Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Very cool.

Thank you for posting this.

That was extremely awesome. Thanks rburgh.

As an aside, and I guess it was from the angle Walter Johnson was filmed pitching, but the lack of a back-side follow through adds to Johnson's whip-like effect. I think we all have seen evidence of Johnson's side-arm delivery, but I guess I just noticed this aspect for the first time. His windup in relation to his lower half shows his lead leg striding and then stopping with contact with the ground, in a similar way as pitchers of today. However, the next step of today's pitchers is a back-side, back leg follow-through, which the Big Train obviously doesn't replicate. It appears he has definite hip action on release, though, almost like a hitter rotating his hips.

Maybe The Biomechanical Man could weigh in on this. I'm curious which lower half usage is better to generate velocity, as well as to best mitigate injury.....Obviously no MLB pitchers today have the same lack of follow-through that Johnson shows here.

I watched Johnson's mechanics on the link and qualitatively compared them to modern Major Leaguers I've tested in my biomechanics lab. As Andy pointed out, Johnson as a true sidearm pitcher. What we've found in our biomechanical research is that successful pitchers have the following sequence:
1. pelvis rotates to face the batter (that is, the belly button is facing home)
2. upper trunk rotates to face the batter while arm cocks back
3. front knee straightens
4. trunk bends forward

Typically for successful pitchers, the back leg follows through with the foot sweeping outside the body's frame. For overhead pitchers, the foot sweeps out high off the ground. For sidearm pitchers, the foot sweeps much closer to the ground.

Instead of sweeping his right foot out, Walter Johnson pretty much kept his right foot directly behind his right knee. This was not a big deal from a safety or velocity point of view, because The Big Train followed the 4 kinetic chain steps outlined above. I predict a long, successful career for this pitcher.

Thanks Glenn. When I saw it, I wondered how he generated enough velocity, but Johnson's power looks like it is transferred much like a hitter's rotation. I guess the cookie cutter syndrome means we don't see much deviation from the norm.

The Big Train's motion sure is easy and economical.

Glenn, I wonder what you think about the windmill windup of Virgil Barnes? Nobody does that anymore—and we think of it now as a bit comical—but did that sort of style have any value? (Oddly enough, when introducing Mogridge, the film shows us the same shot of Barnes again.)

This World Series was discussed just about endlessly in The Glory of Their Times, so it's fascinating to see this extremely well-preserved film.

Griffith Stadium was never that full again!

bontomn wrote:Griffith Stadium was never that full again!

Tom, did you keep your ticket stub?