Baseball Science

- [Rob] Are you feeling curious?

- Yes!

- Yeah!

Today on Curious Crew.

(ball hits bat) - Oh!

(people cheer) - [Rob] It's going, going, gone!

The Curious Crew clears the bases and takes the field.

- I'm so excited!

- [Rob] To explore baseball science.

So get your popcorn 'cause you got a front row seat.

(crew cheering) - That one's deep!

- [Rob] Play ball!

Oh, nice job!

- [Announcer] Support for a Curious Crew is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union.

Offering a variety of accounts for children and teens of all ages while teaching lifelong saving habits.

More information is available at msufcu.org.

By the Consumers Energy Foundation, dedicated to ensuring Michigan residents have access to world-class educational resources.

More information is available at consumersenergy.com/foundation.

Consumers Energy Foundation, supporting education and building sustainable communities in Michigan's hometowns.

And by viewers like you!

Thank you.

(pencil writing) (upbeat music) ("Take Me Out to the Ballgame" plays) - Hi, I'm Rob Stevenson and this is- - Curious Crew!

- Welcome to the show everybody.

As you can see, Curious Crew is on location today at Jackson Field, home of the Lansing Lugnuts in Lansing, Michigan.

And you also know we always like to start every episode with a couple of discrepant events because discrepant events stimulate- - Curiosity!

- That's exactly right!

And for our first discrepant event, the crew is watching as our pitcher and catcher from the Lansing Community College baseball team warm up in the bullpen with a set of three pitches.

Everybody, check out that stance!

Think about how the motion of the body is affecting the ball.

(techno music) (air whoosh) Now that we've seen the first set of pitches, let's get the players out on the field to check out a second set of three pitches.

Hey Shirleyann, give him the signal!

Call 'em out!

All right everyone, pay attention.

I wanna see if you notice anything different from that first set of pitches in the bullpen.

All right?

Now watch close!

(upbeat music) (catches ball) (catches ball) (catches ball) That's great!

Thanks guys!

We'll catch up with you later!

All right.

So what did you notice between the two sets of pitches?

Ian, what did you notice?

- Well, it seemed like the second set was a lot faster than the first.

- Did you guys notice that?

That's kind of interesting.

Okay, we're gonna have to figure that out.

Josie, you're gonna help me out on this other discrepant event.

I'm gonna ask you to hold this bat right there.

Okay?

And I've got a little hammer.

I'm gonna be tapping on different parts of the bat and I just want you to report out what you notice, okay?

Okay.

(taps bat) - I feel vibrations.

- Okay.

(taps bat) - Feel vibrations.

- (laughs) Okay.

(taps bat) - I feel fewer vibrations.

- And did you notice it sounded different, too.

That, we call that the sweet spot, which is kind of interesting, but why would you feel fewer vibrations?

That's weird.

So we've got some interesting discrepant events.

We've got some speedy pitches over here.

We've got a sweet spot in the bat.

I'm gonna ask three of you to do a little scientific modeling to see if you can explain these discrepant events.

You can use information throughout the show to help revise your thinking.

Who wants to take part in a little modeling moment today?

Who wants to do that?

Okay.

AvaGail.

Janellyn.

Uh, Kah'Reice.

All right.

You three are gonna do that for me.

Anybody have a guess we're gonna be talking about today?

What do you guys think?

Demetrius?

What do you think?

- Something to do with baseball.

- You betcha!

Baseball science!

(crowd roars) Stick around.

We're going into extra innings.

(upbeat music) - Let's check the replay.

We know the second set of pitches was faster than the first.

- Yeah, the pitcher changed his throwing form in the second series.

- Put that on the board, AvaGail, yes!

I wonder though why Josie felt the vibrations only some of the time and not other times.

It seems like Dr.

Rob was playing hardball every time.

- Let's consider the stats.

Does the collision placement make a difference?

(upbeat music) - [Rob] The game of baseball has been around a long time.

In fact, Major League Baseball began in 1869.

So it is the oldest professional sports league in the United States.

Although the game and the equipment have changed over time, the science behind the sport is very much the same.

The pitcher takes advantage of gravity, drag and lift, while both he and the batter try to use velocity and momentum to their advantage to either get a strike or a home run.

Every player uses split second reaction time to help their team.

