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Book Review: High Heat

Posted on April 16, 2010 at 11:28 PM
Filed Under: General
As I've said before, there's little better than getting a free book.  Normally, my requests for a review of a book come through this site.  However, I received one a while back in my capacity as founder and head of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and, since we didn't have a policy on how to handle that among our 150 or so members, I exercised my prerogative and snatched it up.

This time, it was a dandy of a book called High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time.  (As a side note, does anyone remember when books just had titles, instead of colons and subtitles?  Seems like nobody nowadays is content with just a snappy title, they've got to go explain the whole thing.  Back to our story.)  Tim Wendel sets out to tell the story about the fastball and the guys that have thrown in the hardest over the course of major league history.

It's not just an academic study, though.  Wendel takes you to Cooperstown as he searches through materials there, to Alabama and Dr. James Andrews' motion study lab, and various other places, weaving the stories of the hardest flamethrowers throughout the narrative.

As Wendel notes more than once, it's difficult to get a grasp on who was the fastest pitcher ever.  For one thing, the fact that there was no accurate way to get a reading on pitchers in olden times, back when at least legend indicates there were a number of hard throwers, means it's not as simple as taking radar gun readings across the years.  By the end of the book, Wendel also seems to shift from the more empirical "fastest" to the more subjective "best," as in which pitcher got the most out of the gift they were given.

Not only the success stories are noted in this book but also those tantalizing possibilities of what might have been.  The major story in that vein is the legend, as it were, of Steve Dulkowski.  Dulkowski was one of the hardest throwers ever, according to eyewitnesses, but he never made the big leagues due to his lack of control.  I'm not talking about just missing the corners, either.  You know Bull Durham?  One of the things I learned is that some of Nuke LaLoosh was based on Dulkowski, especially the wildness.  If Dulkowski could have ever harnessed his fastball, he might have been a Hall of Famer.  His wildness (both on and off the field) kept that from him, however.

Wendel hits all the points, from the first (Amos Rusie) to the most current (Stephen Strasberg), from the fictional (Sidd Finch) to the medical (Tommy John).  He lists out his top 12 at the end of the book, but I won't spoil the fun of finding that out here.  It's not a perfect book--at times the transitions are a little jarring, as you aren't sure what the connection between John and Satchel Paige is, and as a Cardinal fan I could have used a lot more discussion and talk about Bob Gibson--but overall it is a very fun, informative, and enjoyable read, a book worthy to be added to your baseball bookshelf.


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Heroes
Matt Carpenter (4)
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Rafael Furcal (3)
Jon Jay (3)
Kyle Lohse (3)
Lance Lynn (3)
David Freese (2)
Jaime Garcia (2)
Yadier Molina (2)
Adam Wainwright (2)
Allen Craig (1)
Shane Robinson (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Hero: Lance Berkman (24)
2010 Top Heroes: Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols (24)
2009 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (28)
2008 Top Hero: Albert Pujols (25)

Goats
Matt Holliday (4)
Carlos Beltran (3)
Jaime Garcia (3)
Adam Wainwright (3)
David Freese (2)
Rafael Furcal (2)
Tyler Greene (2)
Jason Motte (2)
J.C. Romero (2)
Marc Rzepczynski (2)
Mitchell Boggs (1)
Matt Carpenter (1)
Tony Cruz (1)
Daniel Descalso (1)
Jon Jay (1)
Erik Komatsu (1)
Kyle Lohse (1)
Victor Marte (1)
Fernando Salas (1)
Jake Westbrook (1)

2011 Top Goat: Ryan Theriot (12)
2010 Top Goat: Brendan Ryan (14)
2009 Top Goats: Rick Ankiel and Todd Wellemeyer (13)
2008 Top Goat: Troy Glaus (13)

2012 Happy Flights
Happy Flights: 7
Happy Flight Opportunities: 10
Happy Flight %: 70%

Through 5/15

    Cardinal Nation Approval Ratings (March 2012)
    Adam Wainwright 91.9% (down 2.8%)
    Chris Carpenter 90.1% (up 3.2%)
    Lance Berkman 88.6%
    Tony La Russa 88.2% (up 17.4%)
    Yadier Molina 87.4% (up 3.7%)
    Matt Holliday 87.3% (down 3.8%)
    David Freese 85.5%
    John Mozeliak 85.4% (up 13.3%)
    Mike Shannon 85.3% (up 0.4%)
    Jose Oquendo 84.7%
    Derrick Goold 82.8% (down 5.0%)
    Mark McGwire 82.6% (up 20.1%)
    John Rooney 81.5% (down 2.8%)
    Mike Matheny 81.1%
    Bill DeWitt 79.8% (up 8.8%)
    United Cardinal Bloggers 78.9%
    Skip Schumaker 73.3% (up 9.2%)
    Jim Hayes 71.9% (down 4.2%)
    Jon Jay 71.1%
    B.J. Rains 69.5% (down 0.9%)
    Kyle Lohse 68.9% (up 13.8%)
    Dan McLaughlin 68.0%
    Joe Strauss 67.7% (up 10.2%)
    Ricky Horton 67.5% (down 1.6%)
    Al Hrabosky 66.4% (up 3.2%)
    Albert Pujols 54.9% (down 45.5%)
    Colby Rasmus 46.5% (down 35.3%)

    2011
    Dave Duncan 87.9% (up 0.9%)
    Matthew Leach 85.5%
    Pop Warner 76.7%
    Ryan Franklin 72.8% (up 3.1%)
    John Vuch 68.9%
    Jeff Luhnow 66.4%
    Dan Lozano 58.7%

    2009
    Rick Ankiel 83.9%
    Chris Duncan 69.1%


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