STEVE DALKOWSKI: WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY, THEY FIRST GIVE A FASTBALL
It is highly likely that no one ever threw a baseball faster than Steve Dalkowski, who died last Sunday aged 80. It took almost a week for the news to be made public, although that was not surprising, because Dalkowski was such a mythic figure, most of those who knew about his legend probably assumed he had passed long before. People have always looked to sport for metaphors; in the early days of sports-writing, stars were Homeric in their qualities, of which character was the most important; in Britain today ‘character’ is still regarded as the cause of winning, and winning the proof of character. But as those educated in dead white men know, Homer’s Greek gods punished hubris, and more than that, assumed that tragedy was the very stuff of mortal life.
If that were the case, Steve Dalkowski indeed deserves immortality. And there’s no reason to doubt how fast he threw: you just have to listen to anyone who saw him. In the Baltimore Orioles’ farm system, Cal Ripken Sr. was a catcher. He said Dalkowski was the fastest he’d ever seen. Earl Weaver managed him, and said Nolan Ryan wasn’t nearly as fast. Minor league teammate Pat Gillick, who became GM of the Blue Jays, said he was the fastest he ever saw. So did another minor league teammate, Herm Starette, who had a long career as a pitching coach. But if no one ever threw…
