[greymule]

"It is established fact that the ball accelerates when coming off an aluminum bat."

I know that the ball rockets off some metal bats much faster than off wood ones, and something has to be done. Even in softball people are being killed and seriously injured by shots off red-hot bats.

Softballs are coming off bats at 105 miles an hour, so baseballs must be far above that. One physicist estimated that a ball Mickey Mantle hit off the Yankee Stadium façade was traveling 155 mph (don't know whether he meant at the time it hit the façade or the time it left the bat). That was of course with a wood bat, so who knows how fast they are leaving a metal one these days.

But a technical question: Is it physically possible for a ball to accelerate in flight?

[Edited by greymule on Aug 4th, 2003 at 02:51 PM]