My take on Zambrano’s No-Hitter

All right, all right. I admit I’m impressed with Carlos Zambrano‘s no-hitter yesterday. For a couple weeks there, it looked like he let the arm go just like Chet Steadman did back in the Cubs Division Title game versus the Mets in ’93.

But, i do wanna point out one thing: the miller park radar guns were clocking his fastball at 98 mph yesterday. 98 mph is no joke. Anyone who’s tried to hit a 98 mph ball will tell you that it’s a fast pitch.

BUT still, it’s not 103 mph like mine was measured at 15 years ago (when i was 12).  Sure, 103 doesn’t seem like it’s that much faster than 98 — I mean, if you’re driving a car at either of those speeds and a cop sees you, you’re gonna get pulled over. (Trust me, i know).

If you don’t agree that there’s a big difference between the pitching speeds, just think about this for a second.

If my ’93 fastball was competing against Zambrano’s fastball in a 100-mile race, the Rowengartner fastball would cross the finish line at about 58 minutes. The Zambrano fastball would cross the finish line at about 61 minutes. That means my fastball finishes the race three minutes before Zambrano’s. That’s like not even a race! Imagine the Kentucky Derby if the #1 horse beat the #2 horse by three minutes! And if we were running a 1000-mile race, my fastball would finish the race 3 hours faster than Zambrano’s. That means my fastball could finish the race, sit down, watch the movie Forrest Gump and still have about 40 minutes to kill before Zambrano’s ball was done.

Look, I’m not Zambrano-hating. He’s got chops. I’m just saying, there’s room for improvement. He’s not the only guy in the world to throw a no-hitter.

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