Baseball Opening Night
It's a new stadium, and the opening night of a new baseball season. I'm not the world's biggest baseball fan, but it's on TV a lot at our house. Have you ever hit a baseball? Have you thought about how much mental and physical processing must occur? Read an interesting article about the science of hitting a baseball here, and enjoy the graphic of the process here.
30 comments:
After reading the article, "Baseball Opening Night," I realized how much I underestimate baseball players as athletes. From the surface, swinging a bat at a ball appears simple. But studying the physics of the motion of a baseball's trajectory, a batter's swing, and the contact that it makes (if it makes it at all) demonstrates how remarkably complex the action of hitting a baseball is. Let alone the physics of these processes, the addition of a human component further intensifies the sport. Not only does a batter have to consider the speed of the ball, the angle, timing, and power of his swing, but he must also analyze the rotation of the ball itself that is flying at him at 90-100 mph. That, I would say, is quite extraordinary. Reading this article reminded me of the Discovery Channel special, "Human Body: Pushing the Limits." From this show, there is a relation between a baseball athlete and their heightened senses that pushes beyond the limitations of a normal human being. It might be safe to say that players like Barry Bonds push the limitations of the human body with their superhuman reflexes. From all of this, the physics and the feat of hitting a baseball, I might consider the game of baseball at tad bit less boring to watch. For those who want to understand more on the physics of baseball, I found a website dedicated to just that by a Professor Alan Nathan of University of Illinois.
http://webusers.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/pob/
Who would have thought that baseball, America's national pastime sport, required so much brain power? I always thought that watching the games was exciting and fun, yet I never stopped to think what went on "behind the scenes" in the minds of these batters. According to this article, "a fastball thrown at 95-100 mph reaches home plate in about 0.4 seconds," but "it takes 0.15 seconds for humans to voluntarily blink their eyes in response to visual signals." Given that the ball sometimes comes at the batter faster than at the blink of an eye shows just how great their hand-eye coordination needs to be. When I first read that a player can "get a multi-million-dollar contract if [they] can [hit the ball] successfully anywhere near three out of 10 times," I was surprised because that statistic in any other terms would be horrible, but now I see why this standard is allowed.
In a 2006 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article entitled "Home Run Derby: The physics behind hitting the ball a country mile," Yale University physics professor Robert Adair comments about this derby and why people are so interested in it.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06191/704760-335.stm
Although I do not enjoy the sport of baseball very much, I found the physics of batting very intriguing. I did not understand how difficult it was to hit a baseball at the professional level with such accuracy, power, and most of all, consistency. To think that hitting 3-of-10 would be worth paying a professional athlete millions of dollars is crazy, but after hearing the physics of it, it does not sound like something so ridiculous anymore. However, as I read the article, I began to wonder how good professional pitchers have to be to keep these batters at 3-of-10 rather than 8-of-10. I found an article about the physics of pitching, the types of pitches, and how they are done to get a better understanding of what is going on in a pitchers mind as they stand on the mound, staring down batters as they prepare to throw a single pitch that can ultimately decide the fate of the game and possibly even their own futures.
http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/watch/baseball/physics.htm
I played baseball up until I needed to surgically repair my elbow to try and salvage "my career." However, the surgery would have taken over a year to allow my arm to heal, and being a sophomore in high school seemed much more important at the time....my little league coach mistakenly taught me the curveball too young. I was however, sometimes on the receiving end of those pitches, and hitting a curveball was much harder than throwing one. It seemed like it was luck that I ever struck the ball, and nothing short of a miracle that it turned into a hit. I once heard that Barry Bonds was such a good hitter because of his higher than average bat speed allowing him .05 seconds longer to decide whether to swing or not. It takes an amazing individual to be able to visualize the point at which the batter can swing and hit the ball when it has just barely felt the hand of a pitcher. As much as physics is important in determining how or if a ball is hit, there is even more physics involved in pitching. An article describing the physics behind a pitcher transferring energy to the ball, the ball spiraling through the air with just the right amount of curve is simply extraordinary. The article, which follow Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis, claims that every player cannot focus on the physics of the sport, but how each athlete must go off of “feel.” Baseball players get paid the big bucks for a reason, they are able to swing at or pitch a ball like most other people cannot.
