EAST LANSING, Mich. — Baseball is back across the state, and whether fans are taking in games at Jackson Field or Comerica Park, there is something special about America's pastime.
But what many might not know is that quite a few of the innovations that evolved the sport started at Michigan State.
- Former Michigan State baseball coach Danny Litwhiler revolutionized the sport by introducing innovations like the pitch speed radar, diamond grit, and the bunting bat.
- Litwhiler developed the idea for the pitch speed radar after seeing campus police use radar guns to track speeding cars, prompting him to test the technology on his pitchers.
- Inducted into the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2023, Litwhiler's innovations continue to impact the game of baseball at all levels today.
WATCH: How a Spartan baseball coach's innovation revolutionized the sport
Former head coach Danny Litwhiler spent nearly two full decades leading the Spartans. While he brought several Big Ten championships to East Lansing in the 1970s, he also revolutionized the game itself.
One of his most notable innovations can still be seen at ballparks across the country: the pitch speed radar.
Litwhiler heard about speed radar guns being used by Michigan State police to track speeding cars, which got him thinking about using the technology to track the velocity of the ball being thrown by his pitchers. He brought a police car out onto the field during practice and started tracking pitch speed. After some developments in the technology, it became a continuously tracked stat in the sport for years.
"Just a baseball legend," Jim Cotter said. "He came up with the radar gun, but he also came up with diamond grit, he came up with the bunting bat."
I spoke with Cotter, a former Spartan baseball player under Litwhiler, about the coach's legacy and what it was like to play for someone who left such an impact on the game.
"Danny was just one of those guys who was just such a legend, and his legacy continues to live on in baseball at just virtually every level right now, whether you're talking the major league, collegiate level, even down in Little League when they spread the diamond grit," Cotter said.
Litwhiler was inducted into the Michigan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2023. The Hall of Fame says his innovations began as a player, becoming one of the first in Major League Baseball to tie the fingers of his glove together. He went the entire 1942 season without recording an error.
The next time fans take in a game at the ballpark, they can remember that the sport has been forever changed by the team on the banks of the Red Cedar.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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