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Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher
“I wish he could have accomplished more. He was slated for big things. It’s just unfortunate that he didn’t.…But he’s still a legend.” -Vin Cazzetta, Steve Dalkowski’s junior high coach.
I was recently contacted by publisher Paul Mikos asking if I would review an advance copy of Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher. It’s the biography of baseball pitching legend, Steve “Dalko” Dalkowski, who passed away earlier this year. The book covers in great detail his up-and-down career, and also covers his tragic demise as he succumbed to alcoholic dementia. The character Nuke Laloosh in the film Bull Durham is based loosely on Steve Dalkowski.
Steve could throw hard, all right, but he had one huge problem: Most of the time he had no idea where his blazing fastball was going. A la Ryne Duren, oftentimes the first pitch he threw would sail over the screen, sending shivers up and down the spines of the awaiting opposing batters.
Stephen Louis Dalkowski, Jr. was born on June 3, 1939, in New Britain, Connecticut. He was a guy blessed with a once-in-a-generation talent; but for largely inexplicable reasons, he could never quite harness his talent, falling well short of the other-worldly expectations often placed upon him. Steve never made it to the majors and his nine-year minor-league won/lost record was unimpressive: 46-80, with a 5.54 ERA, striking out 1,396 and walking 1,354 in 995 innings. His only appearance in a major league ballpark as at the Orioles’ Memorial Stadium during an exhibition game in 1959, when he struck out the opposing side.
Steve consistently threw over 100 mph, some claim he got as high as 115. There were no radar guns back then to record his velocity, and no existing footage of him pitching, making comparisons to greats such as Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Nolan Ryan, and Sandy Koufax anecdotal. But one thing is certain: Those who saw him pitch didn’t need a radar gun. To a man, he was universally acclaimed to be the fastest they ever saw. Even a great hitter like Ted Williams wanted no part of him after seeing him pitch. It’s also certain that Steve Dalkowski struck out more batters and walked more batters per nine innings than any professional pitcher in baseball history.
Steve was a superb, all-around athlete in his home town of New Britain, excelling on both the baseball diamond and on the football gridiron. In addition to being a pitching sensation who once set a Connecticut state record by striking out 24 batters in a single game, and once pitching back-to-back no-hitters, he was the star quarterback and running back on his New Britain high school team. He led them twice to state division championships and even considered a career in football.
But it was his baseball skills that set his hometown ablaze with excitement. As word got out about his amazing talent, scouts from almost every major league team descended upon New Britain to see for themselves if the hype was legit. The Orioles decided the erratic youngster was worth a gamble and signed him to a $4000 bonus upon graduation in 1957.
Legends soon sprang up about his blistering fastball—which many batters described as making a “buzzing’” sound as it blew by almost unseen—including that he once tore off a batter’s ear with an errant delivery, or he had broken a batter’s arm, or he threw a ball through a wooden wall. Another story said he once threw a pitch that broke an umpire’s mask in three places. Although most of the legends proved to be false or at least embellished, there was no doubting Steve threw fast…and hard…and wild.
In reading about Steve’s career both in high school and throughout the minors, a clear pattern developed: It wasn’t unusual for him to strike out 20 or more batters, while at the same time walking almost an equal number, plus an ample supply of wild deliveries. Typical was one game he pitched for the Kingsport Tennessee Orioles in Bluefield West Virginia when he struck out 24 Bluefield batters while issuing 18 walks and six wild pitches.
As he progressed through the minors, coach after the coach took a look at Steve’s blazing fastball and thought he could be the one to harness this amazing talent. Familiar names like Harry Breechen, Billy DeMars, Birdie Tebbets, and Earl Weaver appear throughout the book. None had continued success solving the enigma of Steve Dalkowski; and yet no one was willing to give up on the Orioles’ most promising prospect. At times it appeared he had achieved a breakthrough as he would suddenly find his control and put a string of outstanding games together. Was he finally over the hurdle? Was he finally ready for the Big Show? But then, just as often, in the next outing, he would register double-digit walks—and it was back again to square one.