http://www.aps.org/publications/capitolhillquarterly/200611/baseball.cfm
"Moment of contact when a bat strikes a ball lasts just 1/1,000th of a second." Imagine what that figure truly means and admire the ability of professional baseball players to hit that ball even once out of ten attempts. I am not interested in baseball, but this article leaves me astounded at the ability of the human mind to sometimes supercede its commonly understood abilities. "A fastball thrown at 95-100 mph reaches home plate in about 0.4 seconds" and it takes .15 seconds to blink. A player needs accuracy, eye-hand coordination, timing, and from my guess, a lot of luck in hitting a home-run. A mind has to process so much at once, and ignore even more than that to focus and concentrate solely on the ball. The brain works wonders not just with a pencil and paper, but in several different ways. I may not agree with all players truly earning their multi-million salaries, but players like Barry Bonds definitely deserve such a pay. It is truly a wonder how athletes in several different sports make such amazing decisions and have extraordinary abilities not just physically but mentally as well.
Here is a link that puts this in perspective. You can click on it and play a fun game which allows you to figure out how the reaction timing works. Don't forget to add in the several other forces mentioned in the article, along with the nervousness which accompanies all audience sports. Good luck and hit a home run!
http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/reactiontime.html
This article really gave me more appreciation of what baseball batters have to deal with once they step onto the plate. I always thought that baseball was for those who ate junk food all day and just hit a ball with a bat. I was proved otherwise. Baseball players have to make that decision under an overwhelming 0.4 seconds on average when the ball is thrown. When dealing with good pitchers, batters would have to make the decision before 0.2 seconds. The timing, the coordination all have to come into play when hitting a baseball. Not everyone in the world can do this and I guess that is why there are professional baseball players, people I never really had respect for. But to realize the skill into the dextrous swing of the bat, mixed with precise timing is one that not the average man possesses. It takes a talented batter to handle the pressure under the lights, the crowd, and the air to deliver a successful hit. Even then, it doesn't always turn out as expected because they usually average 3 hits per 10 tries. I guess baseball isn't as boring as I've always thought it was. Perhaps the only fun thing to watch is maybe the batting, but I might be a bit biased.
An interesting article that I found explains the physics of baseball and "corking" a bat. They also have little tips for a batters and pichers.
http://www.bostonbaseball.com/whitesox/baseball_extras/physics.html
Having an avid baseball fan as a Father I have grown up watching baseball game after baseball game. Trying softball one year in fourth grade I quickly realized how difficult it actually was to not only hit a home run but to actually hit the ball. Reading this article was very interesting and I thought it was really cool how they used the example of, “after two-tenths of a second, they can turn out the lights in the stadium," Adair says, "and it won't affect your hitting him at all." That really put it in perspective the timing needed to hit the ball. Also, living in a society that tries to achieve perfection I thought it was key that the article explained how hitting “three of 10 is good in baseball” because the moment of contact when a bat strikes a ball lasts just 1/1,000th of a second. I now understand the importance of timing and coordination of the body in order to play baseball.
Here is a really cool link to a website that describes different baseball pitches and the way a pitcher is able to execute them.
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/excerpts/way_baseball_works3.stm
I never really put much thought into the difficulty of baseball. It just seemed like an American past time and hobby. I myself have never really taken a great interest in the sport; whether playing it myself or watching it on television. However, after reading this article, I was shocked to discover the complexities behind simply hitting a baseball. How is it possible for one to react so quickly to a ball, swing the bat hard enough to hit it, and aim the bat so that it hits the ball squarely. The most interesting thing about the article was that baseball players are so well trained in making educated guesses at to where the ball will go after .2 seconds that you could turn off the lights in the stadium and they would still have the same chance of hitting the ball. This amazes me because it shows that the movement has been practiced so much it is been completely memorized by the body.
