Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball's Fastest Pitcher

by William A. Dembski, Alex Thomas, Brian Vikander

Gripping and tragic, Dalko is the definitive story of Steve "White Lightning" Dalkowski, baseball's fastest pitcher ever. Dalko explores one man's unmatched talent on the mound and the forces that kept ultimate greatness always just beyond his reach. For the first time, Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball's Fastest Pitcher unites all of the eyewitness accounts from the coaches, analysts, teammates, and professionals who witnessed the game's fastest pitcher in action. In doing so, it puts readers on the fields and at the plate to hear the buzzing fastball of a pitcher fighting to achieve his major league ambitions.

Just three days after his high school graduation in 1957, Steve Dalkowski signed into the Baltimore Orioles system. Poised for greatness, he might have risen to be one of the stars in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Instead, he spent his entire career toiling away in the minor leagues. An inspiration for the character Nuke LaLoosh in the classic baseball film Bull Durham, Dalko's life and story were as fast and wild as the pitches he threw. The late Orioles manager Earl Weaver, who saw baseball greats Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax pitch, said "Dalko threw harder than all of 'em." Cal Ripken Sr., Dalkowski's catcher for several years, said the same. Bull Durham screenwriter Ron Shelton, who played with Dalkowski in the minor leagues, said "They called him "Dalko" and guys liked to hang with him and women wanted to take care of him and if he walked in a room in those days he was probably drunk."

This force on the field that could break chicken wire backstops and wooden fences with his heat but racked up almost as many walks as strikeouts in his career, spent years of drinking all night and showing up on the field the next day, just in time to show his wild heat again. What the Washington Post called "baseball's greatest what-If story" is one of a superhuman, once-in-a-generation gift, a near-mythical talent that refused to be tamed. Steve Dalkowski will forever be remembered for his remarkable arm. Said Shelton, "In his sport, he had the equivalent of Michaelangelo's gift but could never finish a painting." Dalko is the story of the fastest pitching that baseball has ever seen, an explosive but uncontrolled arm.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Biography, Biography Memoir, Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 27, 2020

About the author

A mathematician and philosopher, Dr. William Dembski has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Dallas. He has done postdoctoral work in mathematics at MIT, in physics at the University of Chicago, and in computer science at Princeton University. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago where he earned a B.A. in psychology, an M.S. in statistics, and a Ph.D. in philosophy, he also received a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 1988 and a master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1996. He has held National Science Foundation graduate and postdoctoral fellowships. He is the recipient of a $100,000 Templeton research grant. In 2005 he received Texas A&M’s Trotter Prize.

Dr. Dembski has published articles in mathematics, engineering, philosophy, and theology journals and is the author/editor of over twenty books.

His most comprehensive treatment of intelligent design to date, co-authored with Jonathan Wells, is titled The Design of Life: Discovering Signs of Intelligence in Biological Systems.

As interest in intelligent design has grown in the wider culture, Dr. Dembski has assumed the role of public intellectual. In addition to lecturing around the world at colleges and universities, he is frequently interviewed on the radio and television. His work has been cited in numerous newspaper and magazine articles, including three front page stories in the New York Times as well as the August 15, 2005 Time magazine cover story on intelligent design. He has appeared on the BBC, NPR (Diane Rehm, etc.), PBS (Inside the Law with Jack Ford; Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson), CSPAN2, CNN, Fox News, ABC Nightline, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though he never pitched in a regular season major league baseball game, most baseball fans have heard of Steve Dalkowski through the legendary stories of the speed of his pitches, the inability to get many of those pitches over the plate and his drinking stories. This book, a collaborative effort by three authors, is an excellent account of "Dalko's" athletic career.

When including Dalkowski's high school time, athletic is the more appropriate word to use than baseball since he was an outstanding football player. It was noted in the book that his passes when he played quarterback were much more accurate than his fastballs, which drove his coaches crazy when trying to figure out why he was accurate with the pigskin but not the horsehide.