Baseball science sure is a hit.

So as soon as we start thinking about baseball science, one of the things that we have to think about are the materials in the sport.

And let's start with a baseball.

Now, when we drop a baseball, we get a little bit of a bounce.

But let's do a comparison between a baseball and a tennis ball.

You've got a golf ball and another baseball.

Two baseballs.

Yes, because this one has been in the freezer since yesterday (laughs).

(crew laughs) - Wow!

- So we wanna see if it has some sort of an impact.

Ready?

Let's hold 'em out here.

On the count of three, we're gonna drop 'em.

1, 2, 3.

(balls bounce) Ooh.

Okay.

Which ones bounce better?

- I think the tennis ball - Tennis ball.

and the golf ball.

- Tennis ball and golf ball?

And when we think about the two baseballs, how did my cold baseball do compared to the others?

What do you think, Josie?

- Not very well.

(Rob laughs) - Not very well.

Well, okay.

Now to think about this, we really need to have a better understanding of what a baseball is made of.

- Wow.

- Whoa.

- I've actually cut a baseball apart.

Inside, you're gonna notice the center is cork with a rubber coating.

This is called the pill.

There's another rubber layer, and then a whole bunch of yarn before we get to the leather outer shell, which is stitched together with 108 waxed stitches.

Now here's a wondering I have, you saw how the ball dropped on the ground.

Not a great bounce.

Why might that be the case, Ian?

- Well, wouldn't the yarn absorb most of the energy?

- Exactly right.

So if we want this ball to flex like the tennis ball or the golf ball and have more energy, we need a bigger impact.

And we can get that with a baseball bat.

Then we can get this to flex.

Now if we have a really cold ball like my frozen one, this isn't gonna flex as much, so it's not going to have as good a reaction.

So baseballs can be affected by the temperature.

Now years ago, there used to be a rubber core, which made the balls super bouncy.

It also made for a lot of really deep hits.

Let's do another comparison.

Material of the bats.

We've got aluminum or alloy.

We also have wood.

I got an idea.

I think we need to suit up and have Ian take some swings with each one of these bats and you can tell us what you notice between the differences.

Should we get our gear on you guys?

- Let's go for it.

- Yeah.

- All right.

- Play ball!

Ready Ian?

(ball hits bat) - [Rob] Oh yeah!

- Strike 1!

(bat hits ball) - Oh!

We got a little tip!

- Strike 2!

(bat hits ball) - [Rob] Nice!

(bat strikes ball) - [Rob] Oh, I like it!

I like it!

- Strike 3!

You're out!

(air whoosh) (bat hits ball) - Oh, nice hit!

(crew cheers) Nice hit!

Nice hit!

(crew cheers) (bat hits ball) Nice.

(bat hits ball) - Oh!

- Yes!

Oh, beautiful hit!

So you were all great out there!

Excellent!

So Ian, what did you notice when you compared these two bats?

- Well, the aluminum one felt a lot lighter, and I could hit the ball a lot farther.

This one took a lot more energy to swing, so it was a lot more tiring.

But the ball definitely didn't go as far.

(Rob laughs) - There's a lot of mass to that.

And so yeah, you do get tired swinging that.

Nice job!

The other thing I wanna point out to you is that, because the aluminum is hollow inside, the metal will flex, and we get a lot of energy right back into the ball.

So with an aluminum bat, you can actually hit these balls pretty far.

We're allowed to use alloy bats in youth sports and even in college, but not in the majors.

In the majors or professional ball, we have to stick with the wood bat.

Here we're gonna be absorbing a lot of energy with all this material, but we also have to honor those previous records, so wood bats only.

Way to go, slugger!

(Rob and Ian laugh) In the major league, players must use wooden bats.

Although there have been many design changes with wooden bats, they're often made from white ash that gets dried, milled on a lathe, sanded, stamped, and dipped in varnish.

They can be as long as 42 inches, with a barrel as wide as 2 and 61/100 of an inch, but players like to keep the weight to around 32 ounces so they can swing the bat faster and increase the bat's velocity.

Yickety yak, great hit!

(crowd roars) (air whoosh) So you know pitchers work really hard perfecting the perfect pitch, and it's all about the grip.

So we're gonna learn a couple of these.

First of all, the fast ball.

Start with peace sign.