Here's an interesting website that talks about certain baseball tips and in some of them it goes into body and muscle memory.
http://baseball.lifetips.com/
-Priscilla Liang
It is after reading articles such as these that I'm reminded how just how intricately the human body functions. Though the time it takes for a person to see the pitched ball coming towards them and for them to react to to it with accuracy is so incredible. So many things have to be prepped for the ball, physically and mentally, all in less than a second. Not only did the precision required of baseball hitters amaze me but the speed and force at which the pitchers can throw these balls seem abnormal from my (a normal person's) point of view. To think that a ball could be speeding at someone at the same speed that I can drive my car, on the freeway, 95-100 mph, just blew me away. Also, looking at the diagram, how a person processes everything that they need to do mentally in a matter of milliseconds is quite astouding, knowing that it requires a progress of thoughts and not just one thought.
Here is a link to an article by a medical site on how steroids or drugs may have an effect on the physics (and performance) of baseball: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/83119.php
The sport of baseball requires different athletic skills than other sports. It is not so much physical strength (it plays a part but not the most important) but rather reaction time when trying to hit the baseball. There is some running involved but more often than not baseball players will only work when they know that they can maybe make a play. The body, when trained properly over time can excel at almost anything, the same applies to baseball. When attempting to hit the ball, there are only fractions of seconds to commit to either hit the ball or stand there. You need to decide to hit the ball in the first 250ms, for a 95mph fastball reaches home plate in 395, which is faster than a blink of the eye. There are many different parts of baseball that some consider athletic while there are others who feel that it is not athleticism but rather a trained skill. It is interesting that a 3/10 hitting record is considered great, but then again it is a hard skill that takes a lot of time to develop.
The attached link is from FSN sports science where they break down the hit in slow motion and give an example of a fastball being thrown at you from 55ft (std pitch).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrZVRuK77EE
It is very interesting to examine how accurate and precise baseball athletes need to be in order to make contact with the bat and ball. The reaction time needs to be lightning fast, as the pitches are coming in on at least ninety miles an hour most of the time. I was recently watching "Sports Science" on Fox Sports, and they performed an experiment to show how fast baseball players must react to hit the ball. It was very intense, considering the size of a baseball is pretty small compared to others. The experiment proved that baseball players are real athletes who possess certain abilities that many people do not have, which makes them good at what they do. Imagine the humidity and temperature at each ball park, and how the players need to adjust to hit the speeding ball with their bats. The rate at which these players react and strike the ball, it would be amazing to see how far the ball would travel if there were no air resistance.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/scientificslugger.html
According to the article by Gary Mihoce, being an all-star baseball player has more to do with the mind than ther body. Maybe the reason I was so awful at softball growing up has more to with lack of concentration than how muscular I was. This article opened my eyes to the degree of difficulty involved in major league baseball. It is hard to comprehend how a batter only has about two-tenths of a second to decide how and when to swing. Seeing the ball is also another talent this players have. They need to be able to see the angle of the ball and where the seams are going to hit the bat. Obviously I was incorrect in thinking that luck would give me a homerun during my short softball career.
Below this paragrpah is a link to an interesting website I found. The site is dedicated to helping players become better hitters. The particular page that I am sending you to explains how to train your eye to see the ball similar to that discussed in Mihoce's article.
