

Since 1912, baseball has been a game obsessed with statistics and speed. Thrown at upwards of 100 miles per hour, a fastball moves too quickly for human cognition and accelerates into the realm of intuition. Fastball is a look at how the game at its highest levels of achievement transcends logic and even skill, becoming the primal struggle for man to control the uncontrollable.
Editing
Seamless archival footage that makes 1968 feel like yesterday
Sound
That satisfying CRACK of 100 mph meeting wood
Direction
Hock treats Nolan Ryan like a Greek tragedy

Director
Jonathan Hock
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film uses cutting-edge motion tracking to compare deadball-era pitchers to modern arms—turns out Walter Johnson might've thrown 102 mph with today's training.
Released in 2016, this doc arrived right when Statcast was revolutionizing how fans argue about sports online. Coincidence? Absolutely not.