“…thinner air” cited by sports broadcaster
From DeadSpin’s Timothy Burke:
Tim McCarver Blames Global Warming For The Increase In Major League Home Runs
We’d normally save this sort of thing for McCarve’d Up (which will be back next week after being pre-empted for NFL draft coverage) but Tim McCarver said one of the stupidest things ever spoken on a television broadcast today, blaming global warming for “making the air thin” and thus leading to a rise in home runs.
Climate change, or in McCarver’s words “climactic change,” is the culprit (and not, say, steroids, the age of which McCarver insists is over). Global warming is a real thing (climate change deniers are already giving McCarver a beatdown online) but the theory it’s led to increased major league offensive production is one of the most insane things ever asserted by a professional broadcaster. And this man is in the Hall of Fame! [Fox]
h/t to WUWT reader Eric Neilsen
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Former MLB player and broadcaster Tim McCarver…Image from Wikipedia
Too many balls to the head?
UPDATE: It gets dumber. MLB has blocked the video on YouTube citing copyright violations…except that under fair use exceptions to the copyright law, criticism of boneheadedness is allowed, especially when using short snippets like this video clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSRwnY3eHKU&feature=player_embedded
And these two incidents, combined with exorbitant prices to support exorbitant salaries, are why I don’t go to baseball games anymore. The great American pastime has lost its mojo.
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Tim McCarver might even be dumber than that!!!
I’d be glad to have some climactic warming.
The above post, 70degreesF became 70oF on when cut and pasted. Should be 70F.
Better bats also play a role:
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2010/01/comparing_the_p.php
Mythbusters confirmed dry balls fly farther
http://mythbustersresults.com/episode83
A dry baseball can be hit farther than a ball stored in a humid environment.
confirmed
The Build Team started off with a small scale test by dropping dry and humid balls from a certain height. The results showed that the dry balls tended to bounce higher than the humid balls. For the full scale test, the Grant built his own rig (dubbed “The Mad Batter”) that could both swing the bat and pitch the ball at the same time. They then tested the rig at a baseball field using humid balls, dry balls, and control balls stored in a normal environment. The results showed definitively that the dry balls were hit the farthest distance and the humid balls being hit the least distance.
Bob Beamon would have jumped about 40 feet had the Mexico Olympics been held this year.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100925&content_id=15079018&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
Humidor once again under scrutiny
By Thomas Harding / MLB.com | 09/26/10 1:53 AM ET
DENVER — Accusations that the Rockies have uncorked a dastardly plot to slip juiced baseballs into games at Coors Field when they need a lift have bubbled to the level that Major League Baseball became officially involved by having umpires monitor baseballs closely after they leave the storing chamber.
It would help if you showed how much the change in air density as it varies with temperature COULD affect the trajectory of a baseball hit at a constant force. Increases in temperature do change the air density, which in turn changes the distance the ball will fly. But how much? Yards? Inches? (For comparative purposes it would be interesting to see how changes in humidity also affect distance.) But please, more science and less sarcasm. I don’t believe in CAGW, but lets prove it not spoof it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coors_Field
In its first decade, the above-average number of home runs earned Coors Field a reputation as the most hitter-friendly park in Major League Baseball, earning the critical nicknames “Coors Canaveral”[10] (a reference to Cape Canaveral, from where NASA launches spacecraft) and “Williamsport” (referring to the site of the Little League World Series). Prior to the 2002 baseball season, studies determined that it was more the dry air rather than thin air which contributed to the more frequent home runs. It was found that baseballs stored in drier air are harder and therefore more elastic to the impact of the bat.
@Patrick Guinness
“I (don’t?)suppose that I need tell anyone with an education that a warm, moisture laden atmosphere would actually shorten the distance of a baseball given equal bat launching energy and trajectory as opposed to cold and dry …”
Umm… there seems to be some discussion as to whether the ball would fly further or shorter.
But never mind. Everyone knows that Global Warming can make things both hotter and colder at the same time. So I have no trouble believing that it’s responsible for any unusual run of recent records. Or any run of poor performance. Or even any run of perfectly average performances….