There isn't much about Dalkowski during his childhood in the book, which is the only blemish on the book as the rest of his life is written with excellent detail and from many different viewpoints by people important in his life. Unlike many other biographies, this book had very good information on Dalkowski's life after baseball, especially when he, for a short time, had a stable family life and his drinking was not having an extremely negative effect on his life. This is consistent with the writing about his baseball career.

That aspect is the best part of the book as it accomplishes two major factors that will have readers learning the real story behind the legend of Steve Dalkowski. One is the truth, fiction or embellishment of several of the stories about his fastball and his wildness. One example is that there is information on the story that he ripped the ear off of a batter with his fastball. While it was true about the ear injury to the batter, that is an embellishment that grew over the years. Another example is how he injured his elbow during an exhibition game when pitching for the Orioles, the team that signed him out of high school when they saw the blazing speed on his fastball and patiently tried to get him ready for the big leagues. There are several versions of that injury and the book sets it straight.

The other major component of Dalkowski's baseball career, the patience and advice of the many coaches and teammates who tried to help him, is both maddening and sad. Sad in the fact that nearly everyone wanted to help him and wanted him to succeed and maddening in that nothing seemed to work, probably because with so much advice, he very likely couldn't keep it all together. His alcoholism is also addressed well in the book, with stories of when it seemed to start, some of the trouble he got into with his drinking and one very interesting fact – whenever he borrowed money from teammates or coaches for nights out, he made sure to always pay them back every day.

For the complete story of the legend that was Steve Dalkowski and his fastball, before the days of other contemporary pitchers known for speed like Nolan Ryan, this is the book to pick up. It's a great read for not only readers who know about the talented but erratic pitcher, but also for those who have never heard of him and wish to read about an intriguing person.

I wish to thank Influence Publishers for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Tony Laplume · Rating 4 out of 5]

As apparently the first attempt at a comprehensive Steve Dalkowski biography, it’s a good start. The three writers are fairly unimaginative, but few biographers are at things the record doesn’t reveal. I wish one of them would have thought to sketch out the myth instead of peppering the book with its footprints as they debunk it, or that they had thought to include at least excerpts from the many articles written about Dalkowski they reference. But it’s still a nice look at a forgotten legend, the kind whispered about among the faithful that we get to finally hear about fifty years on. Baseball is a game of great stories, and this is certainly one of them.

[Allen Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.themaineedge.com/sports/t...

Baseball is a sport of legends. The game’s devotion to and celebration of its long history means that titanic figures from the past remain important to the ongoing conversation. Men who haven’t played in a century or more are still vital parts of baseball’s narrative fabric.

And while the majority of those legends are recognized as titans of the game – accomplished hitters and pitchers, deft with the glove or on the basepaths – not all of baseball’s folk heroes show up in the major league record books. Indeed, there are players who, while never appearing in a big league box score, nevertheless became nigh-mythic figures.

Players like Steve Dalkowski.

The new book “Dalko” – co-authored by William A. Dembski, Alex Thomas and Brian Vikander – tells the story of Dalkowski, a career minor leaguer whose lightning bolt of an arm could never be properly be tamed. A figure whose career was wreathed in myth and whose subsequent life was one of struggle and strife, many claimed to have never seen his like before or since.

According to eyewitness accounts, there’s an argument to be made that no pitcher ever threw a faster fastball than Dalkowski. Not Johnson. Not Feller. Not Ryan. Nobody. But no physical proof exists – his pitches were never effectively measured and no video evidence exists. And thanks to an unsparing wildness – a wildness that no coach could ever counteract – Dalko never played in a major league game, instead fading into obscurity, the sort of player that was spoken about in hushed tones by those who remembered his dominating brilliance and his maddening lack of control.