http://www.beabetterhitter.com/text/fundamentals/stanceandvision/stanceandvision.htm
I had always thought of my myself as being a knowledgable fan of baseball. I have loved baseball since I was small and I thought that I knew a lot about the game. After reading "Baseball Opening Night," however, I realized that there is much more to baseball than i thought once thought. the article has made me aware of the complexity and science that is involved in baseball. Having such little time to react to hitting the ball and having to deal with breaking pitches makes the game so much more interesting than i thought. It is really amazing how skilled the batter has to be in order to actualy be abe to hit the ball. The hitter must be able to see the ball in under a second, must be able to decide whether or not to attempt to sing at the ball then must actually make contact!! A related article that i found interesting is: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~cross/baseball.html
Reading this article reminds me of the first time I ever saw a curveball at the plate. I was around 12 and the only pitches I had seen up to that point in my “career” were fastballs. The fastballs came at different speeds depending on the pitcher, but they didn't have much velocity and I figured that if I swung through the strike zone I would have a good chance of making contact (much like Peter Johnson’s conclusion "You've already committed yourself to swing at a particular point and a particular time. It's just a question of whether the ball happens to be there.") Anyways I knew the opposing pitcher from school and he had been telling me about this special pitch but I just blew him off. So I'm standing at the plate against my school mate and I fell behind in the count 2-2, he delivers the next pitch and right away I am thinking that it's going to hit me in the head, at this moment I am thinking that he is angry with me for whatever reason and was now getting his revenge on the baseball field by beaning me right in the head. So I turn my shoulder with no intention of swinging the bat and waited for it to hit me. Only it didn’t. It felt like an eternity as I watched this slow curve ball break right out over the plate and into the catcher’s glove for a third strike. At that moment my respect for major league hitters increased tremendously because not only are they stepping in against 95 mph flamethrowers like Randy Johnson, but they also have to deal with breaking balls that could be 20 mph slower than the last pitch as the article says.. Here’s a fun little game I found about reaction time: http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/reactiontime.html.
After reading the article I have come to the conclusion that I still give way too little credit to baseball players and how they are able perform the seeming simple act of hitting a baseball. Being an athlete, I get frustrated when people tell me how easy it is to play tennis. I sometimes almost take it offensively. Then I take a step back and realize that not everyone understands how the whole process works. I loved this article I thought it was well written and interesting. It reminds me of that new show that's coming out on Fox called "Sports Science." I think not only is a professional athlete's mind extraordinary, their physical abilities are mind boggling as well. Another thing that was some food for thought was the statistic the article gave about how a player can "get a multi-million-dollar contract if [they] can [hit the ball] successfully anywhere near three out of 10 times," which I thought was quite amazing. I wonder if there is some kind of statistic like that for professional tennis players.
Here is a link for that new show on Fox if anyone is interested: http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/09/fox_sports_puts_science_in_spo.php
I remember in my high school physics class the teacher would continually make references to baseball in order to solidify the concepts and present more real life examples; thus, the physics of baseball, how the bat must strike the ball at the precise second did not surprise me. But, I never took into account the mental processes that go into a successful hit. To me, acquiring the skills only involved being physically fit for the sport, not having the mental skills. Even if I received years of intense training, I don't think I would be able to hit a 95-100 mph ball, especially a curve ball. The hand-eye coordination is just not in me. I have even more respect for the hours these baseball players put into being successful.
I found it interesting how Hunter said that in order to hit a ball you can't be thinking of anything else, all your concentration must be on the ball. It's amazing how much mental focus is involved in baseball.
I found this article discussing what makes a good athlete, and it discussed other mental abilities that are important. One I found interesting was adaptation, the idea that they must be able to modify techniques when an opponent does something unexpected.
http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/~davea/athlete.php
I always thought that swinging a bat at a baseball was difficult, but that it shouldn’t be for major league baseball players since they are professionals and are getting paid millions of dollars for their skill. After reading this blog, I have underestimated how difficult it was for anyone to hit a baseball when it is traveling at such a high speed (.40 seconds). The statistics for a successful batter with a million dollar contract is a three out of ten successful rate when batting. That is a very low percentage in terms of a professional player, but with everything that needs to be included in order to hit the ball at the perfect time and place (power, focus, accuracy, and consistency), it is now understandable to see how people can struggle when the person throwing them the ball is also someone getting paid millions of dollars to do what they specialize in.
