The Physics of Baseball

beatleadam writes "After seeing Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks pitch a perfect game (coverage here), I searched Slashdot in the hopes of reading more about what the Slashdot readers thought of this feat of athleticism and science and to learn more about the physics of baseball (More information to be found here and here). As nothing was posted, I submit for your viewing pleasure a "course" in the Physics of Baseball and the subtle science that is pitching."

Comments

Re:Baseball happens in the real world...

[strictnein]

Baseball is the "geekiest" of the 4 major (US) sports. The statistics tracked in baseball dwarf any other sport. Stat analysis is a integral part of baseball.

What other sport do you have stats like: Batting average with runners in scoring position, two outs, late innings, versus a right handed pitcher.

Baseball stats scream "geek".

Re:A perfect game?

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

> Perfect game means no one reached base. You could actually pitch a perfect game in 27 pitches, all first pitch hits.

Quite right. And, you could also have a non-perfect game known as "facing the minimum" with 27 pitches. On the first pitch to a batter, the ball hits the batter, and he gets first base. Next pitch is grounded into a double play. This is also a no hitter. You could also face the minimum throwing 27 pitches without it being a no hitter if one or more first pitches are hit for singles followed by first pitch double plays.

Imagine being the 27th batter. Do you swing at the first pitch no matter what?

The pitcher is not alone

[Anonymous Coward]

A perfect game or a no hitter is great for a pitcher, but what people fail to realize is that for the pitcher to do either of those, requires all of his teammates help as well. How many pitches were hit only to be caught for the out, or thrown to first for the out? To me, a perfect game for a pitcher would be to strike out every player he pitched too.
The pitcher gets too much praise for when most of the work is actually done by his teammates.

Re:The pitcher is not alone

[megarich]

I was actually just thinking about that topic myself. For a perfect game this is so very true. After all, it is given you are not going to get 27 strike outs so you need your teammates help to prevent the runner getting to first.... As for a regular no hitter, the case don't hold so much because say the shortstop makes a throwing error to first, you're no hitter is still going beause its an error... just you're perfect game went bye bye... regardless, pitching is stil very HARD to do, especially when you have pumped up "kreatine" batters ready to blast anything out of the park coming his way. --coicidence that no one hit 50 homers last year when the steroid scandal started to come up? i think not!

Re:The pitcher is not alone

[dpille]

The pitcher gets too much praise for when most of the work is actually done by his teammates.

I'll agree with this in principle, but in this particular game, it didn't really look like the Diamondbacks needed anybody besides the local high school's 8 to secure the perfect game. See the 27 outs if you're skeptical, but I'll summarize:
13 strikeouts
7 routine fly balls (one was basket-caught, of all things)
4 routine ground ball outs
a close out on a leadoff drag bunt
and a couple of decent plays by the shortstop. Nothing a big leaguer would take any credit for.

So in this case, while you certainly needed a AA-level first baseman and maybe a AAA-level shortstop, I don't think there was much else going on.

But if you're arguing that you needed warm bodies in the outfield and a third baseman to stand there and do nothing, I guess everybody did contribute.

Re:Forget baseball.

[ChuckleBug]

This is just like what happens every time there's an article about chess - a handful of numbnuts chime in with "chess sucks! Let's talk about GO! It's superior to chess in every way!"

Why do people find it necessary to shit all over anything they don't like? Maybe submitting a story about the physics of hockey would be more constructive.

Re:Perfect games more common now than before

[XanC]

With twice as many teams, there are many more games being played. I think that's probably all it takes.

I don't see any way that media coverage affects a perfect game. And hitting talent being thinned should be canceled by the increase in population.

By the way, Nolan Ryan pitched seven no-hitters, which is an unmatched feat, but he never threw a perfect game. A perfect game has no walks as well as no hits.

Re:Perfect games more common now than before

[gowen]

Interesting. My opinion is slight contrary. In the past, before the advent of specialist relief pitchers and muscled up middle infielders, pitchers knew they were supposed to go 9 innings. Thus, when faced with weaker hitters, they'd coast. (Don't believe me? Read Christy Mathewson's "Pitching In A Pinch").

Since genuine home run hitters were few and far between, having a guy on first just meant you'd bear down on the next guy that much harder, as the run would only score on a long double or a triple. So, you could complete the game, but at the cost of a few extra base runners.

These days, nearly everyone fancies themselves as a home run threat, so you've got to get everyone out.

Just a thought.

Psychology

[3Suns]

Pitching has a lot to do with physics, true. But I'd say it has much more to do with psychology. It is, after all, the most difficult task of a pitcher to second-guess what the batter is expecting the pitch to be.

Re:Baseball

[lazn]

Similarities how? Cricket has 5 DAY games. At least Baseball dosesn't last longer than a few hours at most. You hear the announcer say "Here we are bottom of the 8th" not "Here we are day 4."

==>Lazn

Re:Baseball - ultimate nerd sport?

[cens0r]

It's because there are so many different numbers to compare, and that these numbers compare very well from generation to generation. You have BA, ERA, OBS, OPS, RBI, Wins, Saves, WHIP, Home Runs, etc. You can also use these individual statistics to predict victories for a team. It's harder to do such a statistical anaylisis on the other sports. Plus, baseball has such a long season and has been around for so long most of the statistical oddities have been worked out.