Baseball in October

Congratulations to the Houston Astro’s and Washington National’s … League champions that will face each other in the World Series this coming week!

Some of you will watch baseball maybe for the first time this year, as this fall classic competition plays out. As you do, here are a couple of thoughts for you to consider… baseball has been played professionally since the mid-1800’s and up until the 1892 there was much variation in the position of the pitcher’s box as it was originally called until it became a mound. The original box was an area from which the pitcher had to throw. The release points were 40 feet, then moved to 50 feet. As pitcher’s improved, especially with adding the overhand throw, instead of former underhand toss, the box was moved back five feet. The pitcher had to start his throw at that time from the back of the box which was 55.5 feet, moving it back 5 feet made it 60.5 feet away. This was not as huge of a change as it sounds as the measurement was moved from the push off point instead of the release point. But consider this distance was established in 1892, and has stood the test of time. The distance is perfect for ensuring relative fairness between pitching and hitting, keeping scoring in line with expectations. Exceptional pitching can shut down hitters, exceptional hitting can boot pitchers from the game.

Consider that it takes about 425 milliseconds for a 95-mph fastball to get to home plate. A batter’s swing takes roughly 150 milliseconds, so that means the decision to swing is made in 275 milliseconds, or roughly a quarter of a second. They best not blink. But watch the catcher as you can now with the close ups of HD TV. Every one of them will blink before they catch the ball, it is impossible not to do so, they see it with their minds into the glove, because their eyes are closed. The mind puts the ball where it thinks it is supposed to be. Sometimes when they talk about a live fastball, that is one that jumps, it’s because there is an optical illusion that occurs as the mind tries to process the ball speed and direction and it makes up for the gaps by inferring the position of the ball different than the actual trajectory.

Also, for the last roughly 150 years the bases were at 90 feet apart. Because at 80 feet it was too big of an advantage for offense, at 100 feet it was too great of an advantage for defense. Consider the distance from home to second-base for a catcher to throw out a runner trying to steal from first to second is the square root of 90 squared plus 90 squared… this is 127 feet 3 inches… really a challenging distance for catchers, but yet they have a great chance to throw out all but fastest runners getting a good jump from their leadoff of first base.

The beauty of baseball is in the numbers… or maybe it’s in the competition and display of hand-eye coordination and athleticism on a greenfield in October that is all that matters… I Hope you enjoy the World Series!