The higher the altitude the more likely it is that a baseball will travel farther when hit under the same circumstances at a lower altitude. Pitched balls at higher altitudes will also travel at slightly faster speeds. Higher altitudes can also have an impact on baseball players, who may find themselves struggling a little to catch their breaths in an atmosphere with noticeably lower air pressure.
Physics and Baseball
Baseballs fly farther and faster in higher altitudes because the air pressure decreases as altitude increases. In higher altitudes there are fewer molecules of oxygen, nitrogen and other gasses than at lower elevations. As a result, there is less "drag" on the ball because there are fewer molecules with which the ball collides.
Fly Balls
At Denver's Coors Field, a batted baseball will travel about five percent farther than the same ball hit at Fenway Park in Boston because Coors Field is nearly a mile higher than Fenway. This reputation as a hitters' ballpark is borne out by the facts. In 2010, Coors Field led all of major league baseball stadiums with an average of 1,364 runs per game, ahead of the 1,117 runs of the next highest scoring team, the Yankees.
Pitching
While less drag on a pitched baseball can provide more speed, the difference in air pressure at higher elevations can also affect the spin on the ball. In what is known as the "Magnus force," a ball traveling through the air is subject to the forces that greet its outer edge. So a curve ball will break a little less in higher altitudes because it has a downward trajectory. A fast ball with backspin on it will stay up a little longer because the backspin is reacting against gravity, which means pitchers must be careful not to underestimate the impact the altitude will have on their assortment of pitches.
Other Forces
Higher temperatures at higher altitudes can boost the effects of low air pressure on a ball and make it fly a little farther and faster, because warmer weather results in air pressure with less density than air in colder temperatures. Because cold weather increases air density, baseball games played at higher elevations in the early spring or late fall may help neutralize a stadium's high altitude impact on the path of a baseball.
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