I found a website that studies the batting mechanics. Bat Speed is a website that gives a background about the bat’s speed, swing mechanics, theories, and other useful research.
http://www.batspeed.com/
Having played baseball all my life up to college, take my word, hitting a baseball is the most difficult thing to do in sports. I've played football, basketball, hockey, golf, and soccer, and hitting a ball with a round bat solidly it very difficult. However, like the article said, it takes lots of training, hard work, and knowing the game. Knowing the game helps with response time. Knowing what the different pitches the pitcher throws in certain situations helps you determine what your plan is when you go up to bat. A batting plan means going up there and looking for a certain first pitch and if you see crush it and if you don't wait till the next pitch and adjust. Going up to bat most players look fastball first because that way you will not be surprised or late when you swing, then if you notice spin on the ball you have time to adjust to the pitch and crush that as well. Just because you crush a pitch doesn't mean you get a hit, and that is a most frustrating aspect in playing this game. If you miss a ball by just a tenth of an inch that could be a difference between a pop fly or a home run.
Adair said its not the muscles these pro players have its there brain, that he's amazed by. Pro players can take all the steroids they want but it's not going to make them hit the ball. I'm not sure, however, they use their brains because I think it has more to do with hand eye coordination. I think a player with good hand eye coordination finds playing baseball a little easier because they don't really think it all instincts when it comes to hitting.
Adair should check out some of these sweet Yogi Berra, one of the baseballs greatest catchers, quotes on hitting and baseball.
http://www.brainyquote.com/
quotes/authors/y/yogi_berra.html
I am one of the many people that signed up for this class without being an english major. I don't particularly have an interest in biology per se, but I am extremely interested in the abilities of the human body--which I guess is really biology.
This article is an example of what I'm talking about. So much goes on in the body to allow us to do things that seem to come so naturally. You don't even think about hitting a baseball, but so many processes have to be working in sync in order to make it work.
There was a series that recently ran on the Discovery Channel called "The Human Body: Pushing the Limits." It really showed all of the amazing things that your body can do through examples of extreme situations that people have lived through--thanks to the processes of our bodies. It actually went into detail as well about how these processes work in the body, and what makes them so important to our survival. If you have not seen them I would reccomend them to anyone, they are really interesting to watch, and this article definitely reminded my of how intricate we really are.
I have tried playing baseball several times for fun with friends and I have always been bad at it. I would always either miss the ball completely or hit it down at the ground. After reading this article, I can see that it is because my timing was not correct. I knew from the beginning that it was hard but I never knew why it was so hard. After reading all of the facts and statistics about the limited amount of time a person has to be able to process the last bit of information before making a guess as to when to swing. The athletes who play baseball at the professional level truely need to be at their peak concentration in order to hit the ball at just the right time. The illustration showing the baseball player swining the bat and the points at which he must decide to swing and the point where he can no longer stop shows just how hard baseball really is. Its amazing that most people dont even drive 90-100 mph in their cars but baseball pitchers are able to throw the ball at that speed.
I stumbled across a pretty interesting game of sorts online. It tests your reaction time. You guy should check it out.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/reactiontime.html
i've been to several Angel's games, but all I really considered a good baseball player was just how far they could hit it and whether they could run fast enough before getting tagged out. I never really realized that just being able to hit the ball should automatically make you a pretty decent player. "Consider(ing) that a fastball thrown at 95-100 mph reaches home plate in about 0.4 seconds" and that a normal human being voluntarily blinks their eyes at 0.15 seconds, it's pretty amazing that the players could even see the ball.
I used to complain about how players were so bad and that they should be off the team because they keep missing the ball, but now...wow. I really have a larger amount of respect and admiration towards these men.
http://www.bostonbaseball.com/whitesox/baseball_extras/physics.html
As an ex-ballplayer, I'm glad to hear that the sport's difficulty level is receiving the proper acknowledgment. I've been playing baseball for nearly my entire life and it's always great to read good things about it. I don't know if it's the most enjoyable sport that I've played, but I can definitely say that it is the most challenging. For this reason, it's always had a special place in my heart and always demanded my maximum dedication and concentration. So, this article was really an enjoyable personal read for me. I am very familiar with the game and it's difficulty, so I can't say that any of this was surprising or shocking in any way. I'm just glad to see America's Pastime getting the respect it deserves.
