Baseball season is nigh! From Yankee stadium in New York to Dodger stadium in Los Angeles, teams around the country will face off Thursday to mark the start of the 2025 MLB season. And when we here at Short Wave think of baseball, we naturally think of physics. To get the inside scoop on the physics of baseball, like how to hit a home run, we talk to Frederic Bertley, CEO and President of the Center of Science and Industry, a science museum in Columbus, Ohio. In this encore episode, he also talks to host Regina G. Barber about how climate change is affecting the game.Interested in the science of other sports? Email us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear from you.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey Shortwavers, my favorite season starts this week, baseball season. As a kid, I loved the sound of the ball hitting the bat at the San Diego Padre games. I thought I could actually hear it when it was going to be a good hit and someone would be getting on base. I was also fascinated by curveballs.
Like, how did the pitchers get those things to curve like that? And I had heard that there were stadiums that were easier to get home runs in. Frederick Burtley was also fascinated by baseball as a kid, and he also loved science and math. And he would go on to get his Ph.D. in immunology.
But when he was a kid, he loved rooting for his local pro baseball team, the Montreal Expos, which have since relocated to Washington, D.C. as the Nationals. And he was inspired to try his hand at it, too.
And I'm embarrassed to say this on national public radio. I was terrible. I couldn't hit the ball.
Needless to say, he's not a pro baseball player now. But he is the CEO and president of the Center of Science and Industry, or COSI, a science museum in Columbus, Ohio. And he loves spreading the wonder of science, especially when it intersects with sports.
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.
He thinks making videos like these is one of the easiest ways to get sports fans into science. It's a pursuit he feels very passionate about. When Dr. B, as he's known in his videos, watches baseball, he now sees it through a different lens.
I can't watch any sport, especially baseball, without now looking at it through the scientific lens.
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