[greymule]

Thanks, Tony and Garth.

That's what I thought. On, say, a line drive back at the pitcher (discounting the insignificant effects of tailwind, gravity, cosmic rays, solar wind), the ball is traveling fastest the instant it leaves the bat and constantly slows thereafter. A line drive horizontal to the ground cannot "pick up speed" in the air, no matter how much potential energy it carries as a result of being deformed by the bat.

I have seen softballs make drastic, seemingly impossible changes in direction after they have been hit by some of the weapons of mass destruction that Miken and Worth have produced. I've seen line drives toward the pitcher rise and go sailing off toward right center. I once saw a line drive hit so hard that it shot past F5's head and dropped to the ground 6 feet behind him. F5 was just getting the glove up as the ball hit the ground. I felt at the time that he might have just escaped death.

Can't say I've ever seen such weird things with baseballs. I guess they don't deform to the degree that softballs do.

Tony, I see your point about the curve ball. The correct question would then have to be, "Does the ball accelerate on its path," and of course the answer would be no.