Steve Dalkowski was born in 1939 in New Britain, Connecticut. His career as a schoolboy athlete indicated future greatness – he set the Connecticut high school strikeout record with 24 in a single game, throwing pitches that were faster than anyone there had ever seen. Faster than any seen by the myriad scouts who began turning up to Dalkowski’s starts to check out the phenom they’d been hearing about.

But even then, he struggled mightily with his control, walking almost as many as he struck out.

He graduated in 1957 and was signed by the Baltimore Orioles; from there, he was immediately sent to join the organization’s Class D minor league affiliate in Kingsport, Tennessee. From there, the legend quickly began to grow over the course of his nine-year career. Player after player and coach after coach would insist that they had never seen anyone throw the ball as fast as Dalkowski – his fastball was so fast that it earned him the nickname “White Lightning,” among others.

Still, his control was lacking. Utterly lacking. Take his 1960 season with Stockton in the California League, where in 170 innings pitched, he struck out 262 … and walked 262, putting up one of the most astonishing stat lines in professional sports history. So it was throughout his career. Despite all the strikeouts and very few hits, Dalko couldn’t overcome all the walks and wild pitches – his career minor league line was 46 wins against 80 losses with an ERA of 5.57, striking out 1,396 and walking 1,354 in just under a thousand innings.

(It’s worth noting that Dalkowski was one of screenwriter (and former minor league ballplayer) Ron Shelton’s inspirations for the character of Nuke LaLoosh in the beloved 1988 baseball film “Bull Durham.”)

Some have argued that it was coaching that let Dalkowski down. He was a physical marvel, but he had issues with the mental side of the game; many believe that it was nerves or lack of confidence that were his undoing, rather than anything physical. His issues with alcohol abuse may well have played a significant part as well, particularly toward the end of his career.

Regardless, despite his inability to harness his skills well enough to make it to the big leagues, he was a figure of much renown during his minor league career. He was a beloved figure at all of his stops, drawing big crowds to bear firsthand witness to that electric fastball.

It wasn’t enough – particularly after an arm injury during spring training in 1963 wound up sapping some of his speed. After bouncing around a bit, his professional baseball career came to an end in 1966.

What followed were decades of struggles. His battle with the bottle was ongoing, causing issues in his personal life while also undermining any efforts he made toward holding down a job. For years, he was a migrant worker, picking fruit and vegetables in the fields of California. The decades of drinking ultimately led to alcohol-induced dementia, a condition that would haunt him for the last half of his life. Despite nearly falling through the cracks, he was ultimately tracked down in the early 1990s and brought back to New Britain, where he would spend the rest of his days in an assisted living facility – and where he would occasionally have the chance to relive the high-speed glory days of his youth.

“Dalko” is a fascinating piece of sports biography, an effort to marry facts to the many legends surrounding the life of its subject. By engaging with people who knew Dalkowski – who saw him pitch – we get a clearer sense of just how dazzling his fastball was. For grizzled lifers like Earl Weaver and Cal Ripken Sr. to wax rhapsodic about the sheer speed of it, for a top-tier fastballer like Sam Crawford (who penned this book’s foreword) to readily concede that Dalko’s was faster than his own – it speaks volumes, far more than one could glean from a stat sheet.

Through thorough and meticulous research and a wealth of interviews, this trio of authors has done everything possible to ground the myth of Steve Dalkowski, to find the provenance of the stories that sprung up around his once-in-a-lifetime arm. Some of those tales proved to be just that – tales – while many others had at least a modicum of truth to them. One thing that is for certain: Steve Dalkowski had one hell of a fastball, a pitch so fast that a lot of people – many of whom know a thing or two about the game – believe it to be the fastest to ever grace the game.

Baseball is a game of legends, but not all legends land in the Hall of Fame. Some were born too soon, others were born too late. Some were laid low by injury and others by sheer blind chance. Steve Dalkowski could have been one of the greatest to ever play the game – a baseball hero. Instead, he became something different, but no less worthy of celebration.

A baseball legend.

