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11 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP PLAY BALL 11 BAY AREA NEWS GROUP PLAY BALL THE LEAGUE wastomaximizetheinteraction between the fielders and hitters. As John Thorn, the official his- torian for major league baseball, wrote "(the pitcher and batter) were not adversaries but very nearly allies, each doing his ut - most to put the ball in play for the valiant barehand fielders." The dynamic changed in the 1880s as the game transitioned to overhand pitching and, soon, flame-throwers like Amos Rusie were heating up. The National League in 1893 moved the pitching mound back from 50 feet (where it had been since 1881) to 60 feet, 6 inches (where it has stayed, whether Posey likes it or not). For most of baseball history, the fastest pitcher debate has been waged through anecdotes and one-liners. In that regard, it's tough to top Negro Leagues catch - er Biz Mackey, who suggested that Satchel Paige's fastball sometimes burned up upon reentry. "They say the catcher, the um - pire and the bat boys looked all over for that ball, but it was gone,'' Mackey claimed. "Now how do you account for that?" No balls get lost now, not with high-tech equipment monitoring not just the velocity but the spin rate of every pitch. And it's easy enough to settle who's throwing the hardest. In 2008, the PITCHf/x system was installed in all 30 ballparks, creating a generation of rubber - neckers who swivel to see the MPH on the scoreboard. "Oh, I feel like that's the main thing that you look for,'' A's right- hander Jharel Cotton said. "If I throw a pitch and I think it's hard, I'll look back and say, 'OK, that's pretty cool.''' Chapman, of course, is the reigning king of pop. According to MLB's Statcast, the left-hander threw the 30 fastest pitches in the majors in 2016, with the swiftest coming on a 105.1 mph fastball on June 18 against Baltimore. Pitchers are so reliant on stadi - um readings that opponents have been known to pull a fast one (at least before MLB cracked down on the antics). Kevin Towers, the former Padres general manager, said his team used to intentionally dial the gun down whenever Brad Penny of the Los Angeles Dodgers took the mound in San Diego. "He liked velocity. He'd stare at the board,'' Towers told the Arizona Republic in 2011. "He was throwing 95-96, but we'd have it at 91 and he'd get (ticked) off and throw harder and harder and start elevating." Long before that, back when radar guns at the stadium were a mere novelty, teammates used to mess with A's right-hander Steve McCatty. "They had me looking up at the board in Texas one day, and I said, 'I'm throwing 101,'" McCatty told Bleacher Report. "Then it was 103. And then I realized it was the temperature." That was a good gag for the old days, but those numbers no longer seem so laughable. In 2010, the average fastball for a qualified major league starter was 90.5. Last year, it was up to 91.76.