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Baseball Physics: Deception and Battered Expectations

livescience.com — On fields of dreams, the duel between the batter and the pitcher at times assumes aspects of humiliation and farce. And never more so than when a batter misses a pitch, swinging so forcefully as to nearly sprain something. The culprit in such cases is usually either a rising fastball or a so-called drop curveball.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 17, 2008

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  • paulot, on 07/17/2008, -0/+14Battered expectations is what I feel as a Cubs fan.
  • elhaf, on 07/17/2008, -1/+9Baseball FTW! I'm going to see a double-A game tonight. It's so much fun; I think more fun than the majors. If you have a minor league team nearby, give them a try. It's easy to get great seats, the atmoshpere is more relaxed, and the players are less than perfect.
  • Linkin4, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4This is one of the most interesting articles posted on digg in a good while. ***** yeah.
  • Black6x, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4http://www.instantrimshot.com/
  • cubbiesx, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4Article may explain why no one can center a Mariano Rivera cutter. Late break can't be seen.
  • SVNarine, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3I didn't think the article really brought anything new in the beginning, but as it progressed, the science behind hitting (which is a sorely underrated topic) really came out. More people should read these articles so they can develop how difficult the game of baseball actually is. I can rant on this more and more, but I'll cut it short. Unfortuantely baseball gets less and less respect to the common sports fan. With that in mind, as a Dodger fan, I don't know if watching them constitutes as baseball.
  • inactive, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3One of the best headlines i've seen on digg in a long time. If only they could all be that way...
  • Merendino, on 07/17/2008, -1/+4Dugg because the title was SPOT ON.

    Dr. Julius Sumner Miller, and physics is my business! Article delivers.
  • dcmcderm, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3This was good. There were a couple of other good links at the bottom too, I especially liked this one:

    http://www.livescience.com/php/video/player.php?vi ...

    Video of a guy explaining how to throw a splitter. I like how he talked about not only the movement of the pitch but when to throw it, etc. One of the countless examples of the mind games between pitcher and batter.
  • briLo, on 07/17/2008, -0/+3Thought that headline was about my last relationship......
  • Yousty, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2Battered expectations? The Cubbies are in first place and tied for the best record in Major League Baseball right now!

    Don't be so down. This is our year baby!
  • stubear, on 07/17/2008, -0/+2While no one is doing well in NL West (all are under .500), the Dodgers are only 1 game back in the standings. I've resigned myself to the fact that the Braves aren't going to take the NL East this year (or the next few years at least, until they fix their pitching and bring in some more balance in offense - stop relying solely on Chipper), I've started rooting for the Dodgers to take the West. This is for two reasons; 1) because I like Furcal (ex Braves SS) and Nomar (ex Red Sox SS - current LAD 1st baseman) and 2) because I'd LOVE to see Joe Torre have an excellent year while Girardi and the Yankees flop and fail to make the post season. Hopefully they can play better ball in the second half of the season and take the West.
  • mBrutis, on 07/17/2008, -1/+2Dugg so I can find this article again.... fits in with a discussion I'm having with a friend regarding Quantum Psychology from Robert Anton Wilson and the concept of perception and 'mental models' as the article calls them.
  • bwjacket, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1Float it!
  • dzzld, on 02/16/2009, -0/+1Great article! I love a really good pitcher - my team is the Diamondbacks. This black and gold D'backs New Era hat is freakin' awesome: http://www.hatclub.com/sports-mlb-teams-arizona-di ...
  • sandbird, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1Another evil pitch - a vintage Randy Johnson slider. As hard a fastball as he threw in his prime, his slider got him four straight Cy Youngs. Countless times I saw hitters swinging at balls that damn near ended up almost hitting their back foot. Which means it was a pitch that must've looked like a meatball to hitters until the last moment.
  • cubbiesx, on 07/18/2008, -0/+1Sorry but NFL QB is the hardest thing in sports. There are plenty of great hitters out there. There are less than five great quarterbacks right now.
  • SVNarine, on 07/17/2008, -0/+1Very good point cubbiesx. sandbird is right too, and I think it is safe to assume, and make a general pointless point, the more late break the pitch has, the harder it is to hit: Brandon Webb sinker, Randy's slider, Clemens' splitter, Rivera's cutter, Haren's splitter.

    Those pitches obviously are hard because they fall off the table, but it allows me to respect a 4-seam fastball/change-up/curveball pitcher that much more because for someone to have an overpowering fastball is really something to behold because fastballs don't normally break that much (or they'd be cutters/2-seamers/splitters) and to cause someone to be late on it, really is an accomplishment. Also i think a good curve may be one of the coolest looking things in all of baseball and even watching at home it buckles my knees.

    I had a point to this post, but it got away from me like a Nomo splitter in the dirt.
  • OdinThor, on 07/17/2008, -0/+0Randy Hundley's view of the knuckleball:
    "You see the ball and you just know you've got a bead on it, then you swing, and poof, it's not there anymore."

  • stubear, on 07/17/2008, -0/+0Say what you want about baseball but you won't find nearly as interesting a discussion of physics in most other sports. It's these intangibles that make the game so interesting to watch. Well, that and keeping score so you get more involved with what's going on in the game.
  • kapony18, on 07/17/2008, -0/+0One of the most difficult things in sports is to hit a baseball. The hand-eye coordination and brain function calculations that have to be made in milliseconds make baseball a game of skill rather than athleticism. Just ask Michael Jordan. I would probably put Quarterbacking in the NFL at number 2 because of the reading of complex defensive schemes and the precision required to exploit them.
  • BryanG412, on 07/17/2008, -10/+2Ya baseball is no longer a team sport and the players are ridiculously over paid.
  • Chirp08, on 07/17/2008, -14/+4If baseball was 1/10th as dramatic as this article makes it seem it wouldn't suck so much.

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