1929 Philadelphia Athletics vs Detroit Tigers

Imagine Paul Skenes pitching to Cricket O’Harrison in that video

A couple fun facts from baseball reference…

Those 1929 A’s dominated that year, winning 104 in the regular season and the World Series in 5 games over the Cubs

Only 6 of their games went over 2:30, and only one lasted three hours

They had a bunch of terrible crowds at home… not surprisingly their best were against the Yankees

Wow I forgot what it looked like to see a batter without batting gloves, extract gloves in the back pockets, elbow pad, oven mitt, and taped wrists

Look at those reporters crouching right there ready to get beamed by a foul ball.

And now we need nets 350 feet down the foul lines.

Are there estimates of how fast pitches were then?
The loopy windups just seem so unnecessary

The 2025 Colorado Rockies would probably win 49 out of 50 games against teams from 1929. Different era and the guys probably weren’t as athletic, not to mention that there were probably better players around America at that time, but they had other jobs.

Back when baseball was actually interesting

Looks like that would save a catchers knees.
Bad if you throw a sinker.

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Are there estimates of how fast pitches were then?

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There are some, however methods were more primitive. There were pitchers that threw really hard in that era though, just probably not nearly as many as today. For example it's pretty well accepted that Bob Feller threw at least in the upper 90s (measured 98.5 with Army ordnance equipment) and he began his career with the Indians in 1936.

Amazing video. Thanks for posting.