Major League Baseball - All Century Team

The sheer quality of the historical film footage is what particularly fascinated me, far more than who failed to be included but who ought to have made it etc etc which I am sure will bug some people. I have a feeling that the average standard of professional baseball in the post-war years became much higher than that of the pre-war wars, hence the absence of .400 hitters - especially pitchers who hit .400!

Although some of the pre-war players were doubltess great talents the exagerated claim made on video such that Walter Johnson pitched faster than 100mph is just laughable. Just as the fisherman's fish get bigger with time it sounds like the speed of pitchers becomes faster as the years go by. Footage of Johnson pitching is nonetheless fascinating because his mechanics are just as how people remembered him: effortlessly smooth and fluent. But then it is also obvious that his mechanics lack the dynamism of a similar side armer, namely Randy Johnson, who follows through with more thorough weight transfers to the front foot and thus with a flatter back at follow through. That, combined with the fact that Randy is much taller and whippier than Walter can only mean that Walter Johnson cannot possibly be pitching faster than 100mph. However, it is obvious that Walter does have remarkably late shoulder rotation - something that makes a pitcher appear much faster than he actually is.

Nonetheless a student of the art of pitching could still learn a thing or two from studying the beautifully fluent text-book pitching mechanics of a Walter Johnson, or a Lefty Grove. If that were not enough the superb color pictures of Sandy Koufax pitching are a wonder to behold. I couldn't help but put on the slow motion replay to study him over and over. His mechanics have always struck me as being perfection itself and the footage quoted here only reinforces this.

On the other hand Warren Spahn's pitching mechanics are by modern standards thoroughly Baroque. Gross leaning backwards used to be common fault amongst an older gneration of pitchers such as Bob Feller and Johnny Vander Meer, but Spahn outdoes them all with a degree of leaning backwards that would make a modern pitching coach go pale. It's a small wonder he doesn't fall over backwards and even more of wonder that he was able to maintain control of his pitches with mechanics like that.

Although being a pitcher myself it is harder to comment on hitting mechanics it is obvious that Ty Cobb's hitting mechanics are equally bizzare starting with the hands apart on the bat followed by a ridiculously large 'hitch' in which he almosts touches the home plate with the tip of his bat before lifting it up to start his swing. On the other hand seeing Ted Williams (in beautiful color) swing the bat is a joy to behold as a model of perfection. You can see how hitters in opposing teams used to come out just to watch and learn from him when he was at bat.