Handedness xkcd.com/3293/

Happy Birthday, Ted!

Baseball by BSmile@bsmile.bsky.social · last wk.

1954 Topps Ted Williams Baseball Card #MLB #RedSox #Legend

Paying homage to one of my heroes: Statue of Muhammad Ali in Lewiston ME, site of the 2nd Clay-Liston fight in 1965. I listened to the radio broadcast of that fight as no home TV was available.

Vik Amar is my go-to guy for constitutional issues (I took his Con Law class a few years ago). His latest writing addresses discrimination based on age in voting vis a vis the 26th Amendment. See his clear explanations here, drawing parallels to 15A and 19A verdict.justia.com/2026/08/24/b...

Bipartisan Panel of Fourth Circuit Judges Reaches the Right Result (for the Right Reasons) in Twenty-Sixth Amendment Case, Grant v. Belangia, Setting up Possible Supreme Court Review of a Circuit Spli...

UC Davis Law professor Vikram David Amar discusses the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Grant v. Belangia, which invalidated a South Carolina law restricting automatic absentee voting to seniors and creat...

verdict.justia.com

It's been well over a year since I last looked at X/Twitter.

Barton L Smith@themagnuspi.bsky.social · 2w ago

So, in case you haven't checked, Twitter is now 90% fake video. At least 70% of that is rage bait.

BRT, for a typical topspin grounder, the friction between ball and dirt reduces the forward speed of the ball, as one expects. But it also *increases* the topspin, sometimes making it difficult to field cleanly.

Alan Nathan@pobguy.bsky.social · 2w ago

For foultip to speed up, the topspin rate would have to be of order 18,000 rpm...clearly not realistic. For a topspin grounder at 100 mph to speed up, the topspin rate would have to exceed about 11,000 rpm, which is also unrealistic.

For foultip to speed up, the topspin rate would have to be of order 18,000 rpm...clearly not realistic. For a topspin grounder at 100 mph to speed up, the topspin rate would have to exceed about 11,000 rpm, which is also unrealistic.

Alan Nathan@pobguy.bsky.social · 2w ago

Same reasoning applies to a topspin grounder, which can gain speed if the spin is large enough so that the surface speed points backwards.

For a foultip, the ball skims the top surface of the bat. The resulting force on the ball is due to sliding friction and is opposite to the relative ball-bat velocity at the surface. If the ball had a *huge* amount of topspin, the surface speed would be forward and the force would be backward.

Kelly Blidook@kblidook.bsky.social · 2w ago

Out of interest, is there any way that contact with something that is moving perpendicular or opposite to the direction of the ball could increase its speed in its original direction - ie. by increasing its spin, etc?

Yes, Izzie was one smart dude.

Dr. Meredith Wills ⚾️⚾️👀@bbl-astrophyscs.bsky.social · 2w ago

Isaac Newton FTW!

A baseball *does not* pick up speed on a foul tip straight back, unlike what the announcer said on SF v. Boston game.

My wife did similar gaze training last year to help combat bouts of vertigo. It really works.

Trevor Magnotti@illegalscreens.bsky.social · 3w ago

This is called gaze training, we use it all the time in concussion rehab. It’s part of the Visual Occulomotor Screen (VOMS) I use to diagnose concussion and it trains the pathway from the eyes to the visual cortex. Looks stupid, is actually useful.

Nice work. Sportvision developed Command f/x back in 2011, as discussed at the Pitch f/x summit that year. See share.google/7r4Ky4JA2F9m.... It was never very successful.

Recap of the SportVision Pitch F/x Summit

Research often inspires more questions than it answers. That’s acceptable because asking the right questions is such an important part of doing the right research. Every presentation at SportVision’s…

share.google

Pitch Profiler@mlbpitchprofiler.com · 3w ago

Introducing the Intended Location Tracker! Command has needed computer vision and a ball tracking unit. Now it takes two taps and a phone. Chart where a pitch was meant to go and where it actually finished, and the gap between them becomes a report.

Waiting for visitors for SerlingFest!

