05x14 - Baseball Myths

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: on this episode
of "mythbusters,"

We're taking you out
to the ballgame.

I want to see you take a swing
and that beanie still stay on.

Narrator: legendary pitcher
roger clemens

Joins the mythbusters all-stars
for a baseball special.

Fastball's like watching a dart
go, man. It's beautiful.

And we reveal the physics
of a ball in flight.

Kari: that is sweet!

We're going to touch base
with four big myths...

...and answer once and for all

Some of baseball's
burning questions.

Oh! Ahh!

Step up to the plate
with adam and jamie...

That is a bat.
That's not a broomstick.

Narrator:
...and find out does cork
in your bat give you more clout?

That's the hit.

And can you hit a ball so hard
that the hide comes clean off?

Wow.

Narrator: meanwhile, kari, tory,
and grant discover

If a humid ball
is harder to hit.

Nice.

And does sliding into base
actually slow you down?

Wow,
that looked like it hurt.

Narrator:
who are the mythbusters?

Adam savage...

Is everybody ready
for diving?

...and jamie hyneman.

Gets me all worked up
just looking at it.

Between them, more than 30 years
of special-effects experience.

That was heavy.

Joining them --
grant imahara...

Jamie makes it look so easy
when he does it.

...tory belleci...

Somebody order
some exploding pants?

...and kari byron.

High expl*sives
and electricity -- whoo!

They don't just tell
the myths.

They put them to the test.

--[Font color="#ffff00"] captions by vitac[/font] --
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Captions paid for by
discovery communications

Nothing says america
quite like baseball.

Man: baseball is one of
the great common denominators

of american life.

when game time rolls 'round,
there are no social barriers.

Narrator: hot dogs and home
runs, base sliding and big hits.

For decades, it's been the
country's national pastime.

And so you guys figured
it'd be the perfect arena

For the mythbusters to take
a swing -- and a myth.

You guys like baseball?

Are you kidding?
I love going to the ballgame.

Well, so do our fans,

And they have inundated us
with baseball myths to bust.

So what have we got?

Can a corked bat
hit a ball further?

What about whether sliding into
base is quicker than running?

How bout the one does a dry ball
goes farther than a humid ball?

Exactly, and can you hit
a baseball so hard

You knock the hide
right off?

Sweet!

And we have got a real
baseball legend to help us out.

Who?

None other
than the roger clemens.

Roger clemens?
How did we get him?

Turns out, the rocket's
a fan of the show.

Well, let's play ball.

Narrator: that's right,
it's the mythbusters

And the mitt buster.

He's one of the all-time
baseball greats --

Pitcher roger clemens.

In a career spanning
more than 20 years,

The man they call the rocket
has won a world series

And taken out
the prestigious cy young award

An amazing seven times.

He also happens to be a big fan
of "mythbusters"

And jamie's stammering
with excitement.

It's -- I'm --

I'm speechless to have
the roger clemens here

Helping us deal with
these baseball issues.

Narrator:
later in the show, we'll study
the mojo of the throw

And answer once and for all
the age-old question --

Can a baseball
really slide and curve

Or is it just
an optical illusion?

Clemens: I'm gonna try
and give it my best out here

So you can tell
what the baseball actually does

With these
high-speed cameras.

We'll return to roger later.

In the meantime, our first
baseball myth's a real corker.

Man, how great is it to have
roger clemens helping us

Do baseball myths?

Yep, can't wait
to see him do his stuff.

Our first myth is a total
classic -- the corked bat.

What's the corked bat
about?

Here's the idea -- you drill
a hole in the end of a normal,

Regulation major league baseball
bat, you put some cork in there,

You plug it back in
with wood,

And that bat
is all of a sudden

Able to hit ba*ls
a lot farther.

Is that legal in baseball?

It's ever so slightly
totally ill*gal.

Huh.

You bet it's ill*gal.

In 2003,
the baseball world was rocked

When star slugger sammy sosa's
bat split during a game,

Exposing a cork core.

He claimed it was a practice bat
he picked up by mistake,

But sosa was immediately
ejected from the game

And suspended for seven matches.

What do you think
our general plan is?

Well, we get a bunch of bats,

Figure out how to cork
some of them,

And see which one
will hit a ball further.

