Quote:
Originally posted by David Emerling
Also, standing further back *must* expose you to greater risk. It's pure physics. Once the ball comes off the bat on a foul tip, the ball is going to be within a certain cone. Depending on the nature of the pitch and the nature of the ball coming off the bat, the cone may be wide or narrow. A fast pitch barely tipped is going to have a very narrow cone, for instance. The point at which the ball leaves the bat is the tip of the cone and the cone only increases in diameter from there. The further away you are the larger the diameter of the cone, thus increasing the probability of the ball hitting you.
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David,
It's the other way around. We're interested in the fraction of balls which will strike an umpire. The balls have the same angular distribution no matter where blue stands. But he subtends a smaller angle as he stands farther from the plate. And that smaller solid angle means that he intercepts fewer foul balls. The situation is complicated slightly by the shrouding effect of the catcher, and I suppose that a GD stance umpire who works very high might take more impacts to the mask or helmet.
BTW, Anybody else notice a correlation between use of helmets and use of the GD stance?
Dave