Get your peace sign, and you're gonna wrap it over the ball, and then put your thumb underneath.

Now, amazingly, when you release this pitch, the ball's gonna roll right off the fingers.

So let's try the curve ball.

You bring the fingers together this time.

We're gonna wrap it over the ball with the thumb underneath.

Now the important thing to remember is on your release, your wrist has to be sideways so the ball starts to spin like this.

Now interestingly, as the ball is spinning, it interacts with the air particles in the air with the stitches and it causes the ball to break to the left.

Amazing.

Let's try a knuckle ball.

Okay, put those fingers up on top.

You can do two.

Some people like to do three.

I prefer two.

And then of course, we're going to try to release this with as little spin as possible, which makes it really unpredictable and hard to pitch.

Let's take a look at the video of our Lansing Community College athletes, both softball and baseball.

You guys tell me what we notice.

(upbeat music) (catches ball) (catches ball) (upbeat music) (catches ball) (catches ball) (catches ball) (upbeat music) (catches ball) (catches ball) (upbeat music) (catches ball) (catches ball) (upbeat music) (catches ball) (catches ball) (upbeat music) (catches ball) (catches ball) So what did you notice when you watched those pitchers?

Tauren, what'd you notice?

- They took a step forward.

- That's exactly right.

Now why would they do that?

- Because it's gonna build momentum.

- Ah, building more momentum!

And we saw that both with the softball and also with the baseball.

Would you wanna catch one of those pitches?

- No, I wouldn't wanna catch that one.

I would wanna let it go.

- You're gonna let that one go, huh?

Okay.

It's your turn for the perfect pitch.

Let's step on up here on the count of three.

Let's pepper 'em in there.

Ready?

1, 2, 3, Play ball!

Oh, nice job!

They really are on the ball!

(air whoosh) Professional pitchers get really good at using the rotational speed of the ball to make the ball harder to hit.

Curve ball is an amazing pitch that when released, has a spin rotating right to left.

As the air particles deflect away off the left side of the ball, the particles hit harder on the right, making the ball break left.

A lot of that curve happens at the end of the pitch, making it really hard to hit.

The unusual path of a spinning ball moving through the air is called the Magnus Effect.

Way to go, Ace.

(upbeat music) - Myself, my friend Ian, and Tauren, we were working on an investigation where we had to create little Jack in the Box toys.

We're trying to create these out of different compression springs and like coffee cups and hot glue and tape.

- And I remember this one the most.

It was called the Octobox.

- Let's put the octopus right in the middle.

- Ian had come up with a name, Octobox- - Because well, I mean, there's an octopus.

- Oh, okay.

- We would take off the lid and then the whole toy would pop out.

- 1, 2, 3!

Oh my gosh!

- Janellyn, Tauren and I, we've been together for a lot of seasons.

- Cha cha cha cha cha cha!

Cha cha cha cha cha cha!

- We have lots of fun and make lots of mistakes, but that's definitely part of the fun.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] STEM Challenge!

- So have you guys been having fun investigating baseball science today?

- Yeah!

- Me too.

Well, we're back inside.

Time for our STEM build.

And we have seen how hard it is to throw a curve ball.

Those pitchers are pretty good, but that takes years of practice, right?

So we're gonna do a shortcut.

You are going to be challenged to develop a curve ball launcher system and to make things even more easy to see, we're gonna use styrofoam balls so we can see how much we can get these to actually curve.

I see you selected some materials.

You guys ready to start your builds?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- All right, go to it!

(crew chatting) - And then we can start connecting the (indistinct chatter).

That would be the best worst case.

- Gonna get some measurements.

(crew chatting) - The materials we're using are various-shaped cardboard pieces and then we also have foam balls, plastic tubes, and we have a lot of this painters tape in blue and green.

- It's all about the aesthetics.

- Yep.

Exactly.

- All in the aesthetics.

- Yes.

- We have a test tube handle, and then we have a base and it's super taped.

So there's like a lot of blue and green tape, and it's all like colorful and it looks amazing.

- Yep.

Exactly.

- Maybe we should put more tape on there?

- We're having problems with the handle a lot.

It kept wiggling and it fell off a few times.

- They're crossing it, is it- - [Ethan] 'Cause you can just overlap it.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- [Ethan] Just for extra- - It's also a little bit more challenging to only build one per group because then you all have to clash your ideas together.

