The Physics of Baseball
Alan M. Nathan
University of Illinois

In the Media

• Science of Baseball This video is an interview I did for the Parkland College series Surrounded by Science. The interview took place at the home of the 2009 NJCAA College World Series champion Parkland College Cobras in August 2009 and was broadcast on the Parkland Channel starting in March 2010. The interviewer, Dave Leake, did a superb job prompting me with excellent questions.
• Baseball and Physics: An Intersection of Passions A 1-hour video of a lecture I gave in April 2009 as part of the lecture series Distinctive Voices@The Beckman Center: Insights on Science, Technology, and Medicine. The talk took place National Academies of Science and Engineering on the UC/Irvine campus. The slides accompanying the talk can be downloaded here.
• Baseball's State-of-the-Art Tool An interview I did with MLBAM's Cory Schwartz on the PITCHf/x system and its implications for baseball analysis. The interview took place at the 2008 SABR convention in Cleveland and is based in part on the talk I gave entitled "What are we learning from PITCHf/x?". The slides can be downloaded here.

• The Physics of Baseball This podcast is an interview I did for Boston's superb Museum of Science. Dr. Susan Heilman interviewed me during my visit to the museum on May 7, 2010.

• Baseball Humidor Aids Fair Play in Denver A podcast of an interview I did on NPR with Andrea Seabrook, October 27, 2009. The topic of discussion was on the effect of altitude and the humidor on baseball at Coors Field. The timing coincided with the first World Series game played at that venue.

• How Would a Physicsist Design a Bat An audio recording of my presentation at the AAAS Science of Baseball Symposium in Washington DC, February 2000. The accompanying slides can be downloaded here . Other speakers at the symposium were Bob Adair, Dave Baldwin, Terry Bahill, Stephen Jay Gould, and Tom Boswell.

• The Physics of Cheating in Baseball A story written by Chris Solomon and appearing in the June 24, 2011 edition of Smithsonian Magazine. The story is based on Chris's interview with me and is essentially a lay person account of my American Journal of Physics paper with the same title. Chris did an excellent job getting all the facts right in his writeup.

• Arizona Diamondbacks' Chase Field could become pitchers' haven with humidor A story written by Nick Piecoro and appearing in the Sept. 8, 2010 edition of the Arizona Republic. The story is based on Nick's interview with me and Greg Rybarczyk about the possible effect of storing baseballs in a humidor at Chase Field in Phoenix. In a followup story, Arizona Diamondbacks back off idea of using humidor this year, Nick reports that the humidor issue is on hold, perhaps as a result of Greg and my prediction of a 38% reduction in home runs.

• Physicist Discusses BBCOR Bats A story written by Lou Pavlovich, Jr. and appearing in the Sept. 3, 2010 edition of Collegiate Baseball. The story is largely the result of Lou's interview with me regarding the new NCAA bat performance standard that took place starting in 2011. The article is very well written and mostly accurate.

• Field Equations: The Physics of Baseball, a story appearing in the on-line edition of Scientific American, April 5, 2009, based on a wide-ranging interview I had with John Matson about the physics of baseball.

• Newton in the Batter's Box A story appearing in the April 28, 2008 issue of Newsweek, based on an interviw I did with science writer Sharon Begley. The story focuses on the science issues involved in addressing whether a curveball can be hit farther than a fastball.

• Science has a Sweet Spot for Baseball, A story appearing in the April 3, 2000 issue of the Chicago Tribune. This front-page, above-the-fold story coincided with Opening Day that year. It is based, in part, on an interview I did about my research on the baseball-bat collision with writer Jeremy Manier.