I was a senior at Michigan State when Coach Litwiller invented the radar gun for measuring pitch speed. Used to attend games primarily to watch our star wide receiver, Kirk Gibson, try another sport.
He was so proud of the radar gun that they would display the radar speed on the scoreboard, the first and only time that I have ever seen that in baseball. When they built the new McLane baseball stadium I was happy to see they kept the pitch speed on the new scoreboard.
Most professional stadiums display the pitch speed, albeit usually on one of the auxiliary boards rather than the main video board.
Thanks to enhanced pitch tracking in the last few years, they can now display even more information. The Pittsburgh Pirates' first- and third-base ribbon boards show pitch speed, vertical and horizontal break, and IIRC even the name of the pitch (bucketed based on the speed and break characteristics). It's a really neat addition to have in real time.
When the Cubs signed Aroldis Chapman I went to the first game where he came out of the bullpen and I will never forget the entire crowd looking at the scoreboard and reacting every time he hit 100 miles an hour. Now every team has somebody that hits 100. It blows my mind people can throw a baseball faster than I drive on the interstate.
An actual spartan? clicks through out of curiosity ah no, refers to a Michigan State University baseball coach : “The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University.”
To be fair, many ancient civilizations played ball games. The Pre-Columbian civilizations in Latin America built stadia for ball games. So maybe the ancient Greeks had an effect too.
12 comments
He was so proud of the radar gun that they would display the radar speed on the scoreboard, the first and only time that I have ever seen that in baseball. When they built the new McLane baseball stadium I was happy to see they kept the pitch speed on the new scoreboard.
Thanks to enhanced pitch tracking in the last few years, they can now display even more information. The Pittsburgh Pirates' first- and third-base ribbon boards show pitch speed, vertical and horizontal break, and IIRC even the name of the pitch (bucketed based on the speed and break characteristics). It's a really neat addition to have in real time.