If someone had this idea, then the another person had this idea, we'd have to find a way to put those two ideas together so everybody would be happy.

- This- (crew chatting) - Yeah!

- Another way?

Like- - Oh yeah!

- And see if this is to our liking.

(crew chatting) - I think once I get out to the field, it will work pretty well.

I'm interested to see if maybe like a difference in angling those two wooden pieces would make a difference or if keeping them longer would be better.

But I think they'll do pretty well because of how we designed it.

- Yes.

I'm so excited!

- Oh, I like the Curious Crew colors here.

Nice job you guys!

So these are looking really interesting.

Are you ready to take them outside and give this a whirl?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Okay, we're gonna take these outside with some styrofoam balls and see if we can get some curve ball action going on!

Should be fun.

We're ready to test these curve ball launchers, but I'm really curious to hear what your teams chose to use for the materials.

Demetrius, what did your team use?

- Well, we used half of cardboard tube, (Rob laughs) a graduated cylinder for the handle, and a lot of tape.

- A lot of tape!

(laughs) (crew laughs) Okay, great.

How about yours, Janellyn?

- So we also used a graduated cylinder for our handle, and then we used a salt container for our base with these painting paddles for the prongs.

And then we decorated ours all in blue and green tape, and we have a skirt for flare.

- There you go!

I just love all this Curious Crew color.

Nice alliteration there.

And how about this team?

AvaGail, what did your team use?

- So first we used cut carpet, cardboard, and we use a small cut tube, and we covered it with green and blue tape.

- Nice.

She carried that alliteration on perfectly.

I so appreciate that.

Now we're gonna test these.

I'm gonna have three of you test them.

And the rest of us, I think we're gonna move out of the way.

Good luck on the curve balls!

Tauren, will you count 'em down?

All right, let's move out of the way!

- Okay.

- Ready guys?

3, 2, 1.

(crew cheers) (crew members celebrate) (air whoosh) (air whoosh) - [Rob] Major League Baseball pitchers can throw a baseball at 95 miles per hour or faster.

That velocity is determined by dividing the distance by the time it takes for the ball to get to home plate.

The distance between the mound and the home plate is 60 feet, six inches.

So a 95 mile per hour pitch gets there in four tenths of a second.

The batter has to react very quickly, and the pitcher must hit the strike zone above the batter's knee and below the midpoint between his shoulder and waistband.

Steee-rike!

(crowd roars) So every batter hopes that one day they are gonna be the one to get the- - home run.

- Home Run!

You betcha.

And to do that, it's all about ball placement on the bat.

Let's take a look at this.

If we've got the batter coming in to swing, and the ball makes a placement here, where it comes off at about a 10 degree angle, we're looking at a ground ball.

Bummer.

If we come a little higher, and we get between let's say 10 and 25 degrees, then we're looking at a line drive.

Okay?

A little higher still.

If we come in up here, and we end up with a 50 degree angle coming off, we have a pop fly, and usually an out.

(crew laughs) So let's think about the optimal angle that a batter's going for.

Most physicists agree that between 25 and 30 degrees will give you a great hit and that ball is- gone!

- Gone!

- You betcha!

Now, if we watch our college athletes here, let's see if we can identify some of these hits.

We'll look for a ground ball, see if we see a line drive, pop fly.

Let's check it out.

(air whoosh) Here it comes.

(bat hits ball) - Ooh!

- Ooh!

- So we got a grounder, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Nice!

(bat hits ball) - Oh!

Check it out!

That was great!

(crew cheers) - That was great.

He got good angle on that one, you guys.

From really good angle.

(bat hits ball) - Oh, you've got another one going high!

I love it!

(bat hits ball) (bat hits ball) - Ohh!

- Whoa!

- That went deep!

Whoa!

- Whoa!

- Oh my gosh!

Another I, I think that was a double.

(bat hits ball) - Oh!

- Oh, I love it!

(bat hits ball) (bat hits ball) - Oh!

- Oh!

- [Crew Member] Wow!

That was such a- - [Rob] Yes!

(clapping) - That was a really good one!

(crew members clapping) - [Crew Member] That was nice!

