Preston: The record for longest baseball throw by a woman
From SABR member J.G. Preston at The J.G. Preston Experience on July 21, 2013:
I’ve written extensively about the evolution of the record for the longest baseball throw; this won’t be nearly as comprehensive, at least for now, but I have some information about the record for the longest throw by a woman.
I discovered this as a separate category when I read an article by New York Daily Mirror baseball writer Ken Smith on “Baseball’s Greatest Arms” in the 1955 Street and Smith’s Baseball Yearbook. In his story, Smith wrote, “Miss Ada Paintin hurled a ball 187 feet at Iowa City, Ia., in 1910….this is regarded as the record for a female.” Well, that wasn’t actually the record when Smith wrote this — nor was it a record at the time of Paintin’s throw — but it was the starting point for my search. The organizers of the event where Paintin believed she set the women’s record were not clear on what the existing record was. A preview of the event, in the Iowa City Citizen of Aug. 13, 1910, said the mark was 180 feet; in The Sporting Life of Sept. 10, 1910, the holder of that record was said to be Myrtle McCarrell of Oak Park, Ill., who had thrown that distance on July 20 of that year.
Read the full article here: http://prestonjg.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/the-record-for-the-longest-baseball-throw-by-a-woman/
Originally published: July 22, 2013. Last Updated: July 22, 2013.