The question has been asked time and time again over the years.
But CBC senior right-hander David Schmidt, who can throw a baseball 93-94 miles per hour, still does not have an answer for where his impressive velocity comes from.
"People have been wondering that pretty much my whole life," Schmidt said. "It's definitely a gift."
The Stanford University signee, who helped the Cadets capture the first baseball state championship in school history a year ago, is arguably the St. Louis area's most dominating hurler.
And Schmidt, who stands 6-feet tall and weighs 175 pounds, doesn't fit the prototype of your typical power pitcher.
CBC coach Mason Horne compares Schmidt to successful Major League righties Tim Lincecum (5-11, 165), Roy Oswalt (6-0, 190) and Jake Peavy (6-1, 195) - "Little bodies who can generate a lot of power," he said.
Horne describes Schmidt as a "sinker, slider-type" who is one of the better pitchers the coach has seen in a long time.
"He is real explosive, gets a lot of downward action on his pitches," Horne said. "He misses a lot of barrels. He has a lot of late movement."
Schmidt was also a hockey player growing up and, as a center, helped CBC win Mid-States Club Hockey Association Challenge Cups as a freshman and sophomore before giving up the sport this season so he could concentrate on baseball.
It looks like a wise decision.
Schmidt, who plays center field when he's not pitching, went 4-0 with a 1.22 earned-run average in 34 1/3 innings over eight appearances (four starts) as a junior. That came after having shoulder surgery following his sophomore season and then struggling with tendinitis early last spring.
The tendinitis caused CBC to shut him down for much of last season, but he returned late in the campaign. In his final two starts, against defending champion Fort Zumwalt South in a sectional playoff game and then Rockhurst in the semifinals, Schmidt allowed two earned runs on 12 hits over 14 innings, with 14 strikeouts and two walks - picking up two clutch wins that helped the Cadets move forward toward the state title.
"We basically had everything play out the way we needed it to to go that far," Schmidt said. "G.J. (Strauss), Derek (Mazzio) and I were capable of doing what we needed to."
And Schmidt showed how far he had come, rebounding from his shoulder surgery at the end of his sophomore year and the tendinitis issue early in his junior campaign to emerge as an elite pitching prospect.
"When I was younger I didn't pitch much," Schmidt said. "I think I started, and I couldn't throw strikes very well. I was always hitting kids. Up until my sophomore year I always closed ... I always threw pretty hard. I think that's why I closed, because I didn't have an off-speed pitch."
Schmidt has the entire package now - the right-hander opened the season on Saturday by allowing one run on three hits with eight strikeouts and two walks in a 6-1 win over Fort Zumwalt North - even if he can't explain where it came from.
