The best weather for hitting a home run according to scientists HEAD TOPICS

The best weather for hitting a home run according to scientists

10/21/2022 6:09:00 AM

Factors like temperature and humidity have a real impact on your ability to hit a homer

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Popular Science

Factors like temperature and humidity have a real impact on your ability to hit a homer Did you know that warm weather makes for better baseball? A ball’s trajectory is affected by other conditions, too, including humidity, altitude, and wind speed. Humidity can get under a baseball’s skin.DepositPhotosAir temperatureThe air’s temperature, too, plays a role in density. In a heat wave, gases expand and spread out more, making air less dense. Air shrinks in the cold—shrinkage!—and packs more molecules together, making it more dense. This is why we see a lot of home runs at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas in sweltering summer temperatures, says Nathan, who has actually used home run and temperature data tocreate a modelshowing just how much farther balls fly in the heat.“For a ball hit at the typical home run speed and trajectory, a 10 degree [Fahrenheit] change in temperature is worth about a little over three feet in distance,” he says. “It might not seem like very much, but over the course of a whole season, it actually starts to add up.” Read more:
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'Black Adam' stars Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, and Quintessa Swindell raise a super-powered toast to their new DC film. Read more >> Phillies call on postseason homer hero Matt Stairs to throw out first pitch FridayThe former slugger hit one of the most memorable home runs in franchise history in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS. “Into the Night!” Game 1: Phillies defeat Padres to take 1-0 lead in NLCS seriesBryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber each hit a home run to give the Phillies a 1-0 series lead over the Padres. HURRAY Kyle Schwarber's incredible shot on Yu Darvish's first pitch of the sixth had an exit velocity of 119.7 mph and was the first to reach the right field upper deck at Petco Park, which opened in 2004. 'It's all what you dream of': Astros Chas McCormick, Jeremy Peña make Yankees pay in ALCS Game 1Quieting Yordan Alvarez hardly means short-circuiting the Astros, as the Yankees found out in Game 1. Via GabeLacques: Liz Truss Has Resigned as UK Prime Minister After 44 Days In OfficeThe country’s third female prime minister promised to hit the ground running. As crazy as Kari Lake, GOP AZ candidate for governor. Student hit by vehicle near Pasadena High School taken to hospital via Life Flight, police sayBREAKING NEWS: A Pasadena High School student was reportedly hit near campus on Wednesday afternoon, according to police. Here's what we know .Published 40 minutes ago Seeking more positive postseason mojo, the Phillies will call upon the author of one of the most dramatic home runs in National League Championship Series history to throw the ceremonial first pitch Friday night.Game 2 is set for Wednesday at 4:35 p.Sign up now to get top sports headlines delivered daily Why's that? Well, leadoff man Jose Altuve - whose 23 home runs are second in playoff history - was hitless in three at-bats, sending his 2022 playoff drought to 0 for 19. When the Rockies implemented their humidor in 2002 to mitigate fly-ball distance, the average ERA fell by about one run. Humidity can get under a baseball’s skin. Stairs, who ripped a pinch-hit two-run homer into the night — as Joe Buck memorably described it — at Dodger Stadium in Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS, will perform the first-pitch honors before Game 3 against the San Diego Padres, the Phillies announced Thursday. DepositPhotos Air temperature The air’s temperature, too, plays a role in density.com/video/embed/?pid=12343333" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> "Everybody is using the word electric, it's not overused," said Herald Palmer, who was decked out in Phillies gear. In a heat wave, gases expand and spread out more, making air less dense. Shane Victorino and Pat Burrell, also members of the Phillies’ 2008 World Series championship team, threw first pitches before Games 3 and 4 of the divisional round last week against the Atlanta Braves. Air shrinks in the cold— shrinkage! —and packs more molecules together, making it more dense.  It's as good a tribute as any to the fact that a club that's reached the ALCS for a sixth consecutive year can count on their off-Broadway stars and emerging ones just as much as the guys heavily featured on network promos and highlight reels. This is why we see a lot of home runs at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas in sweltering summer temperatures, says Nathan, who has actually used home run and temperature data to create a model showing just how much farther balls fly in the heat. Stairs, 54, was acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in an August 2008 waiver trade." SAN DIEGO (WPVI) -- Bryce Harper homered again, Kyle Schwarber hit a jaw-dropping, 488-foot drive and Zack Wheeler was brilliant in throwing one-hit ball for seven innings to lead the Philadelphia Phillies over the San Diego Padres 2-0 Tuesday night to open the all-wild card NL Championship Series. “For a ball hit at the typical home run speed and trajectory, a 10 degree [Fahrenheit] change in temperature is worth about a little over three feet in distance,” he says. “It might not seem like very much, but over the course of a whole season, it actually starts to add up.294) with two homers down the stretch that season before his crowning moment against the Dodgers.” He compares the stadium in Arlington, Texas to AT&T Park in San Francisco, which commonly have a 40 degree difference in temperature. The Phillies will try to take a 2-0 lead when they send Aaron Nola to mound to oppose Blake Snell on Wednesday afternoon. At three feet per 10 degrees, “that’s getting to be a big number, like a 12 or 13 foot difference between stadiums simply due to temperature. The Phillies closed out the series one game later. "That's what makes us a great team. ” Wind speed If less-dense air nudges baseballs farther and farther toward—and beyond—stadium walls, wind speed pushes them out forcefully. “Wind plays an enormous role. Like Stairs, Schwarber has a compact left-handed stroke and prodigious power. Still, they had a chance to win in the ninth against José Alvarado. A five mile an hour wind that’s blowing out will increase the carry of a fly-ball by like 18 or 20 feet,” Nathan says, adding that windy conditions aren’t uncommon at Wrigley Field in Chicago. “Thats huge. Five miles per hour is not even a stiff breeze, really. Harper, trying to reach his first World Series, hit a high-arcing, opposite-field shot into the first row in left field with one out in the fourth.  And in a sense, he had Alvarez's back in the same way they had his as he bided his time. ” The future So, according to physics, the best climate for a home run is hot, humid, high-altitude, and with a steady breeze toward the back fence. But the regions where those conditions exist could shift with climate change. “To really know the answer to how climate change is going to influence baseball, you need to look at changes on a case by case and regional basis,” says Penn State climatologist Michael Mann. The two-time NL MVP, who won the award last year, has hit nine home runs in 26 career postsaseason games. “As you warm up the planet, you increase the overall humidity in the atmosphere, but that varies dramatically from region to region. Some get drier, some get more moist. "We have a really good lineup and it seems like if the big guys aren't going, then the bottom of the lineup can get going. ” And while temperature increases are expected across the board in the next few decades, Mann says he expects cities in higher latitudes to warm up more than others. It was the farthest in his career and the farthest at Petco in the Statcast Era and gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead. That could mean more home runs in the stadiums located in Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto, and Boston, the home of his favorite team, the Red Sox. “Maybe as Boston warms up, we’ll see more home runs hit at Fenway Park,” says Mann. “That could be good, as far as I’m concerned. The last won the World Series in 2008.” .  Maldonado followed with a double to the right center field gap to tie the game, enabling Verlander to lock in after two less than sharp initial innings.