There isn’t a game that I watch that the radar gun that is used by TV stations broadcasting a major league game that isn’t way off. A lot of the time, it will appear as if a pitcher with throw an off-speed pitch at 93 MPH. It is also true that the gun used with broadcast differs with the one put out on the scoreboard for all the fans in the stadium to see. However, in both instances, if it is the home team pitching, they tend to crank up the MPH when the home team is pitching. This leads to us fans thinking that guys are throwing harder than they actually can. The only official clocking of a pitcher is Nolan Ryan, who still holds the record in the Guiness Book of World Records, with a 100.9 MPH pitch back on August 20, 1974 as a member of the Angels versus the Chicago White Sox.
No team is more guilty of cranking up the MPH than the Detroit Tigers. This started back in 2006 when Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney became regulars with the organization.
Exhibit A after the jump:
This screenshot comes courtesy of our good buddies at Detroit4Lyfe. I have to disagree and say that this is not accurate. Maybe if we were playing RBI baseball, but not in the MLB.
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That’s just funny. I haven’t played baseball since little league, but I’m pretty sure I could crack 90 mph on that radar gun.
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Walter Johnson once threw 108mph.
/not impressed
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Are you sure that is not the catcher’s throw back to the mound?
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It matters if the gun is taking the speed as it comes out of the pitcher’s hand or as it crosses home plate.
What the radar gun is doing is measuring the doppler shift of the reflected signal. There is a lot of signal processing that goes on after the signal is received by the radar gun. It can be designed to take the maximum speed, or an average speed over some period of time. There is nearly always some averaging done to make the readings more accurate.
There is also something called pulse doppler radar that would be more accurate but I am pretty certain that guns at baseball games don’t use that technology.
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no he didn’t.
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Yes he did.
/they did it using math!
//no radar in 1920
///inventors were slackers back then
////gitc’d
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/the truth’d
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Last night was the second straight night Zumaya was clocked at 104. And yes, 104 is a little hard to believe. However, Zumaya was smoking those Cubs batters, it makes me think he was around 100.
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Paul Pierce once threw a ball so fast it bent the space time continuum and went back in time.
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Using math doesn’t make it fact.
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i believe he hits 100mph. no doubt. now someone needs to tell him to stop throwing a change-up.
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sparty-
I love Zumaya’s change. It’s pretty hilarious that he throws it when nobody hits the heat and he has a curveball that is good and slower than his change. As a relief pitcher, he needs only two pitches. A slider might be useful as an out pitch, but a change? Who is the dude’s pitching coach?
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miz just had a stroke after reading that blasphemy.
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He decided that on his own after the home run he gave up to Hoffpaur on Tuesday night.
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Micah Hoffpauir is a staple of my RazzBall team.
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Автор, можно с вами познакомиться?
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what he said.
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It’s not a Michigan State blog…it’s not a New York Giants blog…clearly it is a Dynamo Kiev blog.
/Пётр Вели́кий’d
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Мнение автора, всегда закон, зачем Вы пишите такое в своих комментах?
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