The Ted Williams zone chart, using wOBA

If you are a Ted Williams fan, this is a must watch. Truly remarkable footage of Ted telling us how it is done. Excellent interviews by Jeff Passan.

ReadJack🇺🇸@readjack.bsky.social · 3w ago

Holy cow, baseball fans! Jeff Passan with never-before-seen footage of Ted Williams talking about hitting. @graigkreindler.bsky.social @shoelesspodcast.bsky.social @buckweaver.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SYw...

Holy cow, baseball fans! Jeff Passan with never-before-seen footage of Ted Williams talking about hitting. @graigkreindler.bsky.social @shoelesspodcast.bsky.social @buckweaver.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SYw...

Ted Williams on the Art of Hitting in Newly Discovered Footage | Sources Tell Jeff Passan

YouTube video by ESPN MLB

youtube.com

If you love baseball, are in the upper Midwest, and want to see the latest research, you should be stopping by SaberSeminar.

Saberseminar@saberseminar.bsky.social · 3w ago

We'll be converting all ticket sales to *late registrations* (at a higher fee) soon. Buy your tickets now! events.ticketleap.com/tickets/sabe...

Moniz says a narrow deal solely with Iran is unlikely to stick now. Instead, he proposes an alternative plan to create a regional nuclear energy fuel cycle, which would include Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Those states would only have a fuel supply chain together limiting proliferation concerns.

US nuclear negotiator Ernest Moniz: ‘Iran has the home-court advantage’

The architect of the 2015 deal with Tehran on how to prevent a new Middle East arms race

ft.com

Red Sox and Royals will play the Field of Dreams game next season on Aug. 12.

1955 and 1957. Nice find

Brian Mills@bmmillsy.bsky.social · 4w ago

My old man found a pretty sweet garage sale this morning. Beat up, but check out those Teds @pobguy.bsky.social

Here I am on the mound ar Field of Dreams, August 1991

Aaron Frey@aaronsrfrey.bsky.social · last mo.

Was just there with my son last week! If you ever get the chance to visit there, I recommend doing the house tour

The only thing better than today being Bob Cousy's 98th birthday is the great Bob Ryan writing about him: www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/09/s...

Honoring Celtics legend Bob Cousy — ‘I’m in double overtime’ — on the occasion of his 98th birthday - The Boston Globe

It is impossible to exaggerate Cousy’s role in basketball history. And as he approaches 100, he's is as irreverent and funny as ever, writes Bob Ryan.

bostonglobe.com

wHeEeEeEeEe!

The fans at Fenway got their money's worth tonight!

There's been talk about ball parameters like diameter, how oval they are, how high and wide the seams are, how much they weigh, etc. @johnwgarrett20.bsky.social spent a ton of time measuring a bunch of 2019 baseballs, and I think this is eye-opening. Excel sheet. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/d3xt5... 1/

I don't think day-to-day fluctuation in Cd is larger this year than in ealier years. What is different is the overall trend seen in the weekly average.

As far as I know, *nothing* is measured on the balls each game prior to use. Storing balls in the humidor prior to use keeps the environmental factors constant.

Barton L Smith@themagnuspi.bsky.social · last mo.

As far as I know, no one other than me and Lloyd Smith have measured seam heights, and I think we're the only ones to measure widths, and only on about 100 balls several years ago. MLB does not check anything on the balls at the stadium prior to use, I don't believe.

What are you referring to by "these"?

Patrick Dufour@lephysichien.bsky.social · last mo.

My feeling is that there might be seasonal variations in average seam height and width due to shifts in tension in the cotton threads that correlate with some environmental variables (could also be time relaxation since construction). Are these measured for each ball on game day?

One more related graph shows normalized home run rate vs Cd (both monthly averages). The home run rate is controlled for exit velocity, launch angle, and air density (especially temperature), so that these factors do not enter into the rate. Rates are ~20% greater in June,July than in April,May.

Alan Nathan@pobguy.bsky.social · last mo.

July update on Cd values, which seem to be trending upward. Fly ball distances for given LA are same in July as in June, with both greater than April and May. I will continue to post monthly update for remainder of season.