PULLMAN, Wash., June 28 (UPI) -- Some cherished baseball notions -- a corked bat hits the ball further, baseballs today are livelier than in the past -- have been tested in a U.S. college lab.
Those beliefs, and one that says storing balls in a humidor can curb home run production, have all undergone trial by fire at Washington State University, using a cannon to blast balls at bats and measure their bounciness.
"I've got the cool machine that can do the tests," said Lloyd Smith of the university's school of mechanical and materials engineering in a university release Tuesday.
Working with colleagues from the University of Illinois and Kettering University, Lloyd's findings have been published in the American Journal in an article, "Corked Bats, Juiced Balls and Humidors: The Physics of Cheating in Baseball."
And the findings?
A corked bat -- like the one Sammy Sosa was caught using in 2003 -- doesn't make the ball come off it any faster.
And modern baseballs, compared to balls of the 1970s, have the identical ability to bounce.
Oh, and the humidor thing?
Well, Smith will grant you that one, finding a humidity increase from 30 percent to 50 percent would take 14 feet off a 380-foot fly ball -- perhaps enough to turn a home run into a routine out.
That's probably why the Colorado Rockies resorted to "humidor balls" starting in 2002 to keep opposition fly balls from flying out of the park in the high, thin air of their Denver stadium.
