Harbaugh First Pitch Video @ White Sox - Cubs

Submitted by codeBLUE11 on

Didn't see this posted, but Harbaugh got some pretty good heat on his first pitch at the White Sox - Cubs game Wednesday. Looks like he's been practicing a bit since his first pitch for the Tigers.

Will attempt to embed video in comments, but here is the link.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9v-MWG2JkA

 

and another from MLB.com

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/8878538/v978768983/cws-chc-jim-harbaugh-throws-out-first-pitch

 

Edit: Looks like he also borrowed Matt Szczur's shoes? You can see him taking them off at the end of the second video.

PopeLando

July 29th, 2016 at 10:08 AM ^

I bet he stayed up an extra hour each night for the last month practicing for this.

Because he thinks that somewhere there is a database of "best first pitches ever", and damned if he isn't going to top that list...

UMProud

July 29th, 2016 at 10:18 AM ^

Oh more than that he's been working with M strength and conditioning coach for a year to improve his mechanics and arm strength. He also visited the baseball factory to see how they were made and had the baseball tested in a wind tunnel to determine optimum release trajectories.

UMgradMSUdad

July 29th, 2016 at 11:28 AM ^

 He was returning the cleats he had borrowed from one of the Cubs.  He must have gone straight from California to Chicago, because he had his golf shoes but not cleats.  He talked to Greg Maddux, who told him the Cubs' mound was the slipperiest in baseball. So he asked the Cubs players if anyone had size 12 cleats that he could borrow.

MGoGrendel

July 29th, 2016 at 10:13 AM ^

The video was from behind home plate and taken from a phone in the upper deck.  There was a portion of the screen blacked out, maybe because of a finger in the way of the camera. Very poor quality and not worthy of a major broadcast company.

My first thought was that Finebaum had ESPN shut off all the field cameras because Harbaugh has too much exposure.  All they had was a "Zapruder" view of the event!

Hab

July 29th, 2016 at 10:18 AM ^

He's probably pouring over video right now to work out the kinks in his form so that he can get bring his pitches back towards the strike zone.

julesh

July 29th, 2016 at 10:39 AM ^

I sometimes wonder if Harbaugh loves baseball more than football. He certainly seems to know how to get on the field at every single stadium.

MotownGoBlue

July 29th, 2016 at 12:54 PM ^

You would think so but there are a few recent college QBs that debunked that theory (one in particular though I won't name any names, but he recently nearly slept in a pond.)

Edit - I give you "shotgun arm" Cardale Eephus Jones:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jWljAfljqMM

And for shits and giggles, Urban throws from the grass (wouldn't shock me if he drives from the ladies' tees):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-30cOG9Wt4

El Jeffe

July 29th, 2016 at 11:13 AM ^

He probably wishes he could throw out the first pitch in a three-game series so he could throw out a better first pitch today than he did yesterday, and a better first pitch tomorrow than he did today.

#EUTM

CoverZero

July 29th, 2016 at 12:15 PM ^

He was saying in that Tom Waddle interview that he was going to borrow some cleats due to the mound being slippery and that he wanted to "break the speed limit" with his pitch.  It looks like he hit at least 55...not sure about the highway 70 MPH though...but pretty close.

Love how close he is with his family and young kids.  They are always around him.

(OT...reminds me of past coaches) For all the criticism of RR as a coach, he was great with is kids too...Hoke as well with his daughter. 

codeBLUE11

July 29th, 2016 at 4:20 PM ^

Well, let's do some rough math.

 

From the youtube video it looks like the ball takes about 0.7 sec from release to catchers mitt.

The distance from the mound to the plate is 60 ft 6 in.

So 0.7sec/60.5ft = 86.42 feet/sec

86.42 feet/sec = 58.92 mph.

Not bad, especially when he still got pretty close to a strike.