Never one to scream, "I told you so!," (I prefer to sing it while dancing and punching my arms wildly to the sky), I refer you to the September 19, 2009 issue of ESPN Magazine. (Is it still called ESPN the Magazine officially? I can't be bothered to find out myself.)
As if my ego needed any more of a boost (see previous post on the MGA tournament last week), there is a nice little article by Jeff Bradley on the art of sliding in MLB and how it will have an effect in the playoffs this year. On the bottom of page 47, there's a bit of a sidebar which I will share verbatim:
You've seen it a hundred times: Some speedster tries to beat out a dribbler by launching himself at first base, and the TV analyst says something like, "Never slide into first. It's faster running through the bag." Unless, of course, it isn't. Yale physics professor Robert Adair, author of The Physics of Baseball, theorizes that an adept dive might just get the runner there a hair faster. "We can assume, reasonably, that the forward stretch-out can be accomplished without significantly reducing the velocity of that center of mass." Adair explains, "Since the fingertips of the rotated runner will be farther ahead of the center of mass than the foot of the upright man, the dive will get there a foot or so sooner, roughly 1/30th of a second." Which makes you wonder whether runners should dive every time. But as the good doctor points out, "You're not likely to last the season that way."*
You know what's cool? I can't see one thing in the above paragraph that is inconsistent with my take on the subject as I posted here and again here. In fact, it supports my major points more than I could have hoped.
I doubt, however, that this will find its way into the mindset of the vast majority of recreation-level umpires, and thus they will still generally call anybody out for sliding head-first into first just because "everybody knows that studies show" you don't do that.
Everybody, that is, who is unaware of the Yale physics professor whose own studies show something else.
*Additional reporting by Anna Katherine Clemmons, Louise Cornetta, Molly Knight and Matt Meyers.
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2 comments:
Do you like ESPN the magazine? I didn't renew because if lack of depth in their articles. I like a long detailed story rather that short one-page pieces.
I don't subscribe. A buddy tipped me on the sliding article. From what little I've seen, I would agree with your assessment. When I used to look at it more, I didn't like all of the ads.
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