Steve Dalkowski, who possessed a terrifying fastball he could not control and, though he never made the major leagues, became an enduring figure of baseball lore, died on Sunday in his hometown of New Britain.
“He’s in a better place now,” said Patty Cain, his sister, who brought Dalkowski, suffering from alcohol-related dementia, back home to Connecticut 26 years ago. “He is resting. He had a rough couple of months.”
One of the most written-about subjects in baseball history, Dalkowski was an inspiration for the character Nuke Laloosh in the film Bull Durham. The screenwriter, Ron Shelton, who played in the minor leagues in the 1960s as Dalkowski stories, many exaggerated but rooted in real events, were passed around.