Re: [Phys-l] TV technology, the World Series and physics

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

Baseball statistics are the most interesting and informative of all sports.  The size of the ball park doesn't affect the skill of the players, but certainly does affect how the game is played out;  and that is why each ball park is an individual arena which increases the drama of the game.  The important things are standard:  60 ft 6 inches from pitchers' mound to home plate;  90 feet between bases.  Balls are standard, height of the mound is standard.  The things that make this an interesting game of strategy are the things that are different among the parks and the decision making capacity of the umps.  Wind factors differ among parks, distance down the lines and dead center have to be accounted for among other factors.  Then there are the decisions on where to position your fielders for hitters (pull hitters, spray hitters, etc.)  
The physics of pitching has been discussed many times as has the physics of hitting.  

Yes, baseball, while boring to some, is a fascinating game to those of us who have sat at the park arguing among ourselves as to the merits of managers'decisions and the other aspects of the game that we have enough time to study because it is NOT as rapid-fire as, say, hockey or as overly programmed as pro football has become, or as individualistic as basketball.  

By the way... to us purists the play review that can change an entire outcome of a football game has little place in baseball... For over a hundred years the umps have been the final arbiter of calls and arguing with the ump is a "right" which every manager has used to the delight of the fans who love to hoot and boo a "bad" call or when the manager or players get tossed out of the game.  That's part of the charm of the game and I hope they don't make the review a common part of baseball;  deciding on home-runs (foul or fair or if the ball was touched by a fan, etc) might be necessary, but I draw the line at that!   

From the dead ball era to the modern lively ball years, the game has progressed from a pitchers' advantage (some say that is happening now) to the home-run happy era of a few years ago and back to a delicate balance between hitting and pitching.   Baseball is the same basic game it was when Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron were hitting them out of the park.  The steroid tragedy was an aberration, I hope, putting a lot of records under scrutiny (and with asterisks next to their names.  I hope they have solved that problem.   Whether the Cardinals or Rangers win it's always been game that millions enjoy and millions more love to analyze to death every season.! 

PLAY BALL! 

Marty


On Oct 20, 2011, at 1:47 PM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

> On 2011, Oct 20, , at 09:21, Anthony Lapinski wrote:
>
> > But to really make the game of baseball more fair, all parks should be the
> > same size. Baseball statistics are inherently not very meaningful.
>
>
> But does this variation not make the game more interesting?
>
> bc thinks the data can be normalized for the purpose of comparison?
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