High scoring games are more fun to watch. Viewer ship should go up. So is he saying he’s for it or against it?
He may have earned his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame by using a club (though he got in ahead of some more deserving athletes), but I can assure you that NO ONE will have to stand in line behind this neanderthal to get into MENSA!
Even with its wheels falling off, the AGW bandwagon rumbles on, given a needed push at choice spots by famous talking heads of the mainstream media.
The source of McCarver’s revelation remains open for speculation: brain spasm or cue card?
???
“shorten the distance”
Do I understand correctly the implication is ostensibly due to “increased atmospheric density”?
Not a pilot?
What considerations for load and take-off ‘roll’ does a pilot make for: a) hot, humid day vs b) just a hot day?
Article: Correcting Density Altitude for Humidity
Ballooning website with interactive air density calculators: How to Calculate Air Density with and w/o humidity
Book: Rotorcraft Flying Handbook
Is there some other factor (not accounted for) that would yield a ‘shorter distance’ (outside of air density), since air density does decrease with increasing humidity?
.
I am SHOCKED! SHOCKED, I say! By the lack of compassion showed here. You people should be ashamed of yourselves!
You are ridiculing a person who is differentially enabled. It is not his fault! I expect that he went to public schools and was taught by Democrats! No wonder he would say something like that.
Regards,
Steamboat Jack (Jon Jewett’s evil twin)
Hey guys, IT’S A JOKE!
Actually, a warm, moist airmass is less dense than a cold, dry airmass. Water vapor is lighter than air, having an atomic weight of only 18 vs.29 for the air. So adding water vapor to the air reduces the average atomic weight. Otherwise, clouds would sink to the ground vs. rise up into the atmosphere. Cold, dry air offers more resistance to a baseball, reducing its flight.
However, the theory that GW is resulting in increased home runs is quite ridiculous. In addition, the globe has been cooling for the past 10 years, not warming. Not to mention that adding CO2 does nothing to increase surface temps.
biff33 says:
April 29, 2012 at 4:39 am
It is possible — is it not? — that McCarver was joking.
Possibly. Maybe he’ll even try to claim that, with all the guff he’s been getting about it. That would be a bit anti-climactic.
You know, there’s this baseball term—“the tools of ignorance”…
biff33 says:
April 29, 2012 at 4:39 am
It is possible — is it not? — that McCarver was joking.
It has become so commonplace for the news to run stories about “global warming causes X”, that whenever someone talks about something with no apparent cause, global warming is thrown out as the joke answer.
Woke up with a pain – must be global warming. The dog is barking – must be global warming. Car is running rough – must be global warming. Crime up – must be global warming.
See how useful this is as a technique to explain the unexplained?
In Oz they got rid of weather forecasters because it was discovered that simply forecasting yesterday’s weather today was more accurate than weather forecasts. The same with global warming. We can get rid of all scientists except climate scientists, once we realize that whatever is happening is a result of global warming.
I seem to recall 15ish years ago the league started wrapping the ball differently. Why? They wanted bigger, better hits for the fans. I’m guessing that has more to do with the number of home runs hit today than AGW does but I could be wrong so will need to study this in more depth. Please send grant money!
A higher density altitude will give a curveball less aerodynamic lift, making it a bit easier to hit.
This might be offset by the denser grass growth due to the higher CO2, making grounders slow down.
If the hit relies on backspin to generate extra aerodyniamic lift, higher density altitude would be a negative influence.
Probably too many variables for Carver to keep in his head.
I expect that sweat on the ball has more effect on the game than density altitude.
Old quote …
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. Albert Einstein
Off topic RE: the degree symbol … °
For PC users = ° … as in 15°C
Damn .. something went missing because I typed the ° instructions in brackets
° = alt + 2, 4, 8
Philip Bradley says:
April 28, 2012 at 11:28 pm
It’s proof of falling sea levels.
Its well known in cricket that balls go farther at higher altitude where the air is thinner. Falling sea levels will increase the altitude and thin the air.
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no “sarc”?
“thinner air” is inside baseball code for steroids.