Sad

[DownTownTonyBrown]

The ball will speed up as it falls - the farther it falls the faster it goes (as in hitting it over a cliff) - up to a terminal velocity as he mentions.

The ball speed will not increase above the speed with which it left the bat because of air friction and the level playing field - the ball falls down the same distance as it went up.

Gravity works AGAINST the flight of the ball on its way up and gravity works WITH the flight of the ball on its way down - the net effect is close to zero.

If there were no air, there would be no drag or air friction and the ball would fall at the SAME speed with which it left the bat. Hence in Denver, balls fly farther because at this higher elevation there is less air (it is less dense) and therefore less air friction.

But any place they play baseball they have air. Different from gravity that always pulls down (decreasing the ball's speed on the way up and increasing it on the way down), air friction always works against the flight of the ball and is always decreasing the speed of the ball.