[Husker] PineTar and Aluminum Bats (fwd)

[Mike Nolan]

>In the real world however, where 80 and 90 mph pitches are far more common and swings are much harder, an 80 mph pitch can produce exit speeds in excess of 114 mph, giving a pitcher less than .02 of a second to react - in excess of what any human is capable of. Anyway - for those interested watch the piece...like most things on HBO Real Sports it is very well done. 

Actually, I find the HBO Real Sports pieces are often rather biased.  
They tend to cite only the arguments that support their 'conclusion'.

I also question your math.  

115 MPH is 167 feet/second.  The mound is 60'6" from the plate, so after 
the pitch the pitcher is about 55 feet from the batter.  It will take 
.327 seconds for the ball to travel from the plate to the pitcher.

What are you basing that reaction time upon?  According to most research,
a well-conditioned athlete has a reaction time of between .11 and .18 seconds.

It's interesting that aluminum bats were originally intended to save money,
but have you actually priced them lately?   A state-of-the-art aluminum
bat can cost $300.  

A couple of years ago there were some experiments with graphite bats, but
I don't know if they'll ever get approved.  
--
Mike Nolan