I think we should remove
the human element from this

As much as we can.

Let's make a machine
that swings the bat

The exact same speed
every time.

Yeah, and while we're at it,

We need to do the same sort
of thing with the ball,

Only we can use a cannon
instead of a swinging machine.

You know what?

I'm thinking that we've already
built everything we need

To test this myth
for previous episodes.

We don't need
to go out anywhere.

It's all right here
in the shop.

A few modifications, maybe,
but they'll work.

Excellent.

Ladies and gentlemen,
it's a "mythbusters" first --

No blueprint diagrams,
no time-consuming builds.

This baseball myth will be
totally off the shelf.

Kari, grant, and tory built
a sword-swinging rig

When they were doing
a sword cutting a sword.

That's perfect
for the baseball bat.

Oh-h*-h*-h*!

And, two, jamie and I already
built an air-powered cannon...

That is so...wrong.

...which is perfect
for throwing baseballs

At speeds well up to
the supersonic range, I think.

Narrator: now,
a roger clemens fastball

Fizzes towards the batter

At between 90 and 100
miles per hour...

There we go.

...but adam and jamie will go

For a more average
fastball speed,

About 80 miles an hour.

Let's just quickly
try 7 psi.

The air pressure
required to do that

Is around 7.5 pounds
per square inch.



Here we go.

Narrator: 79 miles per hour --
eh, close enough.

Next, got to get the batting rig
into the swing of things.

I'm going to swing this bat
on high-speed camera,

And we're gonna measure how fast
it is

And calibrate this machine so it
swings the bat just as fast.

Narrator: adam's clean swing
clocks 62 miles per hour.

That equates to air pressure
of 70 psi.

Okay.

All they have to do now
is cork some bats,

But baseball authorities
don't want us to show

Exactly how that's done.

And as adam
tampers with the timber,

He's wondering if this whole
quirky cork caper

Isn't a case
of mind over matter.

Since 1970, six major league
hitters have been caught

Using a corked bat.

Kind of makes you wonder
if there's something to it.

The act of corking a bat
does remove some weight.

But if you want to swing
with a lighter bat,

There's nothing in the
regulations that prevent you

From just going and getting
a lighter bat.

Then why do it?

Well,
to a major league hitter,

The psychological advantage
may be huge.

If you believe your bat
has special power,

You may be more likely
to get that hit.

And that could be the difference
between being struck out

Or making a home run.
Exactly.

Testing baseball myths
with cannons and robots --

Isn't that so "mythbusters"?

Something's gonna go someplace
where it shouldn't.

We're gonna have
mayhem and destruction...

One way or another.

Yeah...oh.

But what the heck?
It's all in the name of science.

Narrator: it's the "mythbusters"
baseball special,

And the next myth's
hot off of the fan site.

I've got a really cool
baseball myth.

This one is all over
the internet.

Let's hear it.

The idea is if you keep
your baseballs in a humidor,

Like the thing that you keep
your cigars fresh with,

That it makes it really hard
to hit a home run with.

Yeah, I saw this one
on our website.

And according to the fans,
at one stadium in particular,

Once they started keeping
their ba*ls in a humidor,

The number of home runs
went down dramatically.

Narrator:
for years, the colorado rockies'
home ground in denver

Had the highest home-run rate
in the majors.

But since they started
storing baseballs in a humidor,

The run rate has dried up.

Is there a link?

To test this myth,

I think first off we're gonna
need to build a humidor

And stick some baseballs
in it.

You know what we should also do
is dry out a set of baseballs

So that we have something
to compare to.

Before we go to the park
and start hitting ba*ls around,

I think what we should do is
set up a small-scale experiment

In our shop.

We'll drop both the dry ba*ls
and the humid ba*ls

From the same height
and see which bounces higher.

That's a good idea.

Narrator: out in the car park,
the guys set up

To get the drop
on this baseball myth.

These are gonna be dropping
from a height of 125 inches,

So it's like 10.5 feet.

They'll drop 10 ba*ls.

The first five have spent two
weeks locked in an old fridge

With a dehumidifier,
which cut humidity to just 10%.

Some good bouncing.

These are all about


Ball five.

Thank you.

Grant:
there's no ball five.

