showed that a corked back just doesnt cut it.

poor sosa

along with some other cools stuff.. most which was already known

8/9/2007 8:40:59 AM

what do you mean "doesn't cut it"?

8/9/2007 8:44:35 AM

Quote :

"showed that a corked backbat just doesnt cut it."

8/9/2007 9:30:16 AM

oh yeah. good call.

i dont know how i got back from bat...

it showed that a ball pitched at 80mph when struck is leaving the uncorked bat at around the same speed, ~80mph, but when a ball pitched at 80mph is hit by a corked bat, its leaving the corked bat at around half the speed ~40mph...

they used a compressed air pitching machine and a robot swinger... so they were pretty consistant throughout the experiement.

8/9/2007 9:36:02 AM

maybe sosa was trying to hide his superpowers

8/9/2007 9:43:42 AM

Take that, rewind it bat, Lil' Jon got the beats...

8/9/2007 9:45:26 AM

damnit i don't have cable... are they trying to bust any myths about steroids?

^and for the record, that rhymes better...

[Edited on August 9, 2007 at 9:53 AM. Reason : hehe]

8/9/2007 9:52:32 AM

you can watch pretty much all mythbusters online

8/9/2007 9:54:15 AM

Humidor making baseballs harder to hit - Plausible (Might as well be confirmed though)
Sliding into 2nd base faster than stopping on 2nd base - Confirmed
Corked bat hits balls farther - Busted
Rising sinker - Busted

Anything else I missed?

8/9/2007 9:57:28 AM

knocking the cover off the ball -> busted

ball would have to be thrown 400 mph or so

8/9/2007 10:09:19 AM

I've hit a racquetball and made it split in two a few times

8/9/2007 10:10:30 AM

Quote :

"knocking the cover off the ball -> busted"

yeah i missed that part of the epidode.

i wonder if they paid roger to be on the show, or if he's really a "fan"...

and who was the catcher, id find it kinda hard to catch a 90mph pitch.

although he did drop a few

8/9/2007 10:16:04 AM

i wasn't convinced by their part about knocking off the hide of the ball. it seems like the point of impact might make a big difference with that.

also, if a ball had been hit hard a few times before that

[Edited on August 9, 2007 at 10:33 AM. Reason : .]

8/9/2007 10:33:21 AM

Quote :

"I've hit a racquetball and made it split in two a few times"

\

Old ball.

8/9/2007 12:05:41 PM

well yeah, thats the point though, seems like it wouldn't be impossible for it to happen to an old baseball with weak seams... seems (HA) even more likely to happen than with a seamless racquetball... but then again, I am a fucking badass

8/9/2007 12:15:32 PM

I've seen a cover knocked off a ball. It was Babe Ruth League so I'm sure the ball was old. Weak seems and perfect location.

8/9/2007 12:34:18 PM

Benny 'the Jet' Rodrigez did it, so its possible

8/9/2007 1:03:13 PM

i'm sure they pointed out that curve balls do actually curve and thats its not just an illusion

8/9/2007 1:09:57 PM

yeah

8/9/2007 1:14:07 PM

Quote :

"Sliding into 2nd base faster than stopping on 2nd base - Confirmed"

That one seems kind of obvious, doesn't it?

I missed this, but it would have been nice if they tested the sliding into 1st vs. running through first argument.

8/9/2007 1:17:06 PM

^it'd have to be running, right? they both seem kind of obvious to me

i mean the reason sliding into 2nd is quicker than running is because you can kind of start to slow down once you're at the bag by sliding...running you have to slow down earlier or risk running past the bag...you kind of have your body length to stop on the bag, instead of just your foot

obviously at first you can run through full speed though

8/9/2007 1:26:45 PM

Quote :

"obviously at first you can run through full speed though"

Most definitely. However, there are some players out there that slide into first base. That really irks me b/c it looks like a false "Charlie Hustle" play. If players ran through the bag, they would get to first a lot quicker than sliding head first.

8/9/2007 2:13:21 PM

Sliding head0first at first base is the consideration. Some think you get there faster because you are getting out in front of your feet.

