America's Favorite Pastime

            When you live in a big city, there’s a chance that you will grow up with a big sports team right near where you are. In today’s day and age, football has become the big sport that everyone thinks of as their favorite. Football has been around for a very long time all the way to 1920, but there is one sport that has been around since 1876 and has rightfully been given the nickname “America’s Favorite Pastime”, and that is baseball.

            When you think of baseball you may think of a slow sport that isn’t as popular as it once was, but when I look at baseball, I see a sport that has stood the test of time and has pushed people to some of the biggest names in the world, and it all relies on physics. 

            As a pitcher throws a ball, they are using physics based on fluid dynamics. When a pitcher throws a fastball, with the way of the grip of the ball and force put behind it, air is pushed out to add force to the ball. When the ball is thrown it has force put in so that the ball can spin in a certain way to lift the ball up higher making it go straight. When a curveball is thrown, the downward force ascertained from the pitcher, the rotation of the ball, and the gravitational force being exerted, causes the movement that is needed. A pitcher’s motion is also physics based due to the power that comes from the leg pushing off the mound, which the inertial energy is then transferred to the whipping motion of the arm causing the equal reaction of force.

            Throwing a baseball is not the only thing that relies on physics in baseball. The one thing that attracts people to baseball most, is a home run. In 1998, baseball was on the verge of a collapse and bankruptcy when two men, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, both in the same year, were in a race to beat Roger Maris’ home run record of 61.  This revitalized baseball and brought it back from nothing to be promoted back to one of the top sports in the world. Now I know you’re probably questioning why I’m bringing up Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, but home runs are another factor of baseball that is very related to physics. 


            When a batter is at the plate, they have a split second to decide if they want to swing and once that is initiated, physics takes over. When a ball hits the bat, a batter must also add the force from his lower body to put the power and rotation into the ball. Once the ball is hit, the angle that the ball hits the bat and angle that the ball comes off the bat then adds to the total force that is put into the ball. With the velocity of the bat and the angle of the ball you see the reaction coming out of the ball. If a ball does not have the correct angle or speed, you will not be able to hit a ball far enough for a home run. If you watch a player hit the ball hard enough, you can even see the ball being dented and vibrations going through the ball when hit hard enough showing the live action of a reaction to a force.


            Baseball has been around for over a century and big-name players all the way back to Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, and even to current day Aaron Judge, can thank physics for giving them the ability to do what they do best.


Zachary Martis

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