by the Baltimore Orioles for a $4,000 bonus, and initially played for their class-D minor league affiliate in Kingsport, Tennessee. He spent his entire career in the minor leagues, playing in nine different leagues during his nine-year career. His only appearance at the Orioles' Memorial Stadium was during an exhibition game in 1959, when he struck out the opposing side.〔 Dalkowski's claim to fame was the high velocity of his fastball. Accurate measurements at the time were difficult to make, but the consensus is that Dalkowski regularly threw well above 100 miles per hour. Dalkowski's raw speed was aided by his highly flexible left (pitching) arm, and by his his unusual "buggy-whip" pitching motion, which ended in a cross-body arm swing. "I hit my left elbow on my right knee so often, they finally made me a pad to wear," recalled Dalkowski. But Dalkowski also often had extreme difficulty controlling his pitches. He often walked more batters than he struck out, and many times his pitches would go wild — sometimes so wild that they ended up in the stands. Batters found the combination of extreme velocity and lack of control intimidating. Oriole Paul Blair stated that "He threw the hardest I ever saw. He was the wildest I ever saw". During a typical season in 1960, while pitching in the California League, Dalkowski struck out 262 batters and walked 262 in 170 innings.〔 Dalkowski for 1960 thus figures at both 13.81 K/9IP and 13.81 BB/9IP (see lifetime statistics below). In comparison, Randy Johnson currently holds the major league record for strikeouts per nine innings in a season with 13.41.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Single-Season Leaders & Records for Strikeouts per 9 IP )〕 In separate games, Dalkowski struck out 21 batters, and walked 21 batters. Because a pitcher is generally considered wild if he averages four walks per nine innings, a pitcher of average repertoire who consistently walked as many as nine men per nine innings would not normally be considered a prospect. But such was the allure of Dalkowski's explosive arm that the Orioles gave him chance after chance to harness his "stuff", knowing that if he ever managed to control it, he would be a great weapon. During a game at Kingsport on August 31, 1957, Dalkowski struck out 24 Bluefield hitters in a single minor league game, yet lost 8–4. He had issued 18 walks, hit four batters, and threw six wild pitches. Dalkowski pitched a total of 62 innings in 1957, struck out 121 (averaging 18 strikeouts per game), but won only once because he walked 129 and threw 39 wild pitches.〔 Moving to the Northern League in 1958–59, he threw a one-hitter but lost 9–8 on the strength of 17 walks. In 1957–58, Dalkowski either struck out or walked almost three out of every four batters he faced. During the 1960s under Earl Weaver, then the manager for the Orioles' double-A affiliate in Elmira, New York, Dalkowski's game began to show improvement. Weaver had given all of the players an IQ test and discovered that Dalkowski had a lower than normal IQ. Weaver believed that Dalkowski had had such difficulty keeping his game under control because he did not have the mental capacity. Weaver kept things simple for Dalkowski, telling him to only throw the fastball and a slider, and to just aim the fastball down the middle of the plate. This allowed Dalkowski to concentrate on just throwing the ball for strikes. Weaver knew that Dalkowski's fastball was practically unhittable no matter where it was in the strike zone, and if Dalkowski missed his target, he might end up throwing it on the corners for a strike anyway. Under Weaver's stewardship, Dalkowski had his best season in 1962, posting personal bests in complete games and ERA, and walking less than a batter an inning for the first time in his career. In an extra-inning game, Dalkowski recorded 27 strikeouts (while walking 16 and throwing 283 pitches). Dalkowski was invited to major league spring training in 1963, and the Orioles expected to call him up to the majors. On March 23, Dalkowski was used as a relief pitcher during a game against the New York Yankees. Most sources say that while throwing a slider to Phil Linz, he felt something pop in his left elbow, which turned out to be a severe muscle strain. Some uncertainty over the cause of his injury exists, however, with other sources contending that he damaged his elbow while throwing to first after fielding a bunt from Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton. Either way, his arm never fully recovered. When he returned in 1964, Dalkowski's fastball had dropped to 90 mph (145 km/h), and midway through the season he was released by the Orioles.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Steve Dalkowski Minor League Statistics & History - Baseball-Reference.com )〕 He played for two more seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Angels organizations before returning briefly to the Orioles farm system but was unable to regain his form before retiring in 1966.〔 Dalkowski had a lifetime win-loss record of 46–80 and an ERA of 5.57 in nine minor league seasons, striking out 1,396 and walking 1,354 in 995 innings.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Steve Dalkowski」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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