Every imaginable approach was tried to help the beleaguered lefty, including having him throw extra warm-ups before games hoping to tire his arm out and slow now his deliveries; practicing with two batters standing at the box; and pitching the ball through a board with the strike zone cut out. There were occasional successes, but nothing ever seemed to work for long. Some noted that while warming up in the bullpen he had no trouble throwing strikes, but once he crossed the white lines and stepped on the mount, the wildness would return and he would revert to the old “Dalko.”
Was it all in his head? Was it a case of nerves? Was it was the wrong approach to fiddle with his mechanics, which were basically sound? Maybe Yogi Berra’s famous adage wasn’t so far off the mark: “Pitching is 90 percent physical, the other 50 percent is mental.” For a pitcher like Steve Dalkowski—who simply threw each pitch as hard as he could—perhaps Sandy Koufax’s quote a few years later could have saved his career: “I became a pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.”
At one point near the end of spring training in 1963, he appeared to have made the Orioles’ roster. He was coming off his best year in the minors under Earl Weaver in 1962 and was looking sharp in the big league camp. With his dream of reaching the majors now about to become a reality, tragedy suddenly reared its ugly head: Appearing in relief against the Yankees on March 23rd, he struck out Roger Maris and Elston Howard. His next pitch was a slider to Phil Linz. Simultaneously, he heard something pop in his elbow and he had to come out of the game. It turned out to be severe muscle strain, but he never fully recovered. The injury meant another disappointing trip back to the minors. It also started the downward projection of his career and his life.
By 1964 his fastball was down to 90 mph and midway through the season he was released by the Orioles. They had finally given up on their once-promising phenom. After two more seasons in the minors in the Pirates’ and Angels’ organizations and a brief return to the Orioles’ farm system, he retired in 1966.
One haunting observation made by Rochester teammate John Valentine caught my attention:
“I always thought they should have turned him into an outfielder to take the pressure off him as a pitcher. They could have brought him in once in a while to pitch to see if the anxiety went down and the control went up. He was a good teammate, a good hitter, and he had a cannon for an arm. Who in the hell was going from first to third on Steve’s arm? No one!”
Apparently this idea never occurred to any of the myriad coaches and managers who tried to help Steve. Steve was known to be a “follower,” and had an authority figure he respected like Earl Weaver, recognized for his ability to assess baseball talent, made the suggestion, I feel certain Steve would have accepted it. Unfortunately, none of his coaches or managers wanted to be the one who gave up on this great talent. No one wanted to be the one who finally told Steve his future was not on the mound. It wouldn’t have been the first time a pitcher was moved to a different position. Of course, Babe Ruth comes immediately to mind, but perhaps that’s not a good example. But how about Smoky Joe Wood? Or Lefty O’Doul? Or in more recent years, Rick Ankiel? An excellent all-around athlete who was always a good hitter, I suspect Steve would have made it to the majors as an outfielder. But of that, we’ll never know.
Steve’s life after baseball wasn’t pretty, as the heavy drinking which had accompanied him throughout his career, now took its toll. His life was best summed up by his ex-wife Linda in 2017: “He was in some ways a lost soul. After baseball, he never found another thing to do.”
This period included multiple arrests, violent tempers outbursts, spousal abuse, and a failed marriage. He spent many years as an alcoholic drifter, making a meager living as a manual laborer, including crop and fruit picking. The heavy drinking continued. His usual fare included double martinis followed by all the beer he could consume. He went in and out of rehab stints, but he always seemed to relapse. He made a recovery in the 1990s while living with his sister, but chronic alcoholism left him fading rapidly into dementia. Steve Dalkowski passed away earlier this year, on April 17, 2020.
I enjoyed Dalko, The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher. It’s well written and edited and held my interest from start to finish. It tells the story of one extraordinarily talented pitcher who in his life experienced unfathomable heights and unimaginable lows. A player who—although he never made it to the majors—became a legend in his own time, a legend that persists to this day. It has a sad, tragic ending, but it’s a story well worth reading, full of life lessons for us all, and it’s one I highly recommend to all baseball fans.
Gary Livacari
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