Athletes are getting stronger all the time, thanks to scientific conditioning, and records keep falling. But the velocity of a baseball thrown really, really hard has not changed all that much since Walter Johnson’s days. 100 m.p.h., and maybe as much as 3 m.p.h. more, is as fast as anyone can throw it.
According to this article, that is close to the human limit. Muscles can indeed get bigger and stronger, which is why athletes can run, swim, and jump better than ever before. But throwing a baseball has to do not only with muscles but with ligaments and tendons. Those do not get stronger as muscles do, no matter how many steroids you take. Powerful muscle exertion can snap, tear, and over stretch them like rubber bands. The article says that throwing a ball 110 m.p.h. would be about the very most a human arm could take.
Well, the official record is 103, so there is room for a new flamethrower to throw even harder, before he blows out his arm.
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