8/9/2007 3:29:10 PM

you can also slide into first to avoid the tag. Ive seen that work a few times.

8/9/2007 3:31:55 PM

Quote :

"you can also slide into first to avoid the tag."

All the first baseman has to do is step on the bag. He doesn't have to tag the runner unless the runner rounds first base.

8/9/2007 3:33:51 PM

I assumed he meant on a throw that took the 1B off the bag...

8/9/2007 3:35:21 PM

ahhhhh... ok... my bad

8/9/2007 3:38:40 PM

i always slide into first on MLB 2K7 lol

8/9/2007 4:17:54 PM

lol

8/10/2007 9:42:18 AM

they should've tested whether sliding head first or feet first is quicker, or if there's a difference

8/10/2007 9:54:30 AM

i would imagine head first is faster because you can spring forward, but then again you have more surface for friction than sliding on your leg and butt.. looks to me like when sliding feet first you kind gotta just drop.

ive never slid in my life so i dont really know.

8/10/2007 10:01:32 AM

I didn't see the show but reading the op's explanation of the "busted" cork bat myth leaves me wondering if they explored how a faster swing relates to distance. A corked bat is obviously lighter than ash therefor can be swung faster

8/10/2007 1:19:41 PM

^I was going to post the same thing. The cork gives an increased bat speed which would hit the ball farther.

8/10/2007 1:30:33 PM

How did they test the corked bat? On a machine where the reduced weight would make a negligible difference, or by a person who could seriously test it and would be able to swing the corked bat faster?

My friend did a science project on corked bats once, he got like 3rd in the state I think.

[Edited on August 10, 2007 at 1:44 PM. Reason : ]

8/10/2007 1:43:42 PM

THey were using a mechanial arm to "swing" the bat. More than likely the machine used a strong hydraulic which wouldn't be affected by any difference in bat weight, hell it probably could swing 10 bats and still have the same bat velocity.

8/10/2007 1:45:14 PM

yeah, they got adams bat swing and applied it to the machine.

i agree that the bat becomes lighter, but by how much?? the speed at which the ball came off the bad decreased by nearly half.

so my Q is, could they possibly swing it that much faster to where it bypasses the -50% drop in speed coming off the bat?

8/10/2007 3:26:39 PM

http://www.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/corkedbat.html

This guy references a couple of experiments relating to corked bats. They do suggest a lower batted-ball speed with a corked bat but nothing ridiculously low like Mythbusters came up with. THe benefit of a corked bat comes not from a trampoline effect but from the increased bat speed allowing for a player to wait longer to read a pitch and still be able to make proper contact. The more control over your bat and the more you know about the pitch the more likely you are to make contact and the more likely you are to hit the ball with the sweet spot of the bat. Corking a bat improves hitting in general, not necessarily distance.

[Edited on August 10, 2007 at 3:51 PM. Reason : link]

8/10/2007 3:50:45 PM

http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/4216783.html
This is an article from popular mechanics from June about bat weight vs swing speed and batted ball speed. Might be interesting and help out with some of the discussion. Basically it shows that increasing swing speed provides more batted ball speed and thus distance, than increasing the weight of the bat. So the increased swing speed from the corked bat should should cancel out the loss in ball speed from the reduction in bat weight.

[Edited on August 10, 2007 at 4:20 PM. Reason : :]

8/10/2007 4:20:26 PM

Quote :

"corked bat is obviously lighter than ash therefor can be swung faster"

Quote :

"I was going to post the same thing. The cork gives an increased bat speed which would hit the ball farther."

not exactly...the power and therefore distance with which you hit the ball not only is determined by speed, but also by the weight of the bat...its basically momentum (mass times velocity)

so in a sense, a 20 oz corked bat swung at 100 mph would be able to hit as far as a 40 oz non corked bat swung at 50 mph, assuming the same pitch was thrown

8/10/2007 4:24:47 PM

Quote :

