The Physics of Baseball on the Web
Here are some of our favorite places for physics and baseball. If we missed a good one, please email it to the address below.
General Baseball
- Major League Baseball
- Where else would you go for baseball info?
- National Baseball Hall of Fame
- The National Baseball Hall of Fame offers lots of information on famous players and the history of the game.
- BlackBasseball.com
- This website is dedicated to the generation of ballplayers who were denied the opportunity to play in the major leagues because of factors other than their ability to play the game of baseball.
- All American Girls' Professional Baseball League
- This site chronicles the short-lived history of women's baseball during the Second World War, offering information on teams and players. The league is the subject of the movie "A League of Their Own."
- George Carlin - Baseball vs Football
- What's the difference between baseball and football? This famous comedian explains it quite clearly!
- The Sounds of Baseball
- This quirky little site contains hundreds of sound files from famous and not-so-famous baseball events.
- Baseball Photos from LIFE Magazine
- LIFE.com offers up a series of classic (and some lesser known) photos of the national pastime from the archives of LIFE magazine.
- Historic Baseball Cards
- This collection presents a Library of Congress treasure,100 early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914. The cards show such legendary figures as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing formally in his Cleveland uniform. Other notable players include Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, King Kelly, and Christy Mathewson.
General Physics of Baseball
- The Physics of Baseball by Alan Nathan
- Alan Nathan is one of the top experts and his site is probably the most comprehensive sight for the serious study of physics and baseball.
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The Physics of Baseball by Paul Robinson
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Paul Robinson is a national award winning physics teacher and a passionate San Francisco Giants fan. He has an excellent collection of baseball and physics videos and so much more.
- The Science of Baseball
- The Exploratorium built this fun site. There are a few experiments and several interactive activities.
- Physics of Baseball by Rod Cross
- This Australian physicist is a worldwide expert on the collisions of various balls used in sports. Here's some of his work on baseball.
- The Physics of Baseball by Paul Robinson
- A treasure trove of physics teaching related baseball resources.
- What If?
- This site answers physics questions every week. This particular link is their answer to the question "What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?"
- The Physics Behind Baseball by Jon Drobnis
- A very general descriptive overview.
- The Physics of Baseball by Porter Johnson
- This site has little physics but a great collection of stories and quotes with many links to other sites.
- SportVision - Baseball
- These are the folks that bring you the graphics you know and love during the game. In particular, things like K-zone which uses PitchFX technology.
The Flight of a Baseball
- ESPN Home Run Tracker
- Greg Rybarczyk's site calculates home run distances for every homer in the majors.
- NASA's Aerodynamics of Baseball
- While NASA is known for rocket science, many researchers are big fans of America's pastime too! Our researchers have taken computer applications designed to study and teach the aerodynamics of airplanes and rockets and applied the equations to baseball.
The Physics of Pitching
- MLB Describes PITCHf/x
- MLB's own description of the PITCHf/x system.
- PITCHf/x Articles at The Hardball Times
- A good place to see what stat-heads are doing with PITCHf/x data.
- Pitch Identification Tutorial by John Walsh
- Learn how PITCHf/x data can be used to tell the difference between a curve and a slider.
- BrooksBaseball.net PitchFX Tool
- This site will search PITCHf/x data for any given date, game, and pitcher and analyze it many different ways.
- NASA's Curveball Simulation
- With this software you can investigate how a big league pitcher throws a curveball by changing the values of the factors that affect the aerodynamic forces on the ball.
The Physics of a Baseball Bat
- The Physics and Acoustics of Baseball and Softball Bats by Dan Russell
- Daniel Russell's site is likely the most comprehensive site devoted to the science of the baseball bat.
- Baseball Research Center at UMass-Lowell
- The UMass-Lowell Baseball Research Center is the official certification center for all NCAA baseball bats and Major League Baseball bats.
- Sports Sciences Laboratory at Washington State University
- They study the dynamics of bat and ball collisions. Check out their baseball cannon.
- Time Warp Baseball Bat Episode
- The Discovery Channel Show "Time Warp" examines the ball bat collision.