Not in baseball,
but on "mythbusters."

Wow.

Narrator: the high-speed camera
shows the dry ba*ls

Bounced an average height
of 106 centimeters.

That's pretty consistent.

Great. Let's move on
to the humid ba*ls.

Narrator: the other five ba*ls
spent the same time

In a makeshift humidor.

Kari put a block
of waterlogged foam

In a perforated plastic
container

And then put that and the ba*ls
in a cooler.

As the water evacuated, vapor
escaped through the holes...

Seal this up.

Raising the humidity
inside the cooler to a damp 90%.

Humid ball number one.

Feel that. Just from touching it
you can tell that it's softer.

Narrator: can this batch
scale the same dizzy heights

As the dry ba*ls?

Oh.

Wow.

All right.

Narrator: after soaking up
the atmosphere in kari's cooler,

It seems the humid ba*ls
just can't bounce back.

The average height of a humid
ball bounce is 91 centimeters

As opposed to 106 centimeters
for the dry ba*ls.

That's a difference of 14%.

Now, in your typical
baseball scenario

With an outfield of say 425
feet, 14% is almost 60 feet,

Which is a difference between
an out or a home run.

That was really amazing.

I think it definitely warrants
further investigation.

I say we get out
to the baseball field

And start hitting these ba*ls
and see which ones go farther.

I just don't think we'll be able
to both pitch

And hit consistently
every time,

And what we really
need to do

Is isolate the variable
of humidity.

You know what I'd also
like to do?

I'd like to introduce a control
into this experiment --

A mid-range humidity that we can
test against the two extremes.

All right.
Sounds good.

Narrator: adam and jamie have
already got the batting machine

And the pitching cannon tied up,

Trying to crack the case
of the corked bat.

So grant's gone one better

And designed a robot
that bats and pitches.

Here's the deal --
the robot will have two arms,

One holding a bat,
one holding a ball.

A motor turns the arms,
bat connects with ball,

Ball goes flying to the fence.

It's going to be geared
for raw power.

Is this our gear?

It looks like a saw blade.

[ Record scratching ]

Narrator: the robot batter
is wired up.

Grant gives it the juice.



[ Laughs ]

Whoa!

Narrator: the ball jolted free
before contact.

The bat
smashed into the springs,

Really hitting a groove.

We're going to ditch the springs
and go with some foam,

Some kind of rigid blue foam.

When the bat comes through,
it'll hit the ball

And break the foam,
not breaking the bat.

Hopefully this will work.

In 3, 2, 1.

Hey!

Great job.

The bat is still intact.

Whoo!

Narrator: looks like
the mad batter's ready

To be taken out
to the ball park.

Narrator: on the "mythbusters"
baseball special,

Adam and jamie
have been putting a cork in it.

Now, the rules of baseball

State that a bat must be
a single piece of wood.

That's how they leave
the factory.

But in the search
for more spring,

Some players hollow out bats,
replacing wood with cork.

But does cork equal clout?

I'll just let adam explain.

The heart of this experiment
is a timer,

One that fires a ball,
one that swings a bat.

I release the safety.
I click this.

This sends electrical signals
all the way down here,

Follow me,
to the bank of air tanks,

Which we built
for the pirates' special cannon.

These two solenoids
are activated by that timer.

They activate these valves,

Releasing all the air
from these tanks

Into the bottom of this barrel
in which is one of the ba*ls.

The ball starts traveling
down the barrel.

As the ball travels
down the barrel,

The second electrical impulse
activates this quick release

On a valve, which releases
this bat, which is on a spring,

On this cylinder here,
swinging all the way around,

Hopefully the very moment
the ball is leaving the barrel,

Hitting the bat right at the
point of impact we want,

Capturing it
on high-speed camera,

Knocking it out of the park,

And answering our question
once and for all.

The reason
we're doing it this way

Is we need to isolate
the effect of the cork.

Now, if the bat is swinging
at the same speed each time

And the cannon
is firing the ball

At the same speed each time,

The only variable here
is the corked bat.

That should make it
really obvious

If the corked bat
is providing extra spring.

Narrator: first,
a regulation uncorked bat.

I'm gonna fire
both of these things

At precisely the same second.

Narrator: the tricky part of
this experiment is the timing.

