Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 35 posts

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#21

Post by sokoloff »

S_A_P wrote: post #6

I struggle with this, I think as long as you aren't getting spit in your eye as a batter, who cares if a pitcher throws a spit ball, a cutter, or any other "cheat" pitch. I feel like that is living on the margins and that you probably aren't affecting the balls flight path as much as you think you are. 60' 6" isn't really a great distance, and batters have generally hit 1 out of every 3 or 4 times they bat since basi…

Spit balls were originally banned ostensibly for batter safety. This was in an era before batting helmets and replacing the ball nearly every time it touched the ground. It’s not clear that reintroducing it would cause a safety concern, but MLB is interested in having a certain balance of defense and offense and giving the pitchers back the spitter would require some offsetting change for the offense. With the recent clampdown on PEDs, I think the balance is probably temporarily too pro-defense, so it seems unlikely that the league would be inclined to reintroduce.

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#22

Post by oarsinsync »

carboy wrote: post #16
SubiculumCode wrote: post #9

Here is my take. In long past times, baseballs were reused until warn out, and those that went into the stands were returned. This allowed the balls to get naturally bruised up, which inadvertently gave pitchers more (unpredictable) movement than today's clean, unused baseballs. Because of this, old pitchers may not have had to throw with as much elbow rotation as today's pitchers do to get effective levels of moveme…

Ice is causing the injuries. Yes Ice. Growing up in the 60’s my next door neighbor, Eddie, an elderly man, who played semi-pro and a little pro ball. His cousin is Stanley Coveleski, a pitcher who is in the hall of fame, he still holds some World Series records, Stanley’s two brothers were pretty good as well. Anyway, Eddie actually knew most of the greats, Babe, Ty, had a lot of pictures hanging out, playing cards,…

+1 for sauna / sweating out any cold or flu. Even when I'm feeling like death, a 60 min sweat session at the gym that morning usually means I'm back to normal by the next day.

Doesn't take all that much effort to work up a good sweat when you're sick too.

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#24

Post by gadders »

ddeck wrote: post #2

Reminiscent of the countless ball tampering incidents in the sport of cricket. [1] Of the England cricket team in 2005: "It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish. And through trial and error I finally settled on the type of spit for the task at hand. It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva wh…

Australia recently took the opposite approach and tried to roughen one side of the ball with sandpaper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Australian_ball-tampering...

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#25

Post by TheCondor »

autokad wrote: post #20
jrumbut wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the pace they throw the ball at has to have something to do with it now too. Just in the last several years the number of pitchers throwing above 95 and above 100 seems to have dramatically increased. This page suggests the number of 95+ mph fastballs more than doubled in 10 years: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-fast-fastball-isnt-en... It could be that making it easier to throw tricky off speed pitch…

> "This page suggests the number of 95+ mph fastballs more than doubled in 10 years" if true, pitchers have probably found a way to cheat which hasn't been discovered yet (not that batters aren't cheating either)

A way to cheat that adds speed?

If you’ve ever paid much attention to some of the big time high schools err “sports academies” in California where they “recruit” from the entire state and more, it’s crazy. We are probably dramatically better at finding and training kids to throw heat.

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#26

Post by kbutler »

oarsinsync wrote: post #22
carboy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ice is causing the injuries. Yes Ice. Growing up in the 60’s my next door neighbor, Eddie, an elderly man, who played semi-pro and a little pro ball. His cousin is Stanley Coveleski, a pitcher who is in the hall of fame, he still holds some World Series records, Stanley’s two brothers were pretty good as well. Anyway, Eddie actually knew most of the greats, Babe, Ty, had a lot of pictures hanging out, playing cards,…

+1 for sauna / sweating out any cold or flu. Even when I'm feeling like death, a 60 min sweat session at the gym that morning usually means I'm back to normal by the next day. Doesn't take all that much effort to work up a good sweat when you're sick too.

I used to swear by exercise to sweat out a cold, but then a couple of times it seemed to pull it deeper into my lungs and linger as bronchitis for a long time. "Rest and fluids" seems to do better now.

Except when it doesn't.

There doesn't seem to be much predictive power in personal anecdotes.

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#27

Post by toomanybeersies »

Interestingly, in cricket, spitballs are legal and an integral part of bowling [1]. There's an odd middle ground where it's sort of legal to use foreign substances like sunblock or hair gel as long as you're not overt about it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_tampering

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#28

Post by manojlds »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #27

Interestingly, in cricket, spitballs are legal and an integral part of bowling [1]. There's an odd middle ground where it's sort of legal to use foreign substances like sunblock or hair gel as long as you're not overt about it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_tampering

And recent issue being one of the best cricketers in the world being caught tampering the ball with sandpaper - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Australian_ball-tamperi...

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#29

Post by Mikeb85 »

ddeck wrote: post #2

Reminiscent of the countless ball tampering incidents in the sport of cricket. [1] Of the England cricket team in 2005: "It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish. And through trial and error I finally settled on the type of spit for the task at hand. It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva wh…

Polishing the ball is acceptable in cricket (you polish one side and leave the other rough so the bowler can produce swing). What's not acceptable (but still happens) is players will rough up the other side with foreign objects.

Re: Pitchers Adulterating Baseballs

#30

Post by hammock »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #29
ddeck wrote: post #2

Reminiscent of the countless ball tampering incidents in the sport of cricket. [1] Of the England cricket team in 2005: "It was my job to keep the shine on the new ball for as long as possible with a bit of spit and a lot of polish. And through trial and error I finally settled on the type of spit for the task at hand. It had been common knowledge in county cricket for some time that certain sweets produced saliva wh…

Polishing the ball is acceptable in cricket (you polish one side and leave the other rough so the bowler can produce swing). What's not acceptable (but still happens) is players will rough up the other side with foreign objects.

That's fascinating, because I play competitive wiffle ball and we similarly scuff up new balls before using them- the curve characteristics are completely different vs a smooth one.
Post reply on HN