I don’t usually read the American Scientist, but the cover of the May-June issue caught my eye with a colorful painting of the Phillies Hall-of-Famer Robin Roberts cutting loose with one his fastballs. The Roberts painting (by official HOF artist Dick Perez) was hyping the cover story, “Predicting a Baseball’s Path.”
The article is quite techinical, but it’s worth the read if your baseball fan (some nice illustrations too). The basic physics of a pitch, various grips, cataloging curvatures, seeing and concealing are all examined. The authors (including Dave Baldwin, Ph.D., who pitched for the Senators, Brewers, and White Sox in the 60s and 70s) conclude: the pitcher should use a four-seam grip for fastballs and curveballs and the two-seam grip for the slider.
If I had read an article like this earlier in my life I wouldn’t have been any better as a hitter, but I might have been a more motivated physics student.
(BTW, turns out that Baldwin is not only a systems engineer, geneticist, and former major league pitcher, but also an artist. You can check out his artwork here.
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