[Mick]

You have the right team, Mick, but not Zito.

And I should have been clearer.  I meant the first pitcher timed by a radar gun in an actual game. Aug. 20, 1974.

BC

Ah.  I would guess Nolan Ryan for the radar gun.  As for the pitcher, Tim Hudson.

Here's an interesting article on Walter Johnson vs. Bob Feller vs. Nolan Ryan vs. Aroldis Chapman:
'Fastball' searches for the game's all-time top speed | MLB.com

"In 1917, Johnson's fastball was tested in a Bridgeport, Conn., munitions laboratory at 122 feet per second, which converts to 83.2 mph. Feller's fastball was measured on the field in the late 1940s using Army equipment designed to measure artillery shell velocity. He clocked in at 98.6. And Ryan was clocked at 100.9 mph on Aug. 20, 1974, against the Tigers, when ABC's Monday Night Baseball first used a radar gun in a game."

Johnson was throwing, I believe, off a flat mound, into a. 2 foot hole. Hard to know how hard he threw in todays measure.  But certainly not as hard as todays pitchers.  Better equipment, better training etc. 

I read where Adam Ottavino said  he’d strike out Babe Ruth every time. Well since Babes dead, he’s right.  But I believe that the great ones of yesteryear would be great ones today. They’d have all the advantages todays athletes have.

Johnson was a sidearmer.  I wonder how he would have fared with an overhand or 3/4 style?  And modern pitching coaching?

Babe swung with a 48 ounce bat.  If he used one of today's 34 ouncers, I think he'd catch up to Adam Ottavino.  To say nothing of 21st century nutrition, exercise regimens, weightlifting, etc.

[Mick]

You have the right team, Mick, but not Zito.

And I should have been clearer.  I meant the first pitcher timed by a radar gun in an actual game. Aug. 20, 1974.

BC

Ah.  I would guess Nolan Ryan for the radar gun.  As for the pitcher, Tim Hudson.

Here's an interesting article on Walter Johnson vs. Bob Feller vs. Nolan Ryan vs. Aroldis Chapman:
'Fastball' searches for the game's all-time top speed | MLB.com

"In 1917, Johnson's fastball was tested in a Bridgeport, Conn., munitions laboratory at 122 feet per second, which converts to 83.2 mph. Feller's fastball was measured on the field in the late 1940s using Army equipment designed to measure artillery shell velocity. He clocked in at 98.6. And Ryan was clocked at 100.9 mph on Aug. 20, 1974, against the Tigers, when ABC's Monday Night Baseball first used a radar gun in a game."

Johnson was throwing, I believe, off a flat mound, into a. 2 foot hole. Hard to know how hard he threw in todays measure.  But certainly not as hard as todays pitchers.  Better equipment, better training etc. 

I read where Adam Ottavino said  he’d strike out Babe Ruth every time. Well since Babes dead, he’s right.  But I believe that the great ones of yesteryear would be great ones today. They’d have all the advantages todays athletes have.

Johnson was a sidearmer.  I wonder how he would have fared with an overhand or 3/4 style?  And modern pitching coaching?

Babe swung with a 48 ounce bat.  If he used one of today's 34 ouncers, I think he'd catch up to Adam Ottavino.  To say nothing of 21st century nutrition, exercise regimens, weightlifting, etc.