Comments on: Episode 83: Baseball Myths

By: Guy

Guy — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:36:21 +0000

Rob is right…it is an illusion. The ball does not actually ‘rise.’ It just falls more slowly.

By: keith

keith — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:22:33 +0000

for a track event, he line they cross is measured on the entire plane or at the chest level, so diving could make a difference. Diving to the ground to touch a base, I’m not so sure about.

By: todd

todd — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:27:38 +0000

To continue, a correct comparision would have been to use 2 bats with the SAME total mass, but where one was able to be longer because of the cork. One with a sweet spot at 25 inches, and one with a sweet spot at 30 inches. Of course, if you’re picturing this, you’re already realizing that this would be as silly a test as their current one, because its obvious without even testing it that the corked bat, with the same mass, and the sweet spot at 30 inches, would hit the ball further.

Again, this is something anyone who has ever swung a bat knows instinctively.

Another test would be to drop a golf ball on the driveway and then on the grass and see which one bounces higher. Think that might indicate that using superballs might have some bearing on the ‘bouce factor’? The composition of the bat?

I guess after 83 episodes, you have to start inventing some new myths so that you have some myths to bust in your 160th episode, when everyone has forgotten why they ‘always thought corked bats were a myth’.

By: todd

todd — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:11:54 +0000

I enjoy this program, but they complete blew this test by having too many variables. In this case, they compared a heavy bat and a light bat with the same dimensions and after 2 days reached the miraculous conclusion that the heavy bat hit the ball farther. Gee, really?

Anyone who ever tried to hit a league ball with a whiffle bat knows where this was going.

There are a lot of ways to do this test right. THis wasn’t one of them.

One way would be to use 2 bats that had the SAME mass, one solid wood and one filled with some something besides wood (aluminum, superballs, air, cork, oil, gumdrops, etc). Or even a combination.

Because thats generally whats going on with a ‘corked bat’. The goal is not to make the same bat ‘lighter’ so that you can swing ‘faster’. The goal is to find a way to move the same amount of mass so that it meets the ball moving faster.

And the way to do that is to move the sweet spot and center of gravity further away from the handle. So that you have more torque and force at the instance the bat hits the ball.

Swinging a bat is like swinging a golf club. You start slow and gain momentum. Hopefully you time it to have maximum momentum at the point the bat meets the ball. The momentum and force and energy are all based on velocity and acceleration. And the end of the bat is moving ALOT faster than the handle. So the further away the sweet spot is from your hands, given the same mass, the further you’re going to hit the ball.

Cork or other materials are used to change the distribution of mass in the bat, so that you can swing a bigger or longer bat, or a bat with a further center of gravity, with the same effort it took to swing a lesser bat.

By: rob

rob — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:45:30 +0000

A golf ball has got dimples and it does rise because its designed to create many low and high pressure pockets threw a greater proportion of its radius than a regular ball. The treads on the base ball do the same to a way lesser degree. The interesting thing to watch is a golf ball hit low to the ground with full force on a sunny windy day. In fact its even better over water because you can see little wind cells bouncing on the surface of the water and you can see the balls trajectory wobbling. A back spun ball is more likely to catch any air pressure changes and deviate an inch or two. Thats enough for the illusion of rising to exist.

By: asdasd

asdasd — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:03:33 +0000

A lower pressure area below would make it sink, not rise.

By: joe

joe — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:55:14 +0000

Learn to speak and write coherently. Organize your thoughts, and maybe it will make sense. Baseball, golf ball, basketball, get your story straight.

By: nick

nick — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:57:06 +0000

please redo this myth program on baseball. when you do please find out if diving to catch a fly ball helps. there was a famous baseball player who said if you cant catch the flyball standing up and reaching down for it then it is impossible to catch.

By: nick

nick — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:51:31 +0000

i agree. using a longer bat gives you more leverage and speed to hit the ball further. i think they need to get a pro in there to correctly cork the bat because i believe it also produces spring. the center of a baseball is cork. there was a time when it was nothing but raveled string and they hit far less home runs thus the “dead ball era” name tag that baseball historians give to that time period. if you cork a bat right with either super balls or corking it correctly it should give spring to the bat, just like the metal bats do. the metal bats have reflex action which is why they have a uniform standard for the coeficient mathematics involved in making metal bats. If they redo this myth with a pro bball bat corker who does it right I think they will find that a corked bat not only gives you a longer bat for leverage but also spring off of the bat. ps. i think you need wine corks and you drill out the hole smaller than the cork.

By: nick

nick — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:43:27 +0000

you don’t know what you are talking about.