Steve Dalkowski, a hard-throwing, wild left-hander whose minor league baseball career inspired the creation of Nuke LaLoosh in the movie “Bull Durham,” has died. He was 80.
He died Sunday at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain. His sister, Patricia Cain, said Friday he had several pre-existing conditions that were complicated when he became infected with the new coronavirus. Dalkowski had been in assisted living for 26 years because of alcoholic dementia.
Dalkowski never reached the major leagues but was said to have thrown well over 100 mph. Long before velocity was tracked with precision, he spawned legends that estimated he approached 110 mph or 115 mph – some said even 125 mph.
“Fastest I ever saw,” retired Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams said after facing Dalkowski during batting practice at spring training in 1963, according to a first-person story by director and writer Ron Shelton.
Clyde King, the future MLB manager and executive who worked with Dalkowski in the Baltimore Orioles system, wrote in his 1999 autobiography “A King’s Legacy” that Dalkowski had the best fastball among the thousands of pitchers he saw.