Physics of Cheating in Baseball

[tachyonbb]

They did increase the velocity of the bat for the corked bat. The velocity was higher, but the mass of the bat was less which pretty much cancelled the effect of the higher velocity.

The corked bat did not have a better Coefficient of Restitution when compared to the original bat. There is no "trampoline" effect from the corked bat like there was with college metal bats. More bat speed but less mass resulted in the corked bat performance being a little less than the original bat.

One other possibility that the authors mentioned is that with the lighter bat the hitter could wait longer on the pitch before committing to swing. "That is, in the parlance of baseball the batter can "get around quicker", allowing the batter to wait longer on the pitch as well as more easily adjust the swing after the swing has already begun"
"So while corking may not allow a batter to hit the ball farther, it may well allow a batter to hit the ball solidly more often."