The original Wild Thing

Steve Dalkowski in 1961 with Baltimore’s Class AAA team in Rochester

Steve Dalkowski – who is a real-live Nuke LaLoosh a generation before the fictional LaLoosh comes to life in the 1988 movie Bull Durham – strikes out 24 batters for Kingsport 68 years ago today in a Class A Appalachian League game against Bluefield.

Dalkowski, then an 18-year-old left-hander in his first pro season, also walks 18 Bluefield batters, hits four more of them and unloads six wild pitches.

Oh, yeah, he loses the game 9-8.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound Dalkowski lasts nine seasons in the minor leagues, winning 46 but losing 80.

He strikes out 1,324 in his 956 innings, but also walks 1,236, plunks 37 batters and unleashes 145 wild pitches in that time.

And, um, no, he never reaches the major leagues.

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