History's Hardest Thrower.

Although there were no reliable devices available to measure the velocity of a blazing pitch, the fastball of Walter Johnson is generally considered to be one of the hardest of all time. Johnson was born on 6 November 1887 in Humbolt, Kansas, the son of Frank and Minnie Johnson, Swedish farmers who moved from Pennsylvania to Kansas by wagon train. In 1901 the Johnsons moved to Olinda, California, where they hoped to strike it rich in the oil fields. Although no oil bubbled up for the Johnsons, they made a good living providing mule teams for the oilmen. At fourteen Johnson was playing baseball for the local Oil Field Juniors baseball team. Strong and athletic, he probably would have been the team's pitcher had he not pitched so hard that nobody would catch for him. In 1907 Johnson was working for the Idaho Telephone Company, digging postholes...