Tonight, Roger Clemens will be on Mythbusters tonight when Adam and Jamie deal with some baseball myths. I'm a huge Mythbusters fan. It might be because they blow stuff up a lot.
Mythbusters rocks.</p> I'll bust a myth right now.</p> Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball.</p> The true inventor was a fellow named Alexander Cartwright. Doubleday was an officer in the Union army during the civil war, and at the time he supposedly invented the game, he was actually in military prison.</p> The first game was played in NYC in 1845. The first pro team, featuring openly paid players was the redstockings in 1869.</p> There were other games with bat and ball prior, even going back to egyptian times. But baseball as we play it today, right down to the 90 feet between bases, was designed by Cartwright.</p> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lanteri)</div><div class='quotemain'>What time?</div></p> </p> I believe it's on at 9 pm E.S.T. (I think it usually repeats later in the night.) Discovery Channel. </p>
I watched....I like Mythbusters and Ive been looking forward to this one for a while....I thought it was interesting that corking a bat actually hurt the distances....
The 400 MPH baseball was hilarious.</p> </p> The one thing they overlooked on the hitting the hide off the ball is that they used modern baseballs which are stiched so much better than baseballs from the 1920's and 1930's. </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TheBeef)</div><div class='quotemain'>I watched....I like Mythbusters and Ive been looking forward to this one for a while....I thought it was interesting that corking a bat actually hurt the distances....</div>wow. didn't know that. so then why is it against the rules to cork a bat in baseball? that doesn't make much sense to me.</p> you'd think the mlb people would check that out better.</p>
On the corked bat, as it is lighter, it gets through the hitting zone quicker. That gives the hitter just a little more time to wait on the pitch and see what it is doing.</p> I would have liked to see them compare the MPH of the corked bat swing to the MPH of the regulation bat swing</p>
I believe that the test was a bit flawed, because they used a machine to swing, and i suspect it swung both bats at the same speed....so of course the heavier bat will win that
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Shookem)</div><div class='quotemain'>I missed it. What else did they bust?</div></p> </p> IIRC, they tested the distance of dry baseballs vs high humidity baseball, sliding vs running all the way, can a fastball rise and the corked bat.</p> There was a definite differnce in distance as the dry balls were hit further by machine. Sliding into second was indeed sligthly faster than running and stopping at the base (BTW, Ed Sprague made an apperance in that segment). A fastball can't rise because of physics.</p>
Id like to see them build a machine to throw a 12 to 6 uncle charley! Im sure it could be done, since its about release creating spin and less velocity allowing an opportunity for resistance....I love the sceince of baseball....
