| Abstract Scope |
We've entered into an absurd new era of ball management and extremes found in professional baseball. Ball contact seems to be at an all-time low, and spin rates of balls being thrown by pitchers have been at all-time high. Perhaps these are effects and cause. These extremes are attributed to substances that are dispensed on/near players fingers and gloves including bug sprays, sunscreens, rosins and tars, and other OTC adhesives like Spider tack and Stickum. In quantifying the stickiness of doctored balls, we are doing some backyard experiments with coated leather baseballs using a controllable, angle dependent, rolling force measurement tool adapted to track rolling length after rolling downhill a certain distance. We will present details of the functional test, comparisons between doctored and virgin balls, both at room temperature and after being equilibrated at 5oC to mimic cold game conditions. |