With playoffs looming in the MLB season, teams are getting ready for a final playoff push. The Hunt for October is upon us, and as I watch some of these games, a thought comes to mind. I’ve always wondered how hard it was to hit a 100 mph fast ball. I mean 100mph is really freaking fast. With the pressure on these players to get a hit, let alone contact on the ball, seems pretty difficult.
When you look into it, a pitch has about 0.4 seconds for a 95-100 mph fast ball to reach home plate. That means the hitters have less than half a second to choose if they are going to swing or not. When you compare this to the amount of time it takes for a person to voluntarily blink, which is about .15 seconds, it makes the ability to hit a baseball seem even harder. The moment of contact when a bat strikes a ball lasts just 1/1,000th of a second. The hitter has about .2 seconds from the pitchers hand to it’s release to recognize what type of pitch the pitcher has thrown.
That’s what most professional baseball players have mastered already. With having to decide to swing within a hundred milliseconds, a good eye is definitely needed. The typical reaction time for a human being is about 400 milliseconds. By recognizing what pitch is being thrown, you’ll have a more likely chance of adjusting to the pitch in order to make contact with it. Players figure out what type of pitch is being thrown by looking at the stitching on the ball. For example, if it is a 4 seam fastball, the laces are rotating over in, so you don’t really see the laces.One person who did this exceptionally well was Ted Williams. Ted Williams was the last person to hit over .400 batting average in a major league season. Like Williams said, “I think without question the hardest single thing to do in sport is to hit a baseball”. If the best hitter in the history of baseball can say that, then it must be true.
I 100% agree, hitting a baseball is no easy task. I played softball for over ten years, and eventually became a “slap hitter”. Slapping is when you hit from the left batters box, and run towards the pitcher once she begins her windup. Typically, the technique is used by faster players, as the goal is to get the batter moving out of the box with as much momentum as possible to decrease their time running to first base. So as you can imagine, making contact with a ball moving over 60mph while you are running towards it can be extremely difficult.
It is great to be watching baseball right now with playoffs looming. I had seen a piece on Sports Science, a show on Fox Sports Network that eventually made it to ESPN. It shows the incredible reaction time/guessing ability needed for contact of a major league pitch. (let alone a hit) I think you will find it interesting and informative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9CEuJ5e2cM
I found this post to be extremely interesting. I did not know that the it takes such a short time for a fastball to get to the plate. I played baseball in high school and the pitchers threw pretty hard, I cannot even imagine what it would be like to try and hit a 100 mph fastball. I may just stick to golf, where the ball isn’t moving when I hit it.
I always found this aspect of baseball amazing. It is just one example of humans’ astounding ability. Although there is always human error (e.g. striking out), it still is mind boggling that a person can take a 4 inch cylinder and make contact with a 4 inch sphere moving in any number of directions at any number of speeds. The decision to swing, analyzing the path of the ball, and on top of that, attempting to strategically place the ball that is most advantageous to the team is bewildering.
Hello, I really appreciate this piece of blog. I think it mentioned a part that it is so hard actually to hit a baseball when it is at its full speed to the hitter. This requires nor only the ability to see things clearly at high speed which means good eye sight, but also the power to hit the ball correctly which indicates the coordination between body, mind and eyes. Only hitters who fulfill those two conditions can be counted as a good baseball hitter. So I agree the point that Ted Williams is one of the best hitters!
I’ve played softball my whole life. About two years ago, my friend who happens to be the starting varsity pitcher in my town and I were just playing around on the field one day. I told him, to throw his hardest at me. In my head, I was like I’m going to definitely hit this ball. He threw 85, I literally couldn’t even see the ball. It’s crazy to think about how it only takes .4 seconds for a 95 miles per hour fastball to hit the plate. I found this article and it realtes to your blog! http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/baseball-played-near-the-speed-of-light-an-apocalyptic-vision-1409704/
I like this blog post because it helps back up my argument that baseball is the hardest sport. Me and my friends from home always argue about wether baseball or golf is harder and I think it is baseball without a question. Hitting a moving target coming at you at speeds over 95 mph is much harder than hitting a non-moving ball 4 times into a hole. I’ll give it to them, it is an independent sport and there are a lot more contestants, but this article clearly states why baseball is the hardest sport.
Cool blog post. I grew up loving baseball and still do. My brother plays college baseball and so I go and watch a lot of his games. It is really insane sometimes how fast the pitchers throw, and personally amazes me when someone is able to successfully hit one of those pitches. In High School I played softball and was a pitcher. From my perspective it is much different than the batters perspective. It is extremely hard to master hitting the ball and I definitely agree that players need to have a good eye! I really miss baseball and can’t wait until it starts up again.