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/story.html
I have never been the biggest baseball fan, nor have I really appreciated the sport for the great difficulty and skill it requires. After reading "Baseball Opening Night," I realized how much harder playing the sport really is. I have always played other sports such as golf and basketball, and considered myself to be decent at both. However "Baseball Opening Night," made me realize how much more difficult simply hitting the ball was in comparison to other sports. Requiring almost superhuman reflexes and demanding insane concentration, actually hitting the baseball well is far less likely to happen than to shooting a jumpshot or sinking a put. The related article I found compares and contrasts baseball to golf, and underlines how much easier golf (and any other sport) is than baseball. With other sports, such as golf, one has all the time in the world to pre-plan in their mind how they are to execute their moves. However with baseball, you have less than a split second to react, making it much more difficult.
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/excerpts/science_of_hitting.stm
This article was really helpful in teaching regular, non-baseball players some scientific interesting facts. The fact that the author of the article inferred that the athletes at bat are making educated guesses was really surprising. Many of the baseball players I know aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. But this reveals that their intelligence is based towards a whole different audience. I played a little before, but I wasn't any great at the sport. I related to the Average Joe, who would be distracted by the lawn mower, or tremble at the left-handed pitchers. You really need to recognize the talent that professional baseball players have. When I'm up to bat, or any average player, my one goal is to make contact and not strike out. But the professionals do so much more: analyze the pitch, see the ball's rotations, adapt to the moving ball, make sure to hit it right-on so it doesn't hit the ground or become a pop-fly. The amazing capability of the body to work fluidly, incorporating so many body parts, from the brain to the shoulders to the feet, is shown through baseball players. The image provided also provides in-depth information of everything the player has to go through when hitting a ball. So the next time someone comments on how a certain player constantly strikes out, you can just mention that hitting a 90+ mph ball is not as easy as it looks.
the article below reports how baseball players playing defense are able to know where the ball is headed, just by listening to the crack of the bat.
http://webusers.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/pob/glanz-nytimes.htm
This article was really helpful in teaching regular, non-baseball players some scientific interesting facts. The fact that the author of the article inferred that the athletes at bat are making educated guesses was really surprising. Many of the baseball players I know aren't the sharpest tools in the shed. But this reveals that their intelligence is based towards a whole different audience. I played a little before, but I wasn't any great at the sport. I related to the Average Joe, who would be distracted by the lawn mower, or tremble at the left-handed pitchers. You really need to recognize the talent that professional baseball players have. When I'm up to bat, or any average player, my one goal is to make contact and not strike out. But the professionals do so much more: analyze the pitch, see the ball's rotations, adapt to the moving ball, make sure to hit it right-on so it doesn't hit the ground or become a pop-fly. The amazing capability of the body to work fluidly, incorporating so many body parts, from the brain to the shoulders to the feet, is shown through baseball players. The image provided also provides in-depth information of everything the player has to go through when hitting a ball. So the next time someone comments on how a certain player constantly strikes out, you can just mention that hitting a 90+ mph ball is not as easy as it looks.
the article below reports how baseball players playing defense are able to know where the ball is headed, just by listening to the crack of the bat. this just adds to the fact that basically every part of your body is necessary to perform well in baseball.
http://webusers.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/pob/glanz-nytimes.htm
I play baseball for UCI here and i completely agree with the physics of baseball. I have known for quite some time now that hitting a 90 mph fastball in baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports. It sucks when you play a game where you fail more than you succeed, but that is what I picked. I completely agree with Torii Hunter every time you go up to the plate you cannot be thinking about anything other that trying to make contact with the ball. Anything else you think about will disrupt your rhythm in trying to hit the ball. It keeps getting harder as you get older because of the numerous amounts of pitches that pitchers throw. You always have to be relaxed and ready to hit the ball and that should be the only thing on your mind. I however do love the fact that if I can get three hits out of ten at bats I will go pro and hopefully make millions of dollars in doing so.
http://www.bostonbaseball.com/whitesox/baseball_extras/physics.html
Post a Comment