TheGrinch

Since I have the walking bear tattooed on my arm, I would appreciate them keeping that around for as long as possible. I don't know if I'm the biggest fan of the blue jersey, but a little bit of variety is totally fine with me.

:good:

no Then I will ask again. Why does a bullet stop (using the theory of only minimal wind resistence as the slowing force)? Why is a javelin not thrown more on a line? Please explain how gravity does not have an effect on the slowing process. Gravity pulls you towards the Earth. Hitting the Earth stops you, not gravity. Gravity is pulling you straight down, towards the center of the Earth. It in no way affects your momentum perpendicular to the surface (forward). Air resistance slows you down in this direction, not gravity. Again, a force pulling down doesn't slow the forward progress of an item in air? Only wind resistance slows the object? I would think these two factors worked in combination to slow items. Well I studied Genetics and wasn't that great at Physics, but I will have to respectfully disagree. No a force pulling down on an object doesn't slow movement conducted at a 90 degree angle relative to the force. So here, side ways movement is completely unaffected by gravity (ish). To be VERY technical it is, but only because of the curvature of the earth, but that's pretty much irrelevant. And no, gravity works both ways. When you're diving across. The earth is pulling you to the ground AND your body is pulling the earth up to you. Once you start taking into account that the Earth is curved, then you would have to also assume that the path to first base is curved...so then breaking things into components is difficult. You would have to switch over to circular polar coordinates, and when you think about it that way, gravity STILL wouldn't hinder your speed toward the bag...or I messed something up in my head. The slight effect that gravity could have on your horizontal path is under the assumption that the Earth itself is round, but that the path you are on toward the bag isn't of the same curved shape (like in reality). Things started getting complicated because then you have to use trig for that. What's the sine of 179.99999 degrees? Near surface gravity (a dense boulder 100 ft. away or a huge pit dug out of the ground) would have almost as strong an effect than relation to the Earth's center at these scales anyways.

The argument that is normally made is that the opposing team only has so many pitchers in its bullpen. If you stagger your line-up R-L-R-L, you would have to use a different pitcher every AB to get a favorable match up. Since that just isn't practical, you force favorable R vs. L or L vs. R match-ups. ...I don't really know how big of a deal this makes over the course of a season as opposed to just having good hitters in general and focusing on that.

no Then I will ask again. Why does a bullet stop (using the theory of only minimal wind resistence as the slowing force)? Why is a javelin not thrown more on a line? Please explain how gravity does not have an effect on the slowing process. Gravity pulls you towards the Earth. Hitting the Earth stops you, not gravity. Gravity is pulling you straight down, towards the center of the Earth. It in no way affects your momentum perpendicular to the surface (forward). Air resistance slows you down in this direction, not gravity. Again, a force pulling down doesn't slow the forward progress of an item in air? Only wind resistance slows the object? I would think these two factors worked in combination to slow items. Well I studied Genetics and wasn't that great at Physics, but I will have to respectfully disagree. There really isn't anything to disagree about. Imagine throwing a bounce-pass with a basketball. The ball moves toward the person intended, hits the ground, and bounces up toward the person you passed it to. The whole time, it is moving at almost the same velocity horizontally (air resistance and friction slow it a little). Vertically it accelerates downward, and bounces back up to ALMOST the height you passed it from, assuming you passed it perfectly horizontally to begin with (once again, it doesn't come all the way back up because of friction). Gravity never hinders (to any significant degree...I could get way complicated here, but I won't...I'm a geophysicist) the horizontal movement.

How about Gravity? When you dive you are not traveling parallel to the ground. Gravity doesn't affect your forward momentum. How will it stop you from reaching the bag...by pulling you down towards it? Gravity pulls you towards the earth, not an object. Wouldn't you also increase this gravitational pull by being parallel to the ground thereby having more body area affected? L-O-L

Actually Derwood, without air-resistance and gravity to pull you into the ground, that is EXACTLY what would happen. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Good post. But that is exactly my point about diving. You aren't taking those steps, so instead of your velocity dropping and increasing with a step, it stays the same. Ground resistance = 0 while in the air. And the air resistance I already covered...I don't think it is much, but that is the only thing causing a deceleration of the runner during the dive. By the time the runner approaches the base, he would have already reached a kind of terminal velocity (aside from the spikes you mentioned). The act of taking steps only serves to keep the runner upright and combat wind resistance. Diving won't slow you down much at all, IMO. I really would like to see an in depth study of this. Would be fun. the moment your legs stop running and you're airborn, you are slowing down. oh, and gravity I did just say that, did I not? (See air resistance) What...gravity exists? No way!!! (Gravity does nothing but help the dive. Gravity won't slow you down because it is only accelerating you downward, not preventing you from moving forward. Instead of having to use any effort to move down to get to the bag, you can just leap forward and let gravity do the work.)

