Ever since the Colorado Rockies started playing baseball in a stadium that sits more than a mile above sea level, the effect that temperature and altitude have on a baseball has become a hot topic among baseball fans and players. A study conducted by P.J. Drane and J.A. Sherwood of the Baseball Research Center in 2004 at the University of Massachusetts has proven that the weather and surroundings do affect how fast and how far a baseball will fly.
Hot and Cold
The University of Massachusetts study conducted tests on batted balls that were cooled or heated to temperatures ranging from 40 degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to 120 degrees. The results showed that the lower the temperature, the slower the ball traveled after making contact with the bat. The 40 degree balls traveled at a velocity 2 percent less than the 120 degree balls. This means that a ball that would have traveled 400 feet at 120 degrees would instead travel 392 feet. That can be the distance between a home run and an out.
Hot and Cold
While temperature certainly has been found to affect the speed of a baseball, the speed of the ball actually has just as much of an effect. During the study conducted at UMass, two sets of balls were used. One set of balls was traveling 60 mph while the other set was traveling at 100 mph. The 60 mph balls showed a significant differential in batted balls for each temperature level, whereas the 100 mph balls showed little to no change from level to level. The faster a pitch is traveling, the less likely the temperature is going to affect the ball.
Significance
The temperature of a ball is directly affected by the temperature of its surroundings. For example, the Arizona Diamondbacks play in a consistently hot climate, which has led to teams hitting more home runs there than most other parks. According to University of Illinois physics professor Alan Nathan, consideration was given to weighing the ball down with a humidifier to lessen the amount of home runs. The same thing was done for the Colorado Rockies in 2002, who play in a stadium where balls are affected by the thinner air. The result in Colorado was a 25 percent drop in home runs, and Nathan said he believes the same effect would occur in Arizona.
Misconceptions
Many people believe that the balls in Colorado fly farther because it's cold, or that it has something to do with the humidity level. As the UMass study showed, the low temperature reduces the speed of the ball as it flies through the air, and the humidity level of the balls are being increased so they are weighed down and travel shorter distances. Instead, the reason the balls were flying out of the park with such frequency was the thin air. According to Tom Whittaker and Steve Ackerman of the University of Wisconsin, the thinner air creates less frictional force on the seams of the ball as it flies through the air, thus allowing the ball to travel with less resistance.
Verdict
The answer to whether the temperature will have an effect on a baseball is a resounding yes. The hotter the ball is, the farther it will travel. The colder the ball is, the shorter it will travel. One way to combat this if you play baseball in hot or cold weather is to store all of the balls not in play in a neutral location at a controlled temperature. This is still only a temporary solution because the balls will adjust to the external temperature once they are taken outside.
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