The ball will be flying
at 80 miles per hour

And the bat swinging
at 60 miles per hour,

For a combined collision speed
of 140 miles per hour.

If adam's timing is out even
by a couple of milliseconds,

The two won't connect.

And 3, 2...

Strike one.

Cannon and robot
weren't in sync.

But never fear,
the game's not over yet.

High speed says
that we've dialed

Into our correct batting speed.

The mechanical bat is swinging
just as fast as I was able to,



However, the ball is showing up
to the party



Narrator: adam tweaks the timer.

I delayed the ball
by 141 milliseconds.

Everybody ready?

In 5, 4, 3...

Hey, we hit it!

Whoo!

Narrator: this time,
adam's timing was spot-on,

But the ball
rocketed off the bat

And smashed a chunk
out of the scale.

The guys reset.

Go.

That's the hit!

Narrator: this batting robot's
really got its eye in.

That was another good hit.

Yeah. Oh.

It hit one side of your shop
and then the other.

There it is.
It's in the armature wire.

[ Laughs ] that's great.

Now that we've seen a number
of hits with the regulation bat,

What the high-speed camera
is telling us

Is that the ball is consistently
leaving the cannon

At 80 miles an hour, which
happens to be about the speed

Of a roger clemens pitch.

It's leaving the bat once it
gets hit at 80 miles an hour.

The next thing we need to do is
test how fast it leaves the bat

When the bat is corked.

If it leaves faster,
that'll answer our question.



That was a hit.

That was a hit.

The ball is over here.

And the bat is still there,
so, with any luck, that's data.

The ball is coming into the bat
at about 80 miles an hour,

But it is leaving that bat
at half that speed,

At about 40 miles an hour.

Narrator: try again.

That looked like
a beautiful hit.

That looked like a perfect line
drive back towards your welder.

That's perfect.

That's as good as our best one
with a noncorked bat.

Our earlier data points with
the normal uncorked bat

Had the ball leaving the bat
pretty much at exactly the speed

It was going
towards the bat at.

In both of our good data sets
on the corked bat,

It's leaving
at half the speed.

Loading your lumber
with lightweight cork

Poses two problems --

The bat might be lighter
and easier to swing,

But reduced weight means less
energy delivered to the ball.

Also, instead of adding
extra spring,

The cork actually absorbs
some of the impact.

Those two factors add up
to blunted batting ability.

Well, you know,
one way or another,

It looks like the guys who got
caught using a corked bat

Got themselves suspended
for nothing.

Yeah, you know, while our sample
size might have been small,

Our results were totally
unambiguous.

Every time a ball came off
the corked bat,

It was coming off
at half the speed

That it was
off of a normal bat.

Far from acting like a spring,
it was a lot more like a sponge.

I got to say,
this one is totally busted.

Totally. It's busted.

Narrator: on the "mythbusters"
baseball special,

Kari, tory, and grant have been
bouncing around the myth

That a humid baseball is harder
to hit out of the park.

All right.

But before they go to the park,

The team first wants to know
what our guest star,

Baseball legend roger clemens,
thinks of this tall tale.

So, roger, I've heard something
about the air in denver,

That it's --
I guess it's dryer.

There's something about humid
ba*ls and baseball pitching.

Tell me about it.

All I know and have heard
is that the colorado rockies

Have a humidor that they store
quite a few baseballs in

For that reason,

And I have pitched
in colorado,

And it is difficult
to make the ball

Get your normal movement out
of your breaking ball pitches.

Really?

Narrator: a humid ball
might be harder to pitch,

But is it also harder to hit?

Tory, kari, and grant are off
to get some ballpark figures.

Tory: here we are
in beautiful san jose,

And look at the crowd!

Ladies and gentlemen, get ready
'cause you are about to witness

Dry ba*ls versus humid ba*ls.

This is how we're gonna do it --

We're gonna use
our robot batting machine,

And we're gonna hit


And whichever goes farther,
takes it all home.

Narrator: it's wood all the way
in the big league,

But in this case, an aluminum
bat might better cope

With the rigors of the rig.

We've got three sets of ba*ls --
humid ba*ls at 90%,

Dry ba*ls at 10%,

Finally, a control group
at about 50%.

