When throwing a baseball, it isn't the pitcher's muscle mass that determines how fast the ball goes, but rather it is the amount of torque the pitcher puts on his body. The elite flame-throwing pitchers can maximize this effort, and throw a baseball at speeds in excess of 100 mph (44.7 m/s). It seems as if there is an imaginary boundary, preventing pitchers from going much past that point. However, this boundary isn't as imaginary as one would think. The reason that pitchers struggle to throw a ball faster than that, is because once you get to that speed, additional muscle mass doesn't help throw a baseball any faster. It has been calculated that bout 80 newton-meters of torque act on a pitchers elbow when he throws it at 100 mph. If a person were to put any more torque on their elbow, they would probably snap. Hence, pitchers usually are unable to go past that point.

It is uncertain what the fastest pitcher ever thrown has been, but there have been many claims. One of these claims was a made by a journalist for Sports Illustrated, George Plimpton in 1985. He said that a man going by the name of Sidd Finch had thrown a 168 mph (75.1 m/s) fastball. However, it was found out a couple weeks later that this was just an April Fools joke and that Sidd Finch was not a real person. Another claim, a much more believable claim, has been made about a minor league pitcher in the 1950s and 1960s, Steve Dalkowski. Due to his bad control, he never made it to the major leagues, but it was thought that his fastball could reach 105 mph (46.9 m/s). He was once clocked at a military instillation, but only threw the ball at 93.5 mph (41.8 m/s). However, it took him many pitches to get the ball into a very small target, which probably tired him out and he was not pitching from a mound, which also would have slowed his fastball. The most widely believed value is 103 mph (46.0 m/s) by Mark Wohlers in 1995 during a Spring Training game.

Michael Robbins -- 2005