Posted by: Alex Sawelson (michellesawelson@mac.com) on Mon Jul 11 10:55:51 2005

> > > > A couple years ago i saw one kid from maryland or virginia who threw
about 75 MPH and that translated to about 115 or something like that if it was
at major league distance for reaction time. But that kid was 12 i would say 63
is pretty fast for a ten year old.
> > >
> > > Translate? 75mph is 75mph. This reminds me of women's Olympic
softball pitching from 42 feet where TV announcers are always "translating"
their weenie pitching speeds (about 65-70mph) into more impressive mens
speeds.
> >
> >
> >
> > That’s an interesting comment Unclebuck44!
> >
> > Its my understanding that last year during an exhibition, Jenny Finch
completely baffled a bunch of big name major league hitters with her “weenie
pitching speeds”.
> >
> > College and Olympic softball pitching distance is 43 feet, not 42.
> >
> > Reaction time is a huge factor in hitting.
>
>
> Olympic softball pitching was from 40 feet until a few years ago when the
distance was slightly increased. Yeah, some major leaguers couldn't hit her.
Wonder how much time they had to practice against softball pitching. Heck,
some LL pitchers would give a few MLB sluggers trouble, too. You don't make
the bigs by hitting 60 mph pitches. I don't hear of women softball sluggers
trying their luck against Randy Johnson.
>
> The fact is Jenny Finch is about as fast as a good Little Leaguer.


They measure the speeds by the time it takes for the ball to get to the plate. If
a Little Leaguers fastball that is 75 mph takes a half of a second to get to the
plate from 46 feet and a 115 mph fastball from a major leaguer from 60 feet
that takes a half of a second to get to the plate the little leaguers fastball is
translated to 115 mph.