It turns out the frequency of the waves that return from the ball is slightly different than the frequency of the waves emitted by the gun. Divide by two and you have the distance to the ball.Īctually, handheld radar guns don’t measure distance because all you really expect from them is the speed of the ball. Then multiply the time by the speed of the wave to find the distance to the ball and back to the gun. So, first measure the time for the wave to go from the radar gun to the ball and back. Radio waves all travel at the same speed 186,000 miles per second (the speed of light) or about one foot in a billionth of a second. Just like an echo is a sound wave that bounces off something and returns, radar is a radio (electromagnetic) wave that does the same thing. It stands for radio detection and ranging, which sort of describes how it works. Radar is not actually a word, it is an acronym. The reading from a gun is displayed after ever pitch in almost every major league stadium. Of course, the JUGS gun has become an indispensable tool for scouts and coaches throughout baseball. He was particularly interested in helping pitchers increase the speed differential between their fastball and change-up. In any case, he immediately saw the potential of radar as a teaching tool for baseball.

Litwhiler, by then the baseball coach at Michigan State, either read a story about radar use by the campus cops or drove by and saw them using it, or perhaps he was pulled over for speeding. We know radar was invented in World War II, but by the early 1970s police were routinely using it to catch speeders. Finally and to the point, in 1974 he brought the idea of a handheld radar gun to the JUGS Sports company. In 1962 he was awarded a patent for the batting cage. In 1956 he created Diamond Grit to dry infield dirt after a rain. True or not, Litwhiler was a prodigious baseball innovator. During an interview in 2005, he stated it may have been the first glove on which the fingers were stitched together with rawhide.įew have disputed his claim. For this reason, his glove is in the Hall of Fame. Yes, that required three consecutive 100-loss seasons.ĭespite his dismal team in 1942, Litwhiler accomplished the rare feat of completing the season without a single error, and he was the first ever to do so. From 1940 through 1942 the Phils finished last each year, compiling a combined record of only 135 wins against 323 loses. In 1940 a young outfielder by the name of Danny Litwhiler joined one of the worst teams in the history of the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies. The radar gun can only accurately measure pitch velocity from behind the plate.

Kc radar in motion