Baseball Shorts: Ecological Fastball

In this episode of Baseball Shorts, we pay attention to a pitch that can hardly be called a fastball: The Ecological Fastball.

An Ecological Fastball is a “fastball” that seldom exceeds 55 mph. Allen Ripley was a pitcher that was known for fastballs that slow. Bob Brenley, Ripley’s catcher with the San Francisco Giants, stated that he was nicknamed “Speed Limit.”

The name ecological pitch comes from a time in which the OPEC countries imposed an oil embargo for Western countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War in the early seventies. As a result, oil got scarce in countries like the USA and the Netherlands. Because of this, the US introduced a speed limit of 55 mph, to save fuel.