Now, our baseball-hitting robot
is situated right on home plate.

It's gonna hit ba*ls
into the outfield.

Tory and kari will be out there
with different colored flags,

One for each type of ball,

And they'll mark the point where
the ball first hits the ground.

Narrator: now, the robot
worked okay in the shop,

But you guys know only too well
how things go on this show.

It's a brand-new intricate rig
with high-speed moving parts.

Seriously, what are the chances
of it working first time?

First we have the control at 50%
humidity with the aluminum bat.



Nice!

Narrator: well, I'll be.

Far from striking out, the mad
batter is striking those ba*ls

As clean as babe ruth himself.

One small step for man,

One giant leap for mankind.

I'm really happy
with the rig.

So is she.

Narrator: the guys mix it up,
sending a barrage of dry,

Normal, and humid ba*ls
soaring into the sky.

Nice!

This is where
all of the magic happens.

This is the data. This is what
the experiment is all about.

Narrator: with no wind to affect
the flight of the ball,

Test conditions are perfect,

And already grant can see
a pattern developing.

Yellow flags,
which are the most humid ba*ls,

Are closer to home plate.

The control ba*ls,
which are pink,

Are a little bit further out,

And out here in the outfield,
the dry ba*ls,

Which are the red flags,
are the furthest out.

Still too early to call,
but this might be a trend.

That's good. They're starting
to group together.

Narrator: like some medieval
w*r machine,

The rig keeps kissing leather
till the a*mo runs out.

There's definitely a pool of
yellow, pink, and red flags.

That means that the humid ba*ls
didn't go as far,

Then comes the control
at 50% humidity,

And the furthest
were the 10% humidity,

Dry ba*ls all the way
at the outer edge.

That totally agrees
with our small-scale test.

It's a spread of plus or minus


You know, I think there's
some truth to this myth

'Cause there's a pattern where
the dry ba*ls were going farther

Than the humid ba*ls.

It's funny
how such a small thing

Can make a huge difference
on the game.

There's so many variables
in baseball,

It will be hard to attribute
a decrease in home runs

To just humidity.

Starting this season,
major league baseball teams

Are keeping their ba*ls
in humidors.

That settles it for me.
This is definitely plausible.

Plausible.

Plausible.

Narrator: on this "mythbusters"
baseball special,

It's time
for "rocket" roger clemens

To step up to the plate.

I might reach 90 miles an hour
today for y'all.

Adam:
roger's agreed to throw his
whole taxonomy of pitches for us

While we sh**t it
with the high-speed camera

From several angles, and that
really ought to allow us

To break down what's going on
from a physics perspective

With each of these pitches.

Narrator: the team is hoping
to use the high-speed camera

To unravel the mojo
of the throw.

But, to warm up that famous arm,

The rocket first
puts some pitches

In front of adam and jamie.

Room service is right there.

It's like somebody bringing you
breakfast in the morning.

I'm gonna put it right there.
You can't miss it.

You can close your eyes
and hit it.

That is a bat.
That's not a broomstick.

Now swing like
you're [bleep] off.

Hey! All right!

Narrator: the mythbusters
may be struck out,

But with the rocket firing
on all cylinders,

It's time to unravel
the parameters of the pitch.

First up,
a basic four-seam fastball.

We hold the fastball
in this manner.

And from my understanding,
this ball rotates,

When I let it go,
in this manner -- four seams.

These seams will catch the wind.
That ball will track.

Fastball's like watching
a dart go, man. It's beautiful.

Narrator:
looking at the high speed,

The fastball pitch does exactly
what roger said it'd do.

Backspin keeps the ball
on the straight and narrow

As it r*fles over the plate
at more than 80 miles an hour.

What happens
when roger changes his grip?

Basically,
if you're a fastball here,

You're in this area
for the slider.

You're offset,

And you're basically cutting
the side of the ball.

It should go maybe
down four inches

And away from a right-handed
hitter four inches.

That's a true slider.

There we go.

You know it's good when
the catcher doesn't catch it.

Narrator: roger's found
perfect pitch again.

The slider veers away
to the right of the plate...

Curveball.

Narrator:
...while a classic curveball
suddenly dips in midair.

The curveball, again,
you're using a seam,

And it's basically
your middle finger.

