If you know any kids that are interested in sports-ball aerodynamics or want to learn more yourself, take a look at this excellent article: www.snexplores.org/article/pitc... Thanks to @pobguy.bsky.social for introducing Wendy and I.

And guess what...it's my birthday too!!

Happy Birthday to the US Constitution!

Here is a clip from that episode, "Nothing in the Dark": youtu.be/9tfyv4BZRug

As we remember the life of Robert Redford, here is his appearance on The Twilight Zone (S3,E16, January 1962), featuring truly excellent performances by both Redford and (especially) Gladys Cooper.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the "thrilla in Manila", Vann Newkirk has written a superb article about Ali and Frazier, their relationship, and the fight. It is as good a piece of sports writing as I've seen in recent years. I highly recommend. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

He was an excellent governor who knew how to work across the aisle, mainly with Mike Madigan, to get things done.

Yes

Radians/sec

Almost. Since v= sqrt( vx^2+vy^2+vz^2), that must also be modified. Using v-vwind is not correct.

Since I can't watch Red Sox v NYY on MLB.TV, I'm listening to the audio. Great to hear Joe Castiglione again.

Today I am thinking of my classmate and friend Bill Caswell, one of the many victims of 9/11

❔How do temperature, pressure, and humidity alter ball flight... and how much does it actually matter? Find out more about how weather impacts sports in our latest blog: blog.weatherapplied.com/how-atmosphe... #weatherapplied

Induced vertical break, spin efficiency, seam-shifted wake—what do these buzzwords mean for a pitch trajectory? Explore using my Statcast-based pitch visualizer (physics modeling based on work of @pobguy.bsky.social). Updated daily with new pitching data! gabes135.github.io/pitch-graphic/

Out-of-Place 'Devil Bird' Wows Spectators in Maine, the First Anhinga Ever Seen in the State share.google/htcC26o2eDqL... Actually I spotted several yesterday in Camden ME. See one in my photo below.

Baseball and physicists: www.aip.org/library/ex-l...

JB >> JD

Sorry...lots of 1963 & 1964 but no doubles from 1960

I will check

I agree. Personally, I am quite pleased with some of the cards in my extensive collection, even though they are next to worthless compared tp typical vintage cards. E.g., a complete set of cards of Jewish MLB players. Also complete set of cards of SCOTUS justices, John Jay- KBJ.

Over the weekend I gave a presentation @Saberseminar about my research on torpedo bats, based on computational modeling. Experimental results are expected soon. Non-trivial result: Width of sweet spot is potentially greater for torpedo. Slides: baseball.physics.illinois.edu/ppt/Nathan-T...

Well. @saberseminar.bsky.social 2025 officially in the books. Thank you all. ❤️

How about Barry Bonds? Oh, wait...

WW2 did not end with a negotiation. It ended by the bad guys surrendering unconditionally.

When Michael McFall talks, I listen. youtube.com/watch?v=BYQ6...

Bill Burns: No, this is not about reform. It is about retribution. It is about breaking people and breaking institutions by sowing fear and mistrust throughout our government.... It is about deterring anyone from daring to speak truth to power. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

I learned a lot about the physics of knuckleballs by studying Dickey's pitches, using raw pitch-tracking data.

Let me go on record saying that I don't like in-game interviews.

In that regard, I highly recommend David Blight's superb biography of Frederick Douglass, which I am currently reading.

Great article in today's NYT about a new system for ranking players across generations. The system was devised by my UIUC colleague Dan Eck, professor of statistics. He'll be talking about this in another week @saberseminar. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/s...

Looking forward to your presentation

Trump has declared war on free minds and free education in order to erase more than a half-century of scholarship and replace it with official triumphal narratives rooted in a brand of pickled patriotism designed to force the past to serve the present. trib.al/OsKGbr7

Catchy tune by Dropkick Murphys, of Tessie and Shipping Up To Boston fame. tidal.com/browse/track...

Me on the factually misleading and analytically ridiculous misconduct complaint DOJ has filed against Chief Judge Boasberg—and the dangerousness of DOJ so openly trying to undermine public confidence in the only institution that has been even partially effective at checking the Trump administration:

Please enjoy this compilation of Tom Lehrer's music, and may he rest in peace. youtu.be/UvS4h9Wjwgg

I missed that paper. Nice work! Although the issue of seam height was not directly addressed, the roughness results suggest that higher seams reduce Magnus? Do you agree? Another topic for you and I to discuss @saberseminar.bsky.social.

I would expect that the higher seams would increase both drag and Magnus. Or, more precisely, both the drag and lift coefficients. For sure that's the case with drag. Not sure definitive experiments done yet for Magnus.

For a given ratio of spin rate to velocity, movement due to Magnus is independent of velocity. I discussed the reason on this platform earlier this year.

Montgomery Blair, 1964, Montgomery County Track Meet. I led off the 4x220-yard relay on inside lane of staggered start. I passed everyone before the handoff. Best single race of my high school career.

When I asked it, "Tell me something about seam-shifted wake", it (properly) referred only to you. But I have asked it about other things I already knew and was not always impressed with the answers.

Even if you're a casual baseball fan interested in sabermetrics, this is just a great place to meet people (see this piece in Defector). We're all getting together at Maria's Community Bar on 8/23 after the first day of talks, and it will be a blast. See you there! defector.com/looking-for-...

See you there!

Prof. Vik Amar examines #SCOTUS expanded use of expedited procedures. He argues rushed "shadow docket" cases and preliminary injunction appeals compromise judicial reasoning and legitimacy, particularly given the Court's inconsistent approach to resolving merits on incomplete records

Our first draft Saberseminar schedule is out here, with neat talks from: - @pobguy.bsky.social on torpedo bats - Josh Kalk from the Twins - the Chiba Lotte Marines on NPB sabermetrics - @srbrown70.bsky.social on batter swing decisions and many more! www.saberseminar.com/schedule/

The reason why infield popups curve back toward the infield is that they have backspin. Thus the direction of the Magnus force is toward the stands on the way up but toward the field on the way down. I co-authored a paper about this many years ago: baseball.physics.illinois.edu/AJP-Aug2008....

One way to suppress sidespin on a pulled ball is if a component of the bat velocity is directed along the axis of the bat, from barrel towards handle. Such a motion produces slicing sidespin that partially cancels the hooking sidespin due to the bat orientation. Bat tracking data can verify.

I understand how the wind might affect the trajectory. But I don’t understand how the unique nature of the swing suppresses sidespin on the batted ball. The non-public Statcast spin rate and spin axis data for batted balls might shed some light. .

Interesting discussion.

I too have an autographed copy. Looking forward to part 2.

I bought this book many years ago. The Conlon photographs are truly iconic.