Walter Johnson Pitching Mechanics & Game Highlights BEST QUALITY
Walter Johnson Pitching Mechanics & Game Highlights BEST QUALITY
ADDITIONAL RARE FOOTAGE:
∙ CENTER FIELD ANGLE (I do not own the rights to use this video but check it out at the 11 second mark): https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/walter-big-train-johnson-manager-of-the-cleveland-indians-news-footage/1002051182?adppopup=true
∙ Walter Johnson Instructs his son: https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/2779/rec/10
CAREER: (1907 – 1927): 417 W – 279 L, 2.17 ERA, 5914.1 IP, 3508 SO, 1.06 WHIP
∙ MLB record 110 Shutouts! 26.4% of career wins were by Shutout.
∙ 2nd Best Career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) (164.3), behind Babe Ruth (182.4): https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/WAR_career.shtml
∙ 2nd Most Career Wins (417), behind Cy Young (511).
∙ 2x AL MVP: 1913 & 1924
∙ 3x AL Pitching Triple Crown Winner: 1913, 1918, & 1924
PITCHING INSTRUCTIONAL PAMPHLET BY WALTER JOHNSON:
∙ “How to Fool the Batter” by Walter Johnson: http://digitalcollections.plymouth.edu/digital/collection/p15828coll4/id/185
So he was pitching for Washington. I don’t know if they were yet officially the "Senators". What’s that bear logo all about??
Dude just slug the shit out of that ball! And don’t fucking tell me, he couldn’t pitch in today’s game. He’d be as great today as back then.
The Big Train was something special back then and should be still.
If I could resurrect the best pitchers and hitters of the game, I would love to see a match between Walter Johnson and Satchel Paige.
Johnson struck Babe Ruth out on three straight fastballs. After the third strike Babe asked the umpire, "Did you see any of those pitches?"
"No," said the ump.
"Neither did I," said Babe, "but that last one sounded a little low."
Best pitcher in mlb history, no contest.
And hence forth I shall forever pronounce "fastball" correctly, with the accent on the "BALL". Huzzah!
In golf we’d call his delivery form a reverse pivot.
Can anyone figure out approximately how hard he threw?
The baseball info on YouTube is fantastic! Thanks, Coop.
I never thought I would ever hear the speaking voice of the GOAT Walter Johnson!
91 only using his upper half is absolutely ridiculous. Man was a freak of nature
Walter Johnson was nothing more than a bigger, stronger, more durable Pedro Martinez.
I’m surprised after 21-years he had only 3500-K’S.Considering he was supposed to be blazing fast,Even Don Sutton had more strikeouts and pitched almost 800-less innings.I watched Sutton during his Dodger glory years.
Even in SLOW MOTION, when he brings his sidearm through at the point of release, his arm is moving FAST IN SLOW MOTION. You can really see the power in his delivery. It’s a thing of beauty.
Awesome video. Man, he was like a catapult!
Wish My Dad was still around to see this !
Imagine before 1920 when the pitcher could take the ball and spit tobacco juice on it and dirty it up and make it hard to see for the batter. That would be scary.
Sir Walter is in the very top tier of 20th century pitchers, right there among the creme de la creme like Mathewson, Alexander, Grove, Hubbell, Feller, Koufax, Gibson, and Seaver. I would add Clemens except that I’m not sure how early he started steroids. Also uncertain about Pedro and Randy Johnson. Too much smoke around all those guys to be sure who did and who didn’t.
❤ walter fastball johnson my hero, greatest pitcher ever
Bad ass.
– Lights out… ANY era !!! 00:57
He was 6′ tall with long whip-like arms and insanely powerful rotational energy. I see why he lasted so long: very powerful hip-trunk-shoulder rotation with his arm coming around like a sling, stepping back a tad to crack the whip. It’s efficient and as far as his arm is concerned, almost effortless. One of a kind.
The sling-shot effect of his arm is amazing, like his arm doesn’t have an elbow.
NOLAN RYAN IS STILL THE MAN!!!
That easy delivery brought the devil. A thing of beauty.
It’s amazing how supple those long arms were. Like a Slinky, his pitching arm seems to be bending in three or four places at once.
Even damaged, that prime footage of Walter Johnson is really cool
I have seen amazingly clear footage of street scenes from 1905 to 1920. Why is there nothing useful from baseball until the 50s?
Wow. My favorite view is from home plate. I can imagine what a hitter would see in a game.
The clash of the Titans
That side arm must have been hell for right hand batters. He reminds me of Randy Johnson.
The fact his arm looks like it’s moving normal speed with the slowed down version definitely tells you he hit triple digits easy
Wow! Wouldn’t you just like to see a modern pitcher used Johnson’s reverse 360 windup! At the 4 minute mark, his pitching arm looks as long as Gumby’s!
The voice of a master pitcher.
The guy had some long, long arms.
Well I can’t rightly say (which player hit the ball hardest), but the ones Ruth hit got smaller quicker. – Walter Johnson
Doesn’t even follow through with his right leg where so much power can be generated.
I uploaded the entire footage of the clip at the start of this video where Walter Johnson was talking. He was actually instructing his son, Walter Jr. & he shows him some pitching grips and tosses a few more pitches from the home plate angle. Check it out here if you are interested https://youtu.be/7wT67s9QwJc
this is wonderful! I had no idea footage existed of the big train pitching! what a great surprise!
Nobody threw like Johnson. He dropped his chinto get that extra reach back and just slung the ball. This video is fantastic
Interesting. The players had no numbers on their jerseys.
The only modern day pitcher who I saw who was even remotely as intimidating as Johnson was Don Drysdale in his prime, because He was 6’5" and came with that blazing fastball and it looked like it was coming from third base cause of his size…Willie Mays was even scared to dig in…but the Big train must have been amazing…
Only Cy Young was better!
He’s still the greatest pitcher in baseball history. He won 25 games with a ERA under 2 in 7 consecutive seasons. He won a record 38 1-0 games. The "Big Train" won 20 games for a losing team 5X and no other pitcher did that more than twice. He led the AL in SO a record 12X including a record 8 straight. He was also, a great all-around baseball player who hit 24 career HRs despite playing the majority of his career in the dead ball era. His 41 career triples is more than both AROD & Pujols have for their careers. He hit for the highest BA ever by a 20 game winner with .433 in 1925. He made no errors as a fielder in 5 seasons of at least 229 Innings (twice 300+).
His mechanics are simultaneously unorthodox and fluid/graceful. I don’t know where his velocity comes from. His body stops, and almost starts backwards as he pulls his arm through – a bit like a side winding catapult.
Some serious whip in that arm. Hurts my arm just watching it.
Quote by Ty Cobb (My Life in Baseball: The True Record, pg. 65):
“On August 2, 1907… I encountered the most threatening sight I ever saw on a ball field… He was a tall, shambling galoot of about twenty with arms so long they hung far out of his sleeves and with a side-arm delivery that looked unimpressive at first glance… The first time I faced him, I watched him take that easy wind-up—and then something went past me that made me flinch. The ball came in so fast that I wondered if he had concealed a gun on his person. I hardly saw the pitch, but I heard it. The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn’t touch him… but every one of us knew we’d met the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ball park.”
The original Randy Johnson. My guy’s arms were LOOOONG.
Walter Johnson Slurve Good
He literally had no follow through in his delivery, not unlike many pitchers of his day. This puts a lot of strain on the arm/shoulder. It is perplexing to me they couldn’t figure this out back then. You also get my juice on your fastball with a follow through.