You're grabbing a seam
and locking down

With firm pressure
on this finger here.

This one just guides it.

And it is a motion where you're
throwing it like a fastball,

But as you get to the release
point, you turn your wrist.

Narrator: coming out
of roger's right paw,

It's almost as if the ball
has a life of its own.

I can see that curving.

At this speed, you'll definitely
see it curving.

Narrator:
but the high-speed shot

Shows the ball
swerving and dipping,

They can't tell as much
about how it happens.

And that's why kari,
tory, and grant

Are at nasa's ames research
center in san francisco.

Luckily for us,

Scientist rabindra mehta
is a big baseball fan.

The beauty of our lab
is that we study aerodynamics,

Fluid mechanics, as applied
to airplanes or space shuttles,

But it's the same
fluid mechanics, aerodynamics

That's applied to baseballs or
soccer ba*ls or what have you.

So, basically, you have married
your two passions

For science and sports?

Isn't that wonderful?

We heard that you actually have
a tank where you can show us

All of the things visually?

Yes, absolutely.

What we'll do is go over
to this water channel

Where we have a baseball.

As you see,
it's mounted on a motor

So we're able to rotate it

To show you the effects
of rotation,

But when you see
what's going on here,

I think it's gonna be
really cool.

Narrator: to simulate airflow
'round a baseball,

They introduce streams
of fluorescent dye.

Kari: that is sweet!

While it's still, the dye
flows in a symmetrical pattern

Around the ball.

Now, imagine that ball
has just been fired

From roger clemens' fist.

Oh, wow. Look how
the aerodynamics change.

As it spins,
the airflow is disrupted.

The air pressure on the ball's
underside suddenly drops.

Mehta: this ball now will have
a force downwards

As it's flying
through the air,

This would be
your classic curveball.

Lower air pressure on the bottom
of the ball

Makes it dip during flight,

And the principle's exactly the
same for each different pitch.

It is the axis of spin

That determines
what type of pitch it is.

With the standard fastball,
which is released with backspin,

You get an upward lift force.

With a slider, the axis of spin
would be more or less vertical,

And in which case the ball would
tend to go towards the left

Because of that.

Then the curveball, tumbling,
spinning around --

The horizontal axis
makes it go down.

Narrator: so our high-speed
shots and nasa

Show that bendy baseball
behavior is no myth.

So what about
the infamous rising fastball?

Many hitters swear
that some fastballs

Suddenly lift in midair
as they hurtle toward the plate.

Is that a myth?

For it to rise,
the lift force due to the spin

Would have to exceed the weight
of the ball, right?

That's pretty simple.

It turns out that for the type
of conditions

Which we find in baseball,
the maximum lift force

Is only equivalent to about
half the weight of the ball.

Narrator: not even a pitcher
as prodigious as roger clemens

Can make a baseball
fly in the face of physics.

Throwing a fastball that rises

Is about as likely as adam
and jamie hitting home runs

In the world series.

You know,
hanging out with roger clemens,

It becomes really clear

That pitching is just as much
of an art as it is a science.

And while we were there,

We had the added bonus
of another myth busted.

Yep, the myth
of the rising fastball.

It turns out that for the
backspin to exert enough force

To lift the ball, it would
have to exert more force

Than the weight of the ball.

Which it can't.
Which it can't.

It might be possible with a
beach ball, but not a baseball.

Busted.
Totally busted.

Narrator:
on this baseball special,

It's time to get down and dirty

As the "mythbusters" all-stars
take a long run-up at the slide.

All right, this baseball myth
is all about the slide.

The what?

Do you watch
any sporting events?

Yeah, robot combat.

It's a sport.
Right.

Well, you know in baseball when
you see a guy run to the base

And he slides into it?

Oh, yes.
I have seen that.

But wouldn't it be faster
just to run?

Well, that's the myth.

People think on bases
that you can't overrun,

That it's faster
to slide into them.

All right. Sounds like
that's worth testing.

Yeah.

Narrator: the slide is part
and parcel of baseball.

In trying to beat the tag
and hit the bag,

A runner sends
the kitty litter flying.

But when a player
hits the dirt,

Is the friction costing him
precious time?

Would it be faster
to stay on two feet?