"so in a sense, a 20 oz corked bat swung at 100 mph would be able to hit as far as a 40 oz non corked bat swung at 50 mph, assuming the same pitch was thrown"

Thats wrong read the link I posted, bat speed makes more of a difference than bat weight



[Edited on August 10, 2007 at 4:30 PM. Reason : :]

8/10/2007 4:29:39 PM

^yeah true...what i said would be correct if you were hitting a ball off of a tee for example, but yeah the speed of the pitch makes my equation not work in this case

8/10/2007 4:33:42 PM

Its not in reference to pitch speed, they showed that increasing the bat speed has more of an effect on how far a ball is hit than increasing the bat weight, which is shown by the graph.

Quote :

"Research has shown that doubling the weight of a 20-ounce wood bat can raise a BBS of 68.5 mph to 80.4 mph — a 17.3 percent increase. But Daniel Russell, a professor at Kettering University in Michigan, found that doubling the swing speed of a 30-ounce bat can raise a BBS of 62 mph to 83.8 mph — a 35.1 percent increase. In terms of turning a hit into a homer: Against a 94-mph fastball, every 1-mph increase in swing speed extends distance about 8 ft. "

[Edited on August 10, 2007 at 4:38 PM. Reason : :]

8/10/2007 4:37:32 PM

Maybe I am missing something obvious...but if a guy as big as Sammy Sosa wants to swing the bat faster why not just go with a legal, lighter bat than an illegal, corked bat?

8/10/2007 4:45:33 PM

Because there are differential in which someone must fall into. Furthermore, it about keeping the same mass and having less weight. You can't have less weight with a solid ash bat as you can with a corked bat in which the center of the bat has been removed and replaced with either super balls or cork.

8/10/2007 4:55:05 PM

Quote :

"not exactly...the power and therefore distance with which you hit the ball not only is determined by speed, but also by the weight of the bat...its basically momentum (mass times velocity)"

Anyone with a engineering degree from State should know that. However...

Quote :

"so in a sense, a 20 oz corked bat swung at 100 mph would be able to hit as far as a 40 oz non corked bat swung at 50 mph, assuming the same pitch was thrown"

But a human has to swing the bat. The majority of the mass of a bat is at the barrel. The decrease in mass is more than made up for in the increase in bat speed b/c of the moment arm (inertia's less, etc).

[Edited on August 10, 2007 at 5:27 PM. Reason : of]

8/10/2007 5:25:58 PM

Quote :

"I didn't see the show but reading the op's explanation of the "busted" cork bat myth leaves me wondering if they explored how a faster swing relates to distance. A corked bat is obviously lighter than ash therefor can be swung faster "

If weight were the only issue, then the batter could just use a lighter bat, no need to cork it to make it lighter. They addressed this issue on Mythbusters.

8/12/2007 1:55:25 AM

a lighter homogeneous bat would have to be smaller and/or a different material say switch from an ash bat to balsa wood. balsa is just a joke to illustrate the point, but physics say you cannot change the weight of a bat w/o either changing the amount of material making up the bat or changing the type of material. Its obvious that both bat weight and bat speed are the two most important factors (assuming speed of pitch before impact, angle of impact, and impact location remain constant) The true question is which is more dominant. Most likely a corked bat that has been scientifically developed would be the best combination of the two factors.

8/12/2007 1:24:03 PM

^^

Quote :

"Because there are differential in which someone must fall into. Furthermore, it about keeping the same mass and having less weight. You can't have less weight with a solid ash bat as you can with a corked bat in which the center of the bat has been removed and replaced with either super balls or cork."

8/12/2007 3:09:26 PM

Quote :

"it about keeping the same mass and having less weight"

ummm baseball on the moon?

8/12/2007 3:16:55 PM

Quote :

"Quote : "it about keeping the same mass and having less weight" ummm baseball on the moon? "

The only mass that is of consequence is in the area of impact. If you take a standard bat but hold it by the barrel and hit with the handle you cannot hot it as far because the effective mass of what is making contact is so much smaller even though the bat's overall mass is the same.

8/12/2007 3:26:22 PM