Dalkowski’s legend lives on with upcoming book, doc
Steve Dalkowski, the man, is gone. His story is still with us, the myths and legends surrounding it always will be.
This month, a documentary and a book about Dalkowski’s life will be released.
“His story is as compelling as anybody who ever lived in the sports world, because of that living legend,” said Tom Chiappetta, who has spent 30 years, on and off, collecting material, investing himself personally and finally completing his documentary.
Chiappetta, a lifelong Connecticut resident, former journalist and Orioles fan, was working for a Stamford-based agency that staged old timers days at major league ballparks in the 1980s. In Baltimore, he began talking with old Orioles about Dalkowski, who came from New Britain and is considered by many the fastest, and wildest pitcher in baseball history.
Using interviews as far back as a sit-down with Dalkowski in 1991, to eye-witness recollections conducted via ZOOM during the pandemic, Chiappetta’s half-hour project, Far from Home: The Steve Dalkowski Story, will be aired on CPTV on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m., with additional showings later on CPTV and CPTV Spirit.
“Steve was real,” Chiappetta said. “A lot stuff was made up about him, a lot of things he did, a lot of things he didn’t do, but he had a real life.”
On Oct. 27, a new book, Dalko: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Fastest Pitcher, will be released from Influence Publishers.
“He is the last, the very last, of the legends,” said Brian Vikander, who wrote the book with Bill Dembski and Alex Thomas. “We’ll never have anything like this again. This took 60 years to develop and here we are still unraveling what’s going on.”
Dalkowski, who suffered from alcohol-related dementia, died at 80 in New Britain on April 19 from complications due to COVID19. Signed by the Orioles in 1957, Dalkowski averaged 12.5 strikeouts and 11.4 walks per nine innings, never reaching the major leagues. His career was ruined by his inability to control a fastball that possibly exceeded 100 mph and by his drinking, and his life spiraled out of control in the years following his baseball career before he reunited with family in 1994.
Chiappetta’s story and his connection with Dalkowski is personal. After visiting and interviewing him in Bakersfield, Calif., in August 1991, Chiappetta helped connect Dalkowski with the Baseball Assistance Team, and stayed involved as Dalkowski disappeared, re-appeared and was eventually brought back home by his sister, Patti Cain. He lived in a nursing home his last 26 years, but Dalkowski found peace, appearing at ballparks in New Britain, Baltimore, Los Angeles and was honored for his unique contribution to baseball history.
The “Nuke Laloosh” character in the movie Bull Durham is loosely based on Dalkowski. Chiappetta said he wanted to tell a story about the human being, and not the “cartoon character” that emerged from embellished stories that were passed down.
“He got 26 years of real life back,” Chiappetta said, “of real life at the level where, for somebody who went through this, with all the warmth of his family and friends. That was the most rewarding part of having played a small role, and now being able to tell Steve’s story … Steve’s full story from people who have been in his life.”
Noah Finz narrates the documentary. Chiappetta found the help he needed with editing, with converting 30-year-old footage to modern platforms. The content is Connecticut-centric, for the local viewing audience, but Chiappetta is hoping to produce a longer version with more Baltimore-related content for showing in that market. Earl Weaver, Boog Powell, Lou Brock, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Sr., are among the baseball
figures shown discussing Dalkowski in interviews Chiappetta had collected, along with the nevershown footage of Dalkowski himself.
Vikander, an Arizona-based pitching guru, first became fascinated as a Little Leaguer growing up in California in 1960, while Dalkowski, pitching for Class A Stockton, was drawing a lot of attention. “And I have followed him, off and on, from that time forward,” Vikander said. “He was something special, something different.”
Vikander believes Dalkowski could have been successful if he had access to modern-day methods of coaching pitchers, and that is a large focus of the book, four years in the making – a breakdown of Dalkowski’s mechanics. How hard did Dalkowski throw? Was it over 100 MPH? Was it 110 or 120?
“The most important determination that I made,” Vikander says, “is there wasn’t anyone available in the mental-skill world to help Steve get over the problems with his control, and these are things I’ve dealing with for 40 years. I could have helped him. The second most important thing is, there is not an individual, not one individual, who ever saw him throw and didn’t say he was the hardest throwing they’ve ever seen. That goes unqualified.”
Vikander and his collaborators started out writing a baseball book, but they, too, found the human story compelling and moved in that direction. “This is a guy who was a human being,” Vikander said. “He cared, he wanted to be better, and if someone was there to help him, he would have been on board.”
Famed 1960s and 70s fireballer “Sudden Sam” McDowell wrote the foreward to Dalko.
These are not likely to be the last book or film on Steve Dalkowski. His place as one of the most chronicled non-major league baseball players ever seems secure for generations to come.
“I don’t call him a sports folk hero,” Chiappetta said, “I call him a cultural folk hero, because he has gone over the bounds of just sports.”