So how are we
going to test this?

This one's simple.

We run at the base and then
we slide into the base

And see which one's
faster.

I got the perfect thing
to time that.

It's accurate
down to the millisecond.

I can start it
when we leave one base,

And stop it
when we tag the next.

All right. Let's ask jamie
and see if he wants to play.

Narrator: our sporting gurus
head on out

To the university of pacific
stockton campus.

Gee, they really look the part,
don't they?

There's just one
teensy problem --

None of our all-stars can slide.

But never fear -- uni head coach
ed sprague has agreed

To take on
these raw recruits.

Sprague: all right, I'm gonna
teach you on the grass

So we can minimize the injuries
we might have today.

You're planning
on some injuries?

There could be some blood.

Ed spent 11 years
in the major leagues,

Playing for six different teams,

And is famous for hitting
the winning home run

In game 2
of the 1992 world series.

But now he's really got his work
cut out for him.

You want to try to take
the brunt of the slide

On the outside
of your shin here, all right?

And then on our butt.

We don't want to jam our knee
into the ground,

And we don't want to get our
feet way into the air.

As we know, mythbusters often
fly by the seat of their pants

So you might think
they'd be naturals at this.

Oh!

Get the hands up.

But you'd be wrong.

I can make a robot could do it.

To test this myth, we're gonna
have to slide correctly,

So I say we give it
a few more minutes --

Maybe a few more hours
till we get it down right.

Once we get the slide down
right,

Then we can start
testing this myth.

Narrator:
eventually, the guys' slides
start to look more technique

And less train wreck.

I think you guys are showing
enough improvement

That we're gonna move on to
the blood alley --

I mean the dirt
over here.

Blood alley, huh?

It's time to get grant's
timing rig up to speed.

So, the timer's gonna have
millisecond resolution.

There's one switch
to start the sequence.

And what you'll do
is have your foot on this.

And the second you leave,
it'll start the timer.

There will be
a second switch here

That goes to a latching relay,

And this is gonna be on the bag.

So when you come up
and hit the bag,

It will freeze the timer
wherever it is.

Narrator:
on the first attempt,

Tory will run and try and stop
dead on the bag.

Ready when you are.

The instant tory's foot leaves
the switch, the timer starts.

In his head,
he's trying to beat a ball

That's flying in
from the outfield.

I'm still on.
I'm still touching.

What was my time?


Pretty sure I was safe.

Tory struggled
to stop his momentum.

Jamie: you get going that fast,
it's hard to stop.

I mean, it's a lot of mass
to stop dead on that target.

Narrator: this time he's
going to slide into base.

Can he beat 3.6 seconds?

Will he snap his leg off
at the knee?

Nice.

Did I stop it?

Nice. You sure did.
Okay, good.

What was my time?



Narrator: by sliding,

Tory shaved .05 of a second
off of his previous time.

It's not much,

But it could be the difference
between safe and out.

Time for the other two all-stars
to do their dashes.

Nice, 4.076.

Narrator:
and let their hipbones slip.

It's 100 milliseconds,


I actually thought that was
your best slide of the day.

That's a good hard slide
right there.



Wow, that looked like
it hurt.

You beat your time.



Narrator:
when the dust settles,

The results
seem to match tory's.

On test one, the guys each
had to slow their speed

At the last second
in order to stay upright

And not overrun the base.

But on the second run,

They actually accelerated
into the slide,

And that last second speeding up

Shaved milliseconds
off the time.

You know,
this myth is looking confirmed.

It looks like it is faster
to slide into a bag

Than it is to slow down
and stop on it.

That's what
all the data says.

Yep, the numbers don't lie.
So myth confirmed, huh?

Confirmed.
Confirmed.

Narrator:
we're at the bottom of the ninth
on this baseball special.

There's one final myth,
and again,

It was the subject
of fan-site frenzy.

What do we have?
We started this episode out

With the myth about the inside
of a bat.

Corked bat.
Exactly.

We're gonna finish it off
with the myth

About the inside of a ball,

Specifically, that you can hit
a baseball hard enough

To knock the hide
off of the ball

While the inside itself
goes out of the park.

Narrator: sounds like another
classic cartoon caper.

A ball is pitched at such speed
and hit with such force

That the stitches split
and the hide is left behind.

