In Cricket the fastest and slowest bowling styles are Fast and Spin and a medium speed bowler is called a "Pace bowler" Pace~Ace (an enthusiast with an Apt Name )
What are the Fastest and slowest terms in Pitching (Baseball) and a Medium speed term if there is one?

And For the record I bowled at a slow/medium Leg spin pace when I played cricket. "LEG" being the batters exposed leg in front of the wicket( The mark I'd aim for)

While disputable the fastest pitch ever thrown in a baseball game was hurled by Nolan Ryan. It clocked at 100.9 MPH and was tossed August 20, 1974. It has been “broken” since then, but Nolan Ryan’s is still in the books. Scroll down the link and you will see the “ 100 MPH Club ”.

Given the pitching rubber is 60’ 6” from the front edge of home plate, and the point the ball is actually released at is about 57’ it gets on the hitter rather quickly .



The slowest pitch is harder to record. Just last week a Mets pitcher tossed a pitch that was so slow it did not register on the radar gun. It was estimated at about 50 MPH.

An average Major League pitcher needs to have a fastball that hits at least in the low 90’s to be considered effective. There are of course exceptions and many pitchers top out in the mid to high 80’s, but they have much more movement and control than a power pitcher. If they didn’t they would not be in the majors very long as a big league hitter will tee off on a flat fastball at that speed.

Interestingly, Koz, the speeds and distances involved are similar in the two games. In cricket the ball is 'delivered' from a distance of no more than 58 feet.'No more' because the batsman may move closer to the bowler (=pitcher). Our fast bowlers can deliver the ball at up to near 100mph.However the bowler differs from the pitcher in that a) he runs up to the point of delivery b) he delivers the ball in a whirling action of the arm c) the arm is vertical at the point of release d) the arm must be straight.

The other important fact is that the bowler is not sending the ball directly through the air as a pitcher is but is hurling the ball so that the batsman receives it after the ball hits the ground. He aims to have it hit the ground at a point just a few feet in front of the batsman. His aim is to hit the stumps (three sticks behind the batsman: see photo in link ) or to induce a mishit giving a fielder the chance to catch the ball on the fly.He may choose a shorter length ,so the ball hits the ground well short of the batsman and rears up sharply so it would hit him around the face or upper body.This may well induce a false stroke as the batsman shields himself but good batsmen either duck or swipe the ball as it rises. This is considered a perfectly legal tactic: batsmen wear helmets and upper body protectors (nowadays: back in the 1950s they were careless of head injury) and the best ones treat such deliveries with contemptuous ease ,often hitting the cricketing equivalent of a homer off them

Here's a link. It shows a fast bowler of the 1950s (Tyson) bowling. He is about to swing his right arm up and over to the delivery as he runs in. You can see a set of stumps next to him.There's a corresponding set behind the other batsman, the one out of picture to whom he is bowling. The batsmen bat in pairs and the stumps are like two bases in baseball, the batsmen running the 22 yards between them each time a scoring stroke is made.The bowlers work in pairs too: after every six deliveries the other bowler will bowl from the opposite end.

Fast bowling

A fast bowler relies on speed and/or swing and the fact that the ball has a raised seam, which may make the ball move sharply away from or towards the batsman when it hits the ground and/or swing or dip in the air. The ground and air conditions make a big difference . Sometimes they don't favour a fast or medium bowler but are perfect for the bowler who is slow but spins the ball a lot with his fingers or wrist.

That is interesting to me Fred, as I never really understood the game (Cricket) all that well.

Typhoon Tyson had a wind up that looks similar to Bob Feller’s . He was one of the best baseball pitchers of all time and has been a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1962. (A player has to be retired for five years before consideration)

Bob Feller lost some of his “prime” years of pitching due to he volunteered and joined the Navy on December 10, 1941. He was a power pitcher who dominated the game at his time.

He is still alive and well and I must say it is fun talking to him. I see him at least once a year in Cooperstown, and have seen him at his museum in Iowa a couple of times. He is a sharp minded cocky man who loves to tell baseball or Navy stories .