Physics of Cheating in Baseball

[tachyonbb]

The June 2011 issue of the American Journal of Physics has an article titled: "Corked bats, juiced balls and humidors, The physics of cheating in baseball".

Alan Nathan from U of Illinois, Lloyd Smith from Washington State and Dan Russell from Kettering University are the authors.

They corked a bat and tested its coefficient of restitution and discovered that a corked bat has no advantage when compared to a normal bat.

They tested baseball's from the 1970's (from Charles Finley estate). American League balls by Rawlings and signed by MacPhail. They compared these to Rawlings balls made in 2004. They also reviewed the tests done in 1998-2000 and those done by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Bottom line was that there was no significant difference in the coefficient of restitution with the different baseballs. The limited number of samples to test made any definitive statement impossible.

The last test was using the humidor like the one used at Coors field. They concluded that the humidor is effective in reducing the distance a baseball will fly.

I have provided a synopsis of the article. If you want more details let me know. The article is online but you have to have a subscription to view the article.