Good post. But that is exactly my point about diving. You aren't taking those steps, so instead of your velocity dropping and increasing with a step, it stays the same. Ground resistance = 0 while in the air. And the air resistance I already covered...I don't think it is much, but that is the only thing causing a deceleration of the runner during the dive. By the time the runner approaches the base, he would have already reached a kind of terminal velocity (aside from the spikes you mentioned). The act of taking steps only serves to keep the runner upright and combat wind resistance. Diving won't slow you down much at all, IMO. I really would like to see an in depth study of this. Would be fun.

:oops:

http://www.uprightcitizens.org/11/images/gun.jpg

No one left standing is claiming this, so I can't believe it either. I'm just saying its faster...not more practical or something that should be instituted in little league camps.

Sprinters lean forward all the time right at the finish line. Why do they do that if it doesn't help them hit the tape slightly sooner? There are a couple of legitimate arguments against sliding into first IMO. (I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this has already been covered. 1)Injury. I think it's far more likely to get hurt sliding into first than other bases as the ideal way to slide into first is actually to slide through first. Which leads me to... 2)Sliding through the bag. This is extremely tough to do without going outside the baseline. Just sliding into first by definition is going to slow you down, as you would have the goal of stopping on the bag, which is not necessary at first. That said, if you're 6 feet tall, when you slide, that means that's 6 feet less that your feet have to travel en route to the bag. It's essentially shaving off distance. I do believe that it's faster to slide in, but I'm not sure the negatives outweight the positives. I also wonder if sliding into first would be more beneficial to a slow guy than to a fast guy. A slow guy likely has an awkward stride anyway, and may be less "slowed down" is his preparation for the slide. Agreed on all points except one. If you are 6 feet tall, since you can't make your center of mass suddenly move faster, the rotation of your body would only really subtract about half of your total length from the distance your center of mass would have to travel. This is because as you lay out for the dive, your center of mass is around your belly button, not your feet. (I guess your center of mass is always there anyways) I also want to address the concept of deceleration. It has been mentioned the most as the reason for why diving won't work. Where is this huge deceleration you are mentioning coming from? It isn't coming from the ground as I dive into the bag, since I will have already touched the bag if I dove correctly. Where is it coming from? An object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon. That's conservation of momentum. And if the mass stays the same, that's the same thing as conservation of velocity. You don't lose velocity magically when you stop running. In fact, if there was no air resistance and no ground, you could work up to a given speed, dive, and continue at that speed forever. Any deceleration will be caused by air resistance, and that is really, really insignificant for the duration of the dive.

You're the resident gay guy? Cool. This place needs its property values to increase. Wow. (8.8) Careful guys. If Brinoch finds out we aren't talking about sliding, this immensely important and serious thread will get locked ...after it gathers a few 200 pages or so.

I really can't believe people are still debating this. Better slide into first so you can use the time you save to get to your Flat Earth Society meeting early. That would make sense if everyone believed that the Earth was round in the first place, but since pretty much no one did, I give it a 3.1 I'm sure Galileo got clowned as they asked how many people were in the Round Earth Club. I'm also willing to bet you still couldn't tell me what my argument is.

...o rly?

JESUS. Where do you guys find this stuff!?! LOL Is that from 21 Jumpstreet?

http://blogs.chron.com/beltwayconfidential/ANN_Coulter0608.jpg My first reaction was one of nausea and utter repulsion. Then I got the joke, but I just couldn't shake the original feeling to laugh.

If you slide to first base you will get their this much faster. HIGH FIVE AGAIN!!! LOL, I leave that thread for a second and every single thread I have gone to has you talking about sliding in to first. Cool off, plz.

Once again, the base is closer to the feet than the arms. If someone is trying to get to the base with their arm they have to slow down to do it. A little FYI, Wiki is not a reputable information site. The internet isn't really a reputable information source. That link just explained it pretty well I felt. Easier than typing it all out every time someone totally ignores everything I post while commenting on it. ...and like I JUST STATED, if someone want to step on a bag, they will probably have to slow down to do it. I already conceeded sliding will slow you down, but reaching out will cause you to get there sooner anyways. Do I need to link to the site AGAIN!?!

High five!

DOUBLE POST

Do you remember who posted it or where it came from? I'd like to read it, because your explanation isn't quite clicking with me. All the problems you are describing would equally effect (in my mind) running through or sliding. Not everyone times their step to hit the front of the base perfectly, and I'm sure some slides would start too soon or too early. Either way, reaching out with your arm will have a net increase in how fast you get there, timing error or not.

Well I know about your testing, but apart from that, why is it you think that sliding into a base is faster than the alternative? The only way I can imagine sliding into the base is faster involves a pretty dangerous slide (directly into the bag)...not one that is safer than running by at all.

.....which is what, 90% of sliding? If your sliding into first, then avoiding a tag would be 0% of sliding unless its a bad throw because it's a force out. So it is less of an injury risk. And these guys will know that they will be sliding when the get to first, so it wont be a last second decision. Before the season starts this year, I'm gonna test it again with my players and if some get there faster by sliding then I will encourage it for them. But I'm the assistant coach so I'd have to convince the head coach. I would like to see stats on the frequency of injuries for sliding into first compared to running past it...I would be willing to be that you get injured around...oh...500% more often sliding into first. And that might be conservative.