[Glenn Partridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read two or three baseball books per month. I was interested when I saw this book come out because I am a former minor league ballplayer, a lifelong baseball and baseball history fan and also hail from Connecticut. I had heard for years and years of the legend of Steve Dalkowski and was eager to read the book.
Here is what I knew before I read this book. Steve Dalkowski threw really hard AND Steve Dalkowski had no idea where the majority of his pitches were going and Steve Dalkowski drank heavily.
Having read the book, here is what I know now. Steve Dalkowski threw really hard AND Steve Dalkowski had no idea where the majority of his pitches were going and Steve Dalkowski drank heavily.
I learned next to nothing about the man and his interesting but sad life. It was a stiltedly written story that read like one of those shallow Sport Magazine Series biographies that I read in the 1960s. There are three contributing authors who prepared four separate drafts. It seemed to me based upon the various writing styles that they took turns writing the chapters. Most of the accounts of the games were only the regurgitation of game statistics taken from found box scores and newspaper articles and some other superficial sources. Never once did I see where any of the authors actually tried to speak with Steve (while they could) or his sister Pat for that matter.
In addition, following the authors advice, I went to their web page DalkoBook.com and saw all the substantial research they claim to have done for the book, along with a “Perfect Pitcher dissertation” that attempts to justify that Steve Dalkowski could throw baseball 110 MPH or more.
While it didn’t take long to read, I was disappointed that with all that research the end product was not better. I will never have that time back.
I did, however, rather enjoy Sudden Sam McDowell’s Forward.

[Edwin Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

DALKO, by William A. Dembski, Alex Thomas, Brian Vikander, is the biography of Steve Dalkowski, a career minor league pitcher who is remembered by anyone he met for his astounding fastball. What is almost as astounding is that he could never make it to the majors, partly from his own demons, partly unfortunate luck, and partly from no one understanding how to mold such a unique talent into a major league star.
The writers have done as excellent job of researching man who is hard to research. His interviews are sparse and minimal in content and there is little or no film of Dalkowski pitching ever. Even the managers and catchers he worked with have conflicting views on his pitching speed, his control, even his work ethic. The legendary stories of Dalkowski are captivatingly picked through and the writers attempt to divide truth from fiction. In the end, the writers clearly wish they had uncovered more concrete information, but that seems to be Steve Dalkowski in a nutshell; everyone has a story, but the true legend of the "fastest pitcher ever" will never be grounded in complete factuality.
A quick, fun baseball read for those of us that can never get enough great baseball history, DALKO is a book to embrace, enjoy, and charge the reader with finding their own true thoughts about the "fastest pitcher ever".
Thank you to Influence Publishers, William A. Dembski, Alex Thomas, Brian Vikander, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Greville Waterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve Dalkowski has always been an enigmatic figure to me. How could someone with such a natural gift for pitching and who was reputed to reach speeds of around 100mph not only fail to make a lasting impression on the game but, remarkably, never even pitched one innings in the major leagues?

This well researched and sympathetically written biography goes a long way towards providing an answer. Dalkowski who ironically could pass a football accurately and crisply as a star quarterback could never maintain control of a baseball long enough to be trusted by the many coaches and managers who toiled in vain to change him.

Perhaps that was the trouble. Too much contradictory advice from too many well meaning people. This allied to his problems with alcohol and his short sightedness meant that he was remained a legend rather than the star that he should have been.

A tragedy and a waste of an exceptional talent.

[Ashley Youngblood · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book the question you will keep asking yourself is what could have been of Steven Louise Dalkowski or “Dalko”. This book is a gem of history like no other. If alcohol would not have been part of the equation, what amazing records would have been set by Dalko? You will be wanting more with each page you read. An amazing insight into how the human mind can make us or break us. A magical read, you will be a better person for reading it with a little more baseball knowledge!

[Doctor Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Legends can be hype or they can be real. Steve Dalkowski qualifies as a rea honest-to-goodnessl legend in baseball. “Steve Dalkowski” in baseball terms means one thing — an unearthly fastball, faster (maybe) than anybody else ever threw a baseball.