It's not a scenario
pitchers enjoy contemplating.

You ever seen somebody
hit the hide off of the ball?

Is it possible?

Are you saying I give up
a lot of home runs?

Have I ever seen the hide
come off a baseball

That I've thrown one in there?

Narrator: roger thinks jamie's
got a hide even asking.

I have thrown some ba*ls
in there at 94, 95.

The scouts sitting in the stands
that clock the pitches

Say that the ball has come back
over 130, 140 miles an hour.

Thank god the ball has not
come unraveled.

You can definitely
put a flat spot in a ball

When a guy hits it real hard,
or squares it up, as we say.

But to bring the hide
completely off --

That would be a chore
for you two men.

I'm sure you could find
something to bring the hide off.

Oh, we're gonna have to
investigate this one.

Narrator: back at home base,

Adam and jamie
plan to test this myth

By firing up the air cannon
once again.

We've already seen
that a mere 7.5 psi

Was enough to send a ball
rocketing at 80 miles an hour.

Oh.

That's the hit!

Narrator: obviously,
that's not fast enough

To knock the hide off,

So they load a fresh ball
and double the air pressure.

Adam,
I'm actually at 15 psi.



Narrator: at 15 psi,

The cannon spits that ball out
at 170 miles an hour...

Wow, that's really...
Powerful.

...more than double the speed
of a clemens aspirin tablet.

It went through
the blanket.

But the hide still hasn't
hightailed it.

How about 40 psi?

Oh, yeah.



The ball cannoned
into the static bat

At 200 miles per hour,

Almost twice as fast as the
quickest major league pitch

Ever recorded.

It might be "bye-bye, bat,"

But the ball's still
not disemboweled.

So the fastest pitch recorded
is 103 miles an hour.

We've got this puppy
up to 200 miles an hour.

At that speed, it was snapping
our bats like twigs

And it still
is totally intact.

Well, it's obvious to me that
knocking the hide off a ball

Is way beyond the capability
of a human pitcher or batter.

We just gonna leave it there?
What do we do now?

Of course not.
We've got the rig.

Let's open it wide up and see
what we can get out of it.

That's just what you were gonna
do after we all left, anyway.

Of course.

All right,
let's do that.

They're going full power --


Can that unveil
a ball's innards?

We're locked and loaded.

It's time to take cover.

You can man the switch.
Everybody back here.

Everybody in the back.

With the scaredy-cat crew safe
behind the ballistics panel,

Adam triggers the timer.



That's no longer a ball,
it's a b*llet.

Hey!

[ Laughs ]

Yeah!
That is beautiful!

You knocked the skin
off the ball.

This is actually what it
would take to do that myth.

Right, right, right,
absolutely.

I want to find the hide.

Okay.

That ball's been peeled
like an orange.

I don't know about you,

But I don't think that a batter
could do that.

Adam: this thing was traveling
at 437 miles per hour

By my math.

I don't think there's anyone
that can pitch that fast.

That's four times as fast
as a really good pitcher,

Or more than that,
so that means myth busted.

Batter, batter, batter, batter,
batter, batter, batter.

Swing, batter!

Dude, that was so much fun.

Yeah, how was it working
with roger clemens?

It was unbelievable.

Let's tally up
the final score.

Corked bat?
Busted.

How about humid ba*ls?
Definitely plausible.

Knocking the hide off a ball?
Totally busted.

We had to turn this into a
b*llet before we got anything.

How'd slide go?
It's confirmed.

It's definitely faster to slide
into a base than to run.

There's actually a lot more to
baseball than you might think.

Yeah, you know, I think sports
is going to continue to provide

A fertile myth-busting ground
in the future.

There's nothing that we're
better at than organized sports.

Batter, batter, batter, batter,
batter, batter, swing!

See how good we are?

Baseball myths was fun.

Yeah, getting roger "the rocket"
clemens on board.

That's great.

You know, the only reason
we did baseball myths

Is because we got flooded
with e-mails from the fans

That wanted to see them.

It's definitely a hit
with the fans,

And, in fact, if you have
a home run of an idea,

Log on to
discovery.com/mythbusters

And follow the links.

Maybe one of your myths
will make it to first base.