(bat hits ball) - Pretty good batting there, don't you think?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So you might have also noticed that a lot of batters try to do a little bit of an upper cut on their swing, so they're more likely to get that 25 to 30 degree angle.

Hey Demetrius, can you hold this for a second?

I want you to describe for me what this feels like.

I'm gonna strike different parts of the barrel and you let me know what it feels like.

- Kind of feels like skin twisted outta my hand.

- Okay.

The bat?

Nice.

How about this?

- [Demetrius] Kinda like skin driven into my hand.

- Okay.

- Nothing much yet.

- (laughs) Nothing much, really?

This is another one of those sweet spots.

And in fact, this is called the center of percussion.

And the nice thing about that is the batter doesn't feel like the bat's being twisted or pushed into their hand.

And so we have more of that energy going right back into the ball.

So you're much more likely to have a really good hit.

You get that center of percussion, you get that 25 to 30 degree angle, and those home run hopes might be a reality.

This crew, they're batting a thousand today.

Hitting a baseball is really challenging.

So if a batter can get a hit in one out of every three at bats, that is considered really good, yielding a batting average of 0.333.

If the pitch only takes half a second to get there, a batter must react fast, choosing to swing or not.

So the bat needs to move quickly.

One way is for the batter to choke up, holding the bat higher.

But this makes the overall length of the bat shorter, so less total mass hits the ball.

For this reason, it's better to choose a lighter bat that can be held lower and swung fast.

And that one's gone!

(upbeat music) - All right, no striking out here!

Let's recap what we figured out so far.

- We know the windup increases speed.

In the first series of pitches, there wasn't much of a windup.

- I agree.

The pitcher used his whole body in the second set of throws, so there has to be an increase in speed.

- Oh, well, let's talk about that sweet spot.

When the batter hit the ball, it sounded different when it hit different spots on the bat.

- I wonder if that had anything to do with the vibrations Josie felt?

- I think we've got it!

I guess we're ready to play ball.

- So have you had fun investigating baseball signs today, you guys?

- Yeah!

- Yeah!

- Excellent!

Now, I know I threw you a curve ball early in the show with those discrepant events, but what have you figured out about the speedy pitch, Kah'Reice?

- Well, we saw the speed of the pitch change when the pitchers changed their form.

- Yeah, we think stepping into it makes it go faster.

- Excellent!

Because of course, if we're just using an arm throw, we're only using the power of our arm, our wrist, our fingers.

But if you do a good wind up, and you step into it, and you shift that weight from the back foot to the front foot, and you move that energy through the core, through the hips, through the rotating arm, and you have a lot more speed coming off of that ball!

Nice job.

Now what about the sweet spot, Janellyn?

- Well, we know that energy moves through the bat in waves during a collision.

So when we hit different spots on the bat, it changes the wave energy in the bat.

- Yeah, we think that the waves are canceling each other out.

- Good thinking you guys.

Sometimes the waves are gonna crest, and they're gonna get even bigger, kind of like you've seen in water.

But sometimes you'll have two waves come together and they actually cancel each other out.

Now in baseball, if we hit the right spot on the bat, that is called a node.

The node is where the waves cancel each other out.

And what happens for the batter, they feel fewer vibrations in their hands.

You end up having more energy go back into the ball, and that ball is much more likely to go deep into the field!

Pretty cool.

So we wanna thank everyone here at Jackson Field, home of the Lansing Lugnuts.

We also want to thank our wonderful college athletes and of course, the crew!

They hit another home run.

So remember my friends, stay curious!

- Stay curious!

- And keep experimenting!

(air whoosh) - [Rob] Get your Curiosity Guide and see more programs at WKAR.org.

- [Announcer] Support for a Curious Crew is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union.

Offering a variety of accounts for children and teens of all ages while teaching lifelong saving habits.

More information is available at msufcu.org.

By the Consumers Energy Foundation dedicated to ensuring Michigan residents have access to world-class educational resources.

More information is available at consumersenergy.com/foundation.

Consumers Energy Foundation, supporting education and building sustainable communities in Michigan's hometowns.

And by viewers like you!

Thank you!

- So what'd you notice, Ian?

(everyone laughs) - Sorry I wasn't ready yet.

(upbeat music) - 9 seasons of Curious Crew!

That's a wrap!

(crew applauds) - Stay curious!