THE PHYSICS OF SAMMY SOSA

"90% of the game is half-mental."
---Yogi Berra

From a pure physics standpoint you are right Farmerman.

The idea of corking is so that the batter can get the bat around faster though. If the corking reduces the bats weight by 5% you then have 95% of the original mass hitting the ball vs. 100% of the mass missing the pitch. If the batter doesn't connect with the pitch as a starting point then the rest of the physics is useless...

The article I saw gave a six inch advantage in the batter being able to hit the ball. No gain in distance. All his bats were checked. No other bat had cork. He said and I believe him as do other players even on other teams that he had no knowledge of it being corked. Given the amount of time he's been in the limelight it lends credence to the belief of his innocence.

I think we should all demand government funding of law schools, so that any eedjit who so desires can become a law dog. Then we all get assigned a lawyer (sort of a perverse kind of guardian angel) to walk around with us and get our respective stories straight before we even open our mouths . . .

Sammy's a pip, he'll move past this, no problem . . .

Eet was just for show....I swear...

whats your point setanta? Im not commenting on the morality of the act. possibly he did not choose his bat wisely. However he did do the deed. of that we all agree.
Although imagining all these players each with huge collections of bats lying around makes me think that these guys are some of the most superstitious of folks.
My question is fairly strait forward from a point of scientific curiosity, it was initiated by a discussion at supper yesterday. We were eating ribs and the kid finished a beef rib and swung it and said "If bats were made of bone, theyd be automatically corked by the marrow'
then the whole thing got out of hand and we were all swinging beef bones at fresh peas.
Discounting any function of angular momentum, the bat force can be easily calculated by considering the F=ma relationship and doing it as an analytical solution in an iterative fashion( in which we do the calculation over and over to the point of maximum force). We postulated that the force increase was minor and the increase in velocity just allowed the batter to get more "hang time" on the ball.
Since everyone agrees that Sossa is a home run hitter, the hit benefit he would accrue from a lighter bat would be almost negligible. I kind of believe him (especially with 75 bats clogging his locker) but were on a scientific quest here, not a blamefest.

If bats were made from animal bone, what would be the ideal bone? Now that interests me....I love the marrow....

Momentum is mass times velocity, but energy is mass times velocity squared. Decide which you want and go from there.

roger-i was being consistent , F=ma is the same as F=mv**. discounting an elastic collision and angular momentum i was just interested in the Force at the bat tip. i think fishins explanation summarizes the issue in a most compelling and understandable fashion.

Farmerman, paranoia alert -- my comment was a general one about the story, not a response to anything you'd written . . .

You all are oversimplifying the Physics a bit. This is a *collision* problem.

Not all of the energy of the bat is transferred to the ball. The bat keeps moving after the ball is hit. Some of the energy is also lost in sound.

Likewise not all of the momentum of the bat is transferred to the ball.

To make the ball go the farthest, you want a bat that creates an "elastic" collision. This means that the maximum amount of energy is transferred from the bat to the ball.

Of course you also want the bat to move as quickly as possible when it strikes the ball.

From a Physics standpoint it seems that corking a bat will make a hit ball travel farther. It allows you to use a high density exterior, with a low mass interior. It may also allow for a slight deformation of the surface of the bat which could increase the elasticity.

Aluminum bats certainly *do* make for longer hits.

The question is how much does it help? Geesh there must be a study about this somewhere.

Look what I found from UMass Lowell! I love the internet!

A Study of the Barrel Constructions of Baseball Bats

Lawrence P. Fallon, PE Graduate Research Engineer University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA James A. Sherwood, Ph.D., PE Director, Baseball Research Center University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

The link is here:
http://m-5.eng.uml.edu/umlbrc/A%20Study%20of%20the%20Barrel%20Constructions%20of%20Baseball%20Bats%20by%20Fa%E2%80%A6.pdf.

My brief summary:

These guys set of a test of normal bats vs corked bats. They had a machine to swing each type of bat bat 66mph (measured 6 inches from the handle) and hit a ball that was travelling 70mph.

They found that the corked bat did produce a batted ball speed that was .9 mph greater. It is not much, but it is a measurable advantage, especially in a "game of inches".

Their conclusion was the a corked bat is about 1% better than a legal solid wood bat. Of course Aluminum bats fared better, and titanium had the best performance.

so we have to use elastic collision cases for a real understanding. Im gonna ask my son to go back to his physics (hs) and take a given mass for an ash bat of what, 32"? Then have the same calc for a bat with the core removed and corked. as I understand the Aluminum bats also have a high flex , imparting an additional amount of force like an atlatl.
I believe, however, that Al bats are not allowed in the majors.

Nope, only wooden bats allowed in professional baseball, including minor leagues.

Without getting into the physics aspect, because I wouldn't know what the hell I'd be talking about, I read corking a bat allows a lighter bat, with the effect of hitting the ball with a heavier bat, with the increased bat speed.
Also, there were some pros on tv the other day saying corking the bat doesn't do much at all.

And OF COURSE he knew the bat was corked! There's no reason he'd keep a handful of them...once it broke, he can go make another. He knew he'd be in a lot more trouble having a collection of them in the dugout!

Yup, he didn't know the bat was corked...and he's that big from protien shakes, no steroids at all:roll:

I say we ask Sammy about the physics....now that would be some answer...

Plus, everyone's screaming racism. Yesterday on espn.com, Jose Canseco claimed the media was extra harsh on Sosa because he's latin, and if he was white, it wouldn't be that big a deal.

And here's Pedro crying:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0606/1564134.html

I say B.S. If it was McGwire, they wouldn't have made a big a deal? Um, am I the only one remembering the media having a field day after finding Andro in his locker? Not to mention Andro is about as effective as eating grass...

http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2003/0604/1563420.html

I saw someone -- think it was Buck Showalter -- demonstrate how to cork a bat on espn. All the weight is taken out of the last six inches or so of the bat. It's not just a matter of reducing the overall mass of the bat, but also of moving the center of gravity of the bat closer to the batter so that he can, by applying the same amount of torque, generate greater acceleration (and also control the bat more easily).


That's my guess, anyway...

ebrown-p's web site is our answer.

The speed of the bat is important but only advantageous to the point where there is no significant loss of its mass. The math would tell the break-even point, other variables remaining constant. If one envisions decreasing the bat's mass to, say, that of a plastic whiffle ball bat (That would not deform on contact) this point then seems obvious.

I was about to give Sammy the benefit of the doubt, but then it was mentioned that he had something like 70-76 bats to chose from ,so, surely he might make a little mistake. However, if the mistaken bat choice is looked at statistically Sammy Has a 1 in 76 chance of picking the illegal stick. Conversely he has a 75 in 76 chance or 98.7% chance of picking a legal stick. Add this to the fact he regularly uses the corked bat in warm ups to Wow the crowd. This would imply he is quite adept at defeating almost overwhelming odds in picking out the illegal bat when he wants to.

Setanta is correct, this is probably a tempest in a teapot, but will it affect his endorsements?

JM