I was a Baltimore Orioles fan in the sixties when the Steve Dalkowski legend was alive and kicking in the Orioles’ minor league system. I only knew he was a pitcher who threw harder than any other pitcher. Batters and other pitchers who saw him or hit against him, and also saw or hit against the others — Sandy Koufax, Sam McDowell, Bob Feller, even Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson in more recent years — said without hesitation, “Dalkowski was faster.”

The problem of course was getting the ball over the plate. Or that was the first problem anyway. Even in high school, walking 10 or more batters in a fame was routine. So was striking out 15 or 20.

The Orioles signed him to a contract when he graduated high school, and assigned him to a minor league team in Kingsport, in the Appalachian League. Dalkowski was almost unhittable — 3.2 hits per nine innings that year. 17.6 strikeouts per nine innings. And 18.7 walks. More than 2 walks per inning! It all added up to an unhittable pitcher with one win for the year and eight losses.

He had so much promise. If he could just get the ball over the plate. Dalkowski pitched in the 1950s and 1960s before radar guns or other reliable means for measuring speed. He may have been throwing as high as 110 miles per hour, according to some, or he may have been throwing a pokey 100 or so.

And the ball moved. He threw a four-seam fastball with an almost unnaturally smooth, easy delivery that ignited the ball out of his hand with so much backspin, batters and catchers swore it rose as it neared home plate. Some rose so high they flew over the catcher, over the umpire, and off the backstop or even into the stands on the fly.

The three authors did their homework to write this book. They have game by game accounts of Dalkowski’s career, starting in high school (and including even his football-playing days there). They researched records, interviewed friends and former teammates, Dalkowski’s ex-wife Linda Moore, and just about anybody who might be able to shed light on Dalkowski’s legend.

Dalkowski never did tame his fastball. Pitching coaches worked with him, teammates encouraged him, but nothing solved the problem. Others, like Koufax, solved their control problems, but Dalkowski never did.

Dalkowski never made it to the major leagues. On the brink of making the Orioles’ Major League roster, in 1963, he hurt his elbow. Although he recovered well enough to pitch, maybe not throwing as hard as he once did, he never did get there.

Off the field, Dalkowski, as chronicled by the authors, was as uncontrolled as on it. He started drinking consistently and eventually heavily in his mid-teens. Alcoholism didn’t destroy his baseball career, but it sure didn’t help. In fact, the final straw was an off-field incident — one of many involving drunken behavior.

The final third or so of the book traces Dalkowski through his post-baseball life. It’s not pretty. Everybody wanted him to succeed. Everyone testifies that he was an honest, sincere, nice guy (with few exceptions when alcohol took over). We know he won’t succeed in baseball — we know that form his absence from the record books. But we want at least some ease and grace in the life that came after baseball.

But we won’t find it. He sank. Alcoholism, poverty, failed marriage. Dalkowski tried for years to find another chance in baseball. He hung around ballparks when he could get there, recontacting old teammates and friends. But he made what living he could however he could as long as he could before things would go wrong. He spent time as a farmworker, a welder’s assistant in oil fields, . . . He even panhandled from his old teammates during his visits to ballparks. And sometimes he found himself on a work gang, working off time for alcohol-related jailings.

His last years were more heartening. Former teammates and friends, and his hometown of New Britain, Connecticut, rescued Dalkowski, even honored his legendary achievements, and gave him a home in an assisted living facility.

The authors did a great job. This is not an easy story to document. There are no videos of Dalkowski pitching, no measurements of how fast he threw — it’s all grunt work, finding the people, interviewing them, searching small town newspaper archives. This had to be a labor of love.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few figures in baseball's storied history are surrounded by as much myth and intrigue as fireballing pitcher Steve Dalkowski. In Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball's Fastest Pitcher, authors Bill Dembski, Alex Thomas, and Brian Vikander offer a comprehensive bio worthy of the mythic Dalkwoski.

How fast did Dalkwoski throw? Did one of his pitches rip the ear off of a batter? What was it like to hit against him or to serve as his catcher? Why didn't he ever reach the major leagues? One does not have to read too far into this book to know that the authors have done their research. This is especially important for a figure as mythic as Steve Dalkowski, widely regarded as the fastest pitcher who has ever lived. Interviews were conducted with important figures from every era of Dalkowski's life, and newspaper archives were mined deeply and effectively for contemporary accounts of much of the subject's life and times.

The book is most effective at exploring the Connecticut world that Dalkowski emerged from before his professional baseball career began, and following the trail of disappointments and difficulties that defined Dalkowski's post-playing days. In between we see baseball in the '50s and '60s in general, and in the Baltimore Orioles organization in particular, with significant appearances by Cal Ripken Sr., Earl Weaver, and Pat Gillick.

In an ironic twist, many of the less memorable passages in a book about a baseball legend revolve around baseball action itself. Here the archival research becomes a bit of a liability, as the almost day by day breakdowns of Dalkowski's game performances make the narrative a bit plodding at points. The granular detail is there for those that want it, but overall the book's rhythm may have been improved with a slight reduction in it.

All in all, Dalko is a worthy full-scale biography for a figure that has lived large in baseball's imagination for half a century.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Michael N. Yotz · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is an extremely small interest in reading this book. Dalkowski was a minor league baseball pitcher in the 1950s and 60s. I had read magazine pieces about his legendary career, so when I saw this book I wanted to read it. I can only recommend this book to serious baseball fans. The book is only about 130 pages, the rest are photos, end notes and an index. It is poorly written, some sections were obviously written by a non baseball fan; they made repeated references to one of Dalkowski's manager where they incorrectly called him coach. The writers make numerous references to the same story, as if there was no proof reader. Also, the story is an extremely sad one, with practically no happy stories.

[Paul Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

The legend of Steve Dalkowski is well known to baseball fans - fastest pitcher ever but crazy wild, unable to conquer his demons of a lack of confidence and alcohol so never made it to the majors; the inspiration for Nuke Laloosh in Bull Durham. The only thing this bio reveals is the depths of despair he faced after his playing days were done - e.g. for a time he was a migrant worker in California. If you're looking for a book to get you jazzed for the season, take a free pass on this one.

[Jimmy Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

They say that 96% of males grow up wanting to be a professional sports athlete. Dalkowski had the talent. Several known names will agree with this statement. His biography explains and shows why his talent didn't get there. Why didn't he make it? As the story unfolds, you will wince and shake your head as Dalkowski narrowly misses time and time again. In the end, you will get all your answers.

[Daniel Serrao · Rating 4 out of 5]

I consider myself a huge baseball fan. I never heard of Steve Dalkowski. Now I have. This is a story of a man with great talent and how it all played out in his life. The authors researched his life as thoroughly as anyone could. And yet Steve Dalkowski remains an enigma to this day. If you like statistics...if you like legends...if you like psychology...you will really like Dalko.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 3 out of 5]

Episode 279: “Dalko” BASEBALL BY THE BOOK podcast — OCT 26, 2020 ⋅ 56:52 Steve Dalkowski may have been the fastest pitcher in the history of baseball. So why did the legendary lefty never play an inning in the major leagues? Author Brian Vikander joins us to discuss the mythic career and troubled life of the real Nuke LaLoosh.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is too much of a text book recap of a mans life without any personal humor or insights into who he was inside and how he felt and thought. His career was amazing but his life was too sad to be written like this. 3 stars for Mr. Dalkowski and zero stars for the authors.

[H Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave me a nostalgic feeling for the '60's. I have a friend who was pitching in the minors at the time and is even mentioned in the book...

[Tim K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a good book. A tragic story of a pitcher unable to tame his God given gift and his love for the bottle.