Satch & Me Read Free Page A

bums hurtin’ yourselves,” Flip told us. “Throw the first two nice and easy. Just lob ’em in. Put a little more on your third and fourth pitch. And on your last throw, give it all you got.”
    â€œWhat does that thing go up to?” asked Rob.
    â€œDon’t worry, Anderson,” said Flip. “You ain’t gonna break it.”
    Rob gripped the ball and went into a really pathetic windup. The ball went sailing over Ryan, over Flip, and over the backstop. Everybody cracked up.
    â€œTry again,” Flip said. “That one didn’t register. Nice and easy, now.”
    Rob threw one reasonably near the plate. Flip looked at the back of the gun.
    â€œTwenty-two miles per hour,” he announced. We just about fell all over ourselves laughing. Every body knows that a major league fastball is around 90 milesper hour, and a few pitchers can even crack 100.
    â€œI could walk the ball to the plate faster than that,” cracked Blake.
    â€œKnock it off, Blake,” Flip said. “You ain’t no Sandy Koufax either.”
    Rob got a little better with his next three pitches, but the best he could do was 36 miles per hour. I knew I could throw harder than that . Some of the guys were snickering. But I wasn’t. There was always the chance that I’d make a fool of myself too.
    Mike Baugh was next. He pitches for us sometimes, and he’s got a decent arm. In four pitches, the gun recorded 35, 38, 43, and 50 miles per hour.
    â€œOkay, cut it loose now, Mikey,” said Flip.
    Mike reared back and gave it everything he had.
    â€œFifty-nine miles per hour!” Flip shouted.
    I was surprised. It looked like Mike was throwing pretty fast, but major league pitchers can throw 40 miles per hour faster . It was hard to believe.
    We went through the line one at a time. Most of the guys reached the 50s on their final pitch, and one or two guys reached the 60s. Jason clocked 67 miles per hour on one pitch.
    I’d like to say that when it was my turn I threw the ball so hard that the gun registered “Wow!” or “Sign the kid up!” But the truth is, my hardest pitch was only 56 miles per hour. Pretty weak.
    After we all had a turn, the guys started getting on their bikes or drifting over to the parking lot, where some of the parents were waiting in their cars.
    â€œHow fast could you throw, Flip?” asked Tanner. “I mean, in your prime.”
    â€œGeez, I dunno,” Flip said. “They didn’t have these gizmos when I was in my prime.”
    â€œHey, Flip,” I asked, “how fast was the fastest fastball?”
    Flip scratched his head.
    â€œWell, guys like Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, and Nolan Ryan clocked 100 miles an hour,” Flip told us. “A few other guys too. Maybe 102, 103 even.”
    â€œNo, I mean ever .”
    â€œYou wanna know who threw the fastest pitch ever ?”
    â€œYeah,” I said.
    â€œWell, they’ve only had radar guns since the 1970s,” Flip said. “Guys like Walter Johnson and Bobby Feller and Satchel Paige were plenty fast in their day. But they all pitched long before the 70s. There was no way to clock ’em.”
    â€œCouldn’t they take old movies of those guys and figure out how fast they threw?” asked Jason.
    â€œGuys like Cy Young were pitching even before they had movie cameras,” Flip said. “Nobody knows how fast those guys threw the ball. It’s one of those mysteries that’ll never be solved, I guess.”
    I looked at the radar gun. Then I looked at Flip. Flip looked at me. Then he looked at the radar gun.
    I wondered if Flip was thinking what I was thinking.

3
The Fastest Fastball
    THERE’S SOMETHING YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT me. I’ve got a secret power.
    No, I can’t read minds. I can’t fly and I can’t predict the future and I can’t communicate with the dead or anything weird like that. My secret