A.G. Gancarski
Ron DeSantis argues that Major League Baseball players of bygone times threw faster than today’s equivalents.
During a Friday night event in Grimes, Iowa, the Florida Governor and 2024 presidential candidate again discussed Iowa native Bob Feller when he contended that Feller and fellow fireballer Nolan Ryan had more heat on their throws than the whippersnappers of today.
“And they’ve actually since done a documentary on who has the fastest fastball. And, you know, now these guys go, and they’ll say they’re throwing 101 102. But those, those radar guns are juiced compared to what they were in the 1930s, 40s and 50s,” DeSantis contended.
“So, they said if you actually put somebody on the same plane, none of the pitchers now threw as hard as Bob Feller did back in his era or Nolan Ryan too; Nolan was the two, those are the two best.”
DeSantis also told a story about how Feller’s fastball was tested against a motorcycle and won.
“So, to time his pitches, they actually did a thing where they had a motorcycle going like 90 some miles an hour. And as soon as he threw, they timed the motorcycle to go, and he threw faster than the motorcycle. So, it was the fastest pitcher of his era.”
Feller pitched from 1936 to 1956, with an interregnum for World War II service between 1942 and 1944.
1946 was his best year in terms of two key stats. He had 26 wins and threw 346 strikeouts that postwar season.
DeSantis noted that Feller, upon enlisting in the Navy, insisted upon going to combat rather than entertaining the troops with his baseball skills. The Governor said Feller “came back a hero” after doing some “pretty significant things.”
8 comments
tom palmer
November 3, 2023 at 7:59 pm
this matters because…
TJC
November 3, 2023 at 9:28 pm
Because DeSantis, like Trump, wants everyone to believe he is the world’s foremost authority on everything. Also, like Trump, he wants everyone to believe you can’t trust any authority that is not him, so radar guns in Major League Baseball today are “juiced” to make today’s pitchers look better than yesterday’s pitchers. Kind of, sort of, like the Trump claims against Dominion Voting Systems, only Trump deals in big lies about a presidential election while DeSantis takes on baseball. What a funny little man he is.
My Take
November 3, 2023 at 11:22 pm
I’ll bet there is effort at his campaign put into proposing topics he can babble (shallowly) about, to make sure there are one or two a day. To get/keep him in the news.
Josh Green
November 3, 2023 at 11:47 pm
Kids these days! Amiright!
My Take
November 3, 2023 at 11:49 pm
“Those radar guns are juiced compared to what it was in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.’
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What does that even mean? I hope he is not claiming radar was available in the 30s. It was 40s, and secret until after WW2.
FAU by the way is located on a WW2 airbase that secretly trained radarmen. I THINK for use on P-38 nightfighters.
Greg Klein
November 4, 2023 at 7:32 am
Dang! I’d LOVE to see one of those non-juiced radar guns from the 1930’s!!
Joe
November 4, 2023 at 12:33 pm
What a maroon.
Carpetbagger
November 4, 2023 at 12:41 pm
Add “baseball historian” to the long list of things Ron DeSantis does badly.
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