Frederic Bertley
Appearances
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
I can't watch any sport, especially baseball, without now looking at it through the scientific lens.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Science and even engineering all over that baseball diamond, throwing, hitting, running. Why are some people better at hitting home runs? And don't even get me started about math because it's all about the box score and the analytics and mathematics.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Dr. B, first of all, I'm just so excited to be talking to another Dr. B. Oh! And I'm super excited that you asked me that question because people talk about climate change. Some people think it's a thing. Some people don't think it's a thing. But most people don't think it affects them. But not only does it affect climate and all kinds of things you can imagine, it actually impacts sports.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
And so the given city state will be warmer than what it used to be perhaps years prior. And warmer air actually has a significant impact on sports that involve projectiles like baseballs, soccer balls, etc. And in the case of baseball, the warm air actually allows the baseball to travel faster through that air. And one of the reasons why is warm air is actually less dense than cold air.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
And so if you are playing baseball in a place that has warm air where the air is less dense, the speed of that pitch coming to you will come faster. And what comes in fast? Guess what? Goes out fast. So your capacity to hit the ball out the park metaphorically and literally is that much better with climate change because the air is warmer. The ball that you hit will travel faster and further.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Traditionally, fastballs are better at triggering home runs. Okay. Why? The faster the ball comes to you, when you hit it, you know, with Newton's law, you're going to transfer in the exact opposite direction. the ball is going to travel. And so the faster the ball comes to you, the better chance you have at hitting a home run. So that's number one.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
However, depending on certain curveballs and depending on how you actually hit the curveball, you can trigger a certain spinning of the ball through the air and that might make it carry it further upwards or further downwards.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
And so whether you're taking a basketball shot from the foul line or anywhere in the court or hitting a baseball, the ball will travel in what we call that parabolic shape. So think of kind of an upside down U or a mountain-y shape. It's going to arc upwards. Then it's going to hit a specific height. And because of gravity, it's going to slow up until it hits that height.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
And there's going to be a moment of... very, very fraction of a moment where it literally is going to be still in the air. Yep. And then it's going to follow the exact opposite parabolic arched kind of flow right back down. So to your point, you can have a parabola that looks really steep. So if you imagine Mount Everest, you can have a parabola that's really shallow.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Imagine a bunny hill and a ski slope, and you can have everything in between. Well, if you're trying to get a ball from home plate by hitting it over the wall for a home run, you want to make sure you've optimized the angle of where you hit the ball. Does it shoot off exactly at 45 degrees off the bat?
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
That might be the best, and that also depends on a different field, which we may talk about that in a minute, a different ballpark. But do you hit it and leave your bat at 45? Is it slightly shallower and it leaves your bat at 30 degrees? That will be optimized to get that ball out of the park.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Like, this is why I love baseball. It's such a peculiar sport, Dr. B. Almost every other sport on the planet has a standardized playing field. For some reason, in Major League Baseball, the field is not standardized. Yes, the distance from pitcher's mound to home plate is the same. Yes, the distance from, you know, home plate to first base, second base, third place. That's the same.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
But once you start going in the outer field, some of these walls are much shallower, but really tall. Some of these walls are much shorter, but they're a little further out. So people know. that home field advantage teams have much better chances of hitting home runs. But spending a lot of time in Boston, we have the green monster. And the green monster is super tall, but that's a lot closer.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
And so what happens is, you know, the Red Sox are used to smacking them either right near the top or sometimes they get it over. But then people who play in Boston who practice a lot in Fenway Park, actually can learn to slightly pivot because the green monster isn't the entire outfield. It's just one side of it.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
So if you're used to being able to smack really well there and you can slightly shift and angle that ball to the other side, you have, by way of practice, an opportunity of being able to smack balls more in a home run fashion over that other wall because it's lower than the green monster.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
It's so funny. And before, Dr. B, before we get to the batting average, which I love that question, I really want to talk about what you just said of precision hitting. Placing the ball in a precise manner, having it drop right between center and left field or right through the short time, that is an art and a science. It is. And to your point, the game is not won by home runs.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
It's won by runs, which are a consequence of hits, however they come. And so the precision batter is infinitely a more threatening player than somebody who can just on occasion hit a home run.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
The tortoise, the precise tortoise with the indicators in their car changing lanes effectively will win the race.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Yeah. You know, this is one of the most beautiful things in sports. I mean, we know the concept of getting a test, right? If you got a 90 or 95, that was great. If you got a 60, that would be like, you know, okay, pass, but I'm just not feeling good. But in baseball... Just to tell you how hard that sport is, there is nobody who's getting a 60% batting average. No, no.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
There's nobody who's batting successfully one out of every two times a bat. No one's getting a 50%. If you bat 33% or you have an average of 333 or .33. That's amazing. You're successfully hitting one-third of those balls. You have a multimillion-dollar contract for the next 10 years.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
And I'm embarrassed to say this on national public radio. I was terrible. I couldn't hit the ball.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
That pitcher, him or her, whoever, softball or baseball, they are throwing that ball so fast to you that you're not seeing it, eyeballing it, concentrating on it, and hitting it. You have to be swinging your bat literally the instant that pitcher has released the ball.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Because the time it takes your arm swing to swing that bat around is equivalent to the time it takes that ball to leave that pitcher and hit the catcher. So you're hitting the ball through experience, through intuition, through understanding and studying that athlete, that pitcher. And it's a best guess.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
It almost becomes, I don't want to say straight chance, obviously, because some batters are better than others.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
So if you hit it one out of every three times, you're great. It's like, imagine winning the lottery one out of every three times you played it. Pretty darn good, right?
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Dr. B, I really appreciate you having me on the show. It's so exciting to know that an astrophysicist like yourself with a PhD understands the importance of celebrating the wonders of sports while paying homage to science and celebrating the wonders of science while appreciating the great American pastime. This has been an absolute pleasure.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
You got it. I'll let my expo slash nationals now adopted Red Sox see how we do.
Short Wave
Climate Change + Baseball = More Home Runs
Did you know hockey players and figure skaters are literally gliding on a thin layer of water? A combination of pressure the blade puts on the ice and heat from friction of the blade going over the surface.