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Originally Posted by briancurtin
i may have misunderstood the reference, but i attributed nothing to you so i dont see the need to change anything.
i dont know about you, but id take the advice of a pitcher who won a game in the world series with the twins, even though hes a gym teacher now and works with the baseball team on the side.
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So who exactly were you quoting?
When it comes to pitching and how the ball reacts this gym teacher has more or less credibility than Tom Seaver?
Here's an interesting piece:
Every sport is governed by the laws of physics, of course. However, Paul Doherty, senior scientist at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, argues that baseball is a special case......
For example, serious scientific studies have been done on the technique outfielders use to track and catch a fly ball. Another study determined that the “rising fastball” was an optical illusion, based on a batter’s perception of pitching speeds.
And what other sport ever had an official physicist? Yale Professor Robert K. Adair filled that post for the National League from 1987 to 1989, at the request of the late baseball executive (and one-time Yale president) Bart Giamatti.
“I like to point out that Einstein, if he were interested in baseball, still could not from first principles calculate the flight of the ball,” Adair said. “We know the basic rules, but we can’t solve the equations.”
A myriad of mysteries
The unpredictability of a baseball - and the prowess of a pitcher - has much to do with the 216 raised red cotton stitches encircling its cowhide surface.
Excerpt from an article by Alan Boyle
I'm no physicist so correct me if I'm wrong, what I'm reading is movement on a baseball is unpredictable and even Einstein could not predict through physics the movement of the ball, yet we know it won't rise but don't ask us to prove it.
Short of definitive scientific proof to the contrary, I don't think defaulting to the accounts and experiences of respected professionals personally involved is such a reach.
I do enjoy all the sarcasm around this subject, but I haven't seen anyone tackle the question of why an 85mph fastball never 'appears' to be rising.
I'm also quite sure that the once official physicist of the national league, Robert Adair, is not the right person to be sourcing any info from but I couldn't find any appropriate quotes or studies from high school gym teachers.