What Is The Fastest Baseball Pitch Ever Recorded?

Find out what the fastest baseball pitch ever recorded is, and learn some interesting facts and history about the game of baseball.

Introduction

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the ball to the catcher who then attempts to hit it with a bat. The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by a pitcher. A fastball is a pitch that is thrown very fast, typically over 90 miles per hour (mph). The fastest recorded fastball in Major League Baseball (MLB) was 108.1 mph, thrown by Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds in 2010.

The Fastest Pitches in Baseball History

In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the ball to the catcher to begin each play. Pitchers have a lot of control over the type of pitches they throw, and some pitchers are able to throw the ball faster than others. The fastest recorded pitches in baseball history are all from left-handed pitchers.

Nolan Ryan

On August 20, 1974, Nolan Ryan of the California Angels threw the fastest baseball pitch ever recorded. The pitch was clocked at 100.9 miles per hour (162.8 km/h).

Since then, a number of pitchers have come close to breaking Ryan’s record, but no one has been able to do it. The closest anyone has come is San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain, who threw a pitch that was clocked at 103 mph (166 km/h) in 2010.

Aroldis Chapman

Aroldis Chapman, a 6’4”, 210-pound Cuban defector, entered the United States in 2009 and was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds that same year. In 2010, Chapman made his Major League Baseball debut. The following season, Chapman pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, threw the fastest recorded pitch in baseball history at 105.1 mph.

Joel Zumaya

In 2006, Detroit Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya set the record for the fastest recorded pitch in MLB history. His 105.1 mph fastball was clocked by PITCHf/x, a state-of-the-art pitch tracking system used by MLB.

Zumaya’s record pitch came in the 10th inning of a game against the Minnesota Twins on August 29, 2006. He struck out Twins hitter Joe Mauer with the historic fastball.

At the time, Zumaya was just 21 years old and in his rookie season with the Tigers. He would go on to play six seasons in the MLB before injuries forced him to retire in 2012.

While 105.1 mph is the fastest pitch ever recorded by PITCHf/x, there have been a handful of pitchers who have thrown pitches that were clocked at higher speeds by radar guns.

The most famous example is that of Nolan Ryan, who was recorded throwing a 108 mph fastball during a game against the San Diego Padres in 1974. However, Ryan himself has said that he doesn’t believe the pitch was actually that fast and that the radar gun may have been faulty.

Other pitchers who have been clocked throwing pitches over 100 mph include Mark Wohlers, Brad Lidge, Aroldis Chapman and Trevor Rosenthal.

The Science Behind Fast Pitches

In 2014, Aroldis Chapman, then of the Cincinnati Reds, threw the fastest recorded pitch in baseball history at 105.1 miles per hour. To put that into perspective, the average major league fastball is around 93 mph, and most pitchers top out around 100 mph. So, how is it possible to throw a baseball that fast?

The Mechanics of a Fast Pitch

The act of throwing a baseball is deceptively simple – grip the ball, cock your arm back, and throw. But the reality is that there’s a lot of science involved in those few seconds, and if you want to throw a pitch that’s clocked at 100 miles per hour, you need to understand the mechanics behind it.

The vast majority of the force generated in a pitch comes from the legs – specifically, the quadriceps and gluteus muscles. As these muscles contracts, they rotate the hip and trunk, which in turn brings the arm up into position. At this point, the shoulder muscles take over, and they continue to rotate the arm until the hand comes released from the ball.

All of this happens extremely quickly – on average, it takes about 0.4 seconds for a pitcher to release the ball. But in that short amount of time, a lot of things have to happen perfectly in order for a pitch to be fast and accurate. For one thing, pitchers need to generate as much torque – or rotational force – as possible. They also need to make sure that their release point is consistent from pitch to pitch; otherwise, they won’t be able to control where the ball goes. Finally, they need to have perfect timing so that everything falls into place and they can unleash all that energy at once.

Once a pitch is released, there’s not much a pitcher can do to influence its trajectory. aerodynamics come into play at this point, and depending on how fast and how spin is applied to the ball, it will either rise or sink as it moves through the air. If all goes well, it will end up exactly where the pitcher intends it to – right in the sweet spot of the batter’s strike zone.

The Physics of a Fast Pitch

In baseball, pitching is the act of throwing a baseball toward home plate to start a play. The pitcher is the player who throws the ball. A pitcher’s main job is to pitch the ball to the batter, and try to get them out.

The speed of a pitch is determined by two things: how hard the pitcher throws the ball, and how much spin they put on it. The harder a pitcher throws the ball, the faster it will go. The more spin they put on it, the more “seam grip” they will have, which makes the ball move differently in flight, and can make it harder for hitters to track.

The fastest pitch ever recorded was 161km/h (100mph), by Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds. Chapman is a Cuban-born left-handed relief pitcher who signed with the Reds in 2010. In his first season with Cincinnati, Chapman set the record for fastest pitch in MLB history.

There have been somePretty fierce debates about what constitutes a “pitch.” For our purposes, we’re going to consider anything that’s thrown with an underhand motion as a “pitch.” We’re also only going to consider pitches that are thrown by professional pitchers in competitive games. This means that we’re not going to include things like pre-game warm-ups or practice pitches in our analysis.

Conclusion

So there you have it, the fastest baseball pitch ever recorded is 105.1 mph. But don’t be too discouraged if you can’t throw that fast. The average major league fastball moves at a speed of about 93 mph, so even if you’re a few miles per hour slower than the top recorded speed, you’re still considered to be throwing quite fast.