The Evolution of Baseball Radar Guns: A Look Back in Time

Radar guns have gone from a police car parked on a college field to devices that fit in your pocket, measure spin rate or stream to your phone. Here's how they evolved and how they changed the game. (The original version of this article dated the first baseball radar gun to the 1950s. That was wrong, and we've corrected it.)

The 1970s: the police-car experiment

The radar gun came to baseball in 1974. Michigan State coach Danny Litwhiler read about campus police getting a radar gun, had an officer clock his pitchers from a cruiser, and then worked with John Paulson of JUGS on a battery-powered handheld. That became the JUGS Speed Gun. The full story is in when was the first radar gun used in baseball?

The late 1970s and 1980s: scouts adopt radar

Radar quickly spread to scouts and teams. For the first time, a fastball's speed was a number instead of an opinion. As the Hall of Fame puts it, some scoffed at the high-tech gadget at first, but it became ubiquitous at ballparks.

Different guns read pitches at different points in flight, which led to the "fast gun" and "slow gun" nicknames and makes old readings tricky to compare with today's.

Toys got in on it too. The Hall of Fame's collection includes a mid-1980s Radar Ball, a regulation-size ball with electronics that calculated speed over a fixed distance. Today's SKLZ Bullet Ball works on the same idea; see the best radar guns under $100.

How scouts use radar

• Pitch speed: fastball velocity, and how well it holds up late in a game.
• Speed differences: the gap between fastball, changeup and breaking ball.
• Arm strength: throws from catchers, infielders and outfielders.
• Exit velocity: how hard a hitter hits the ball.
• Comparing players on the same scale across showcases and seasons.

Velocity is only one piece. Scouts still judge command, movement, mechanics and makeup.

Radar on the scoreboard and on TV

Pitch speeds went from the scout's seat to the scoreboard and the TV screen, and fans started reacting to them. A triple-digit reading now gets a cheer of its own. The number became part of how we watch baseball.

The 1990s and 2000s: better guns

Guns got smaller, lighter and quicker. Stalker became a major name in pro and college radar, with guns that read closer to the release point. Features like peak and "rolldown" speeds, last-pitch recall and speed-sign connections became common.

The 2010s: pocket radars and spin rate

Two big shifts:

• Small, affordable guns. Pocket Radar brought ±1 mph accuracy to a pocket-size device, and later models added Bluetooth and an app with video. See the Smart Coach and Ball Coach.
• Spin rate in a handheld. Stalker's Pro series added spin rate, which used to require a stadium system. See the Stalker Pro IIs and Pro 3s.

Statcast and ball tracking

MLB's Statcast was installed in all 30 parks in 2015. Its pitch data came from TrackMan radar at first, with speed measured at release, and now comes from Hawk-Eye cameras. Teams get speed, spin rate, spin axis, release point, movement and more for every pitch. Portable trackers like TrackMan and Rapsodo brought much of that to college programs and training facilities.

What's next

Expect more phone and camera-based tracking (see computer vision technology), more data in apps and cheaper tools. But for a quick, reliable speed reading at practice, the handheld radar gun isn't going anywhere.

See today's best options in our best baseball radar guns guide →