WEBVTT - Inside Baseball: Magic Mud, Torpedo Bats, and High-Altitude Homers 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:17.920 You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:19.040 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:23.720 Guess what Mango? 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:24.560 What's that will? 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:25.079 Did you know? 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:27.520 The chance of hitting a home run in baseball actually 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.560 varies from city to city. And maybe this isn't that 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.879 surprising when you think about the length of certain fields 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.120 or you think about the Green Monster in Boston, But 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.839 actually it goes beyond that. It has to do with 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.120 the city's elevation. So the higher a city is above 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.320 sea level, the easier it is to hit a homer 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:44.920 in that city. 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:45.720 That's so weird. 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.199 I'd never considered that, But why is that exactly? It's 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.280 actually because air density decreases the higher you go up, 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.760 and that allows objects to move through it with less resistance. So, 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.600 for example, when you throw a baseball at a higher elevation, 0:00:57.880 --> 0:00:59.880 it tends to fly farther than it would at sea 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.960 level because there's less drag to pull the ball down. 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.000 And this thin air effect works to the batter's advantage 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.680 in two crucial ways. So, first of all, the lack 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:12.200 of air resistance basically rules out curveballs, meaning that pitches 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.319 will travel, you know, straighter, and they'll be easier to hit, 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.080 and then the second one. When a batter does land 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:20.280 a hit, there's a better chance of it becoming a 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:22.119 home run again thanks to that air. 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:25.720 So I'm curious how big an impact is this having 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:27.680 on games? Like how many home runs are we talking 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:28.080 about here? 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:30.720 Well, it depends on a few factors, including the equipment 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:32.959 that's being used, the skill level of the teams, and 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.200 of course the elevation that they're playing. So for example, 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.720 in the case of Denver's home team, the Colorado Rockies, 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.600 the effect of the low air density was significant enough 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.360 to bag them an extra home run per game for 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.480 the first seven seasons they played at Coors Field. So 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.240 from nineteen ninety five to two thousand and one, the 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.640 team averaged one point nine home runs on their away games, 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.640 but scored three point two home runs when they played 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.640 in their own mile high home turf. 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.560 Isn't that wild? That's incredible? But like, you know, you 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:03.800 think about the fans and like playing at home, not 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.040 even to travel, Like, how do we know those extra 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.160 runs were due to altitude and not some other factors? 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:11.440 Yeah, you know, actually this is kind of amazing. So 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.680 once the Rockies realized that the mountain air was impacting 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.240 their performance. An engineer at cors Field named Tony Cowell 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.200 again looking for a way to even things out, and 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:24.480 what he discovered was that Denver's lower atmospheric pressure had 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