Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1913-06-18

! accomplished the aim or making a ball
not too dead" and not too lively,
The shock of the bat against the ball
dispels the air gradually and at the
same time causes a molecular change
In the rubber so that ball, after be-
ing batted hard, loses much of its re-
silent power. The disarranging of
the molecular force causes ball
which, to an outsider may seem as
firm and solid as ever, to become a
"mush," dead and lifeless, and likely
to slow the entire game il permitted
to remain in play. The bats used are
almost all of second growth ash of the
finest and straightest grain, and
carefully, dried. They are supposed to
retain their resilient qualities indef-
nitely, but after a month or two of
hard usage the bat no longer possesses
the drive necessary for hard hit
| ting. Yet bats that have lost life"
often will, when kept in storage few
months, recover their lost ring" and
be as good as ever, although the sec
ond time they die" more quickly
This sense of feeling and hearing
among players is a wonderful thing
The object of each batter is to hit
it on the trade mark" with that part
OF his bat between four and six inches
from the end. He does not express 1t
that way, but he aims to hit the cen
ter Of mass Of the ball with the cen
ter of percussion of the bat-so he
| says, square on the nose" The cen
ter of percussion of the bat varies ac-
cording to the grip of the batter's
hands, and it is the object of the
pitcher to force the ball to revolye so
as to avoid meeting the center OF per-
cussion
A ball weighing five and eight
ounces and with circumference of
nine inches, pitched at an approx
mate velo :ity of ESQ feet a second
over a distance of 60 feet, is struck
squarely upon the center Of percus-
sion of bat weighing 40 ounces and
swinging at a velocity of 1850 feet
per second, will travel how far? Per
haps the professor of physics can
figure 1t out, but If he does he is
wrong. He would have to know more
than these statistics before he could
make the correct calculation. He
should know the forearm strength OF
the batter, the muscle leverage, the
meeting angle of ball and bat, the ro-
tary motion of the ball, the condition
of the atmosphere, direction Of wind
and a few other things. 1t is much
easier to have Vean Gregg shoot up
a fast one, let Larry Lajoie hit 1t, and
measure the distance, than to take
postgraduate course and calculate 1t.
Every ball that is pitched, or
thrown, or batted has some rotary or
oscillatory movement all its own fur
Their to complicate attempts to solve
problems in baseball physics. The
ball has a. wonderful ability to abb
sorb and retain motion no matter how
impaired. The spit ball, which was
so fully and exhaustively treated in
the lectures Of my friend the pro-
fessor that | expect to see about 100
Washes graduate from his school in
the next two years, is the result OF
skillful applying of an unnatural force
to counterfeit the natural rotation of
the ball. The professor disputes this.
Possibly he does not know that ball,
gripped with the thumb and two
fingers, and thrown directly over
hand, has a natural tendency to ro-
tate upward and hop as the pitch
ers say. All good fast balls rotat- |
ing this way take a sudden jump in |
the air. The spit ball pitcher vets |
the surface of the ball. grips the low |
er side tightly with his thumb, lets |
the ball slide of the fingers. The eff
feet is that two conflicting forces
cause the ball to "wobble' for dis
lance, and then, yielding to the inhu- |
ence of the thumb pressure and the |
attraction of gravity, it darts down
ward. When a ball thus pitched is
hit 1t still refuses to surrender its in
clination to rotate. 1t starts toward |
the infield with two forces still |
struggling for mastery Each time the
ball touches the earth it takes diff
ferent English. The inhelder scoops
the ball and throws. If he clutches
the ball hard enough to kill all mo-
ton, all is well. If he seizes it light
ly and throws with the same motion
the ball takes fresh and renewed Eng
lish as it leaves his hand and is more
likely TO shoot out of reach of the
batsman toward whom he throws.
The pitched ball, manipulated so as
to reyolve unnaturally, takes Eng
fish" in the air just as billiard ball
does against cloth and cushion. Many
persons have told me that the atmos-
phere on a still day offers practically
a uniform resistance to a projectile.
1t does not. We know now that the
air is filled with eddies, currents and
pockets even on the calmest Of days.
But admitting that it is uniform in
density, a ball does not follow the
physical law of constant decrease in
speed in ratio to the resistance OF the
air. 1t even is capable of accelerated
motion, and of both in the same 60
feet. That Is, ball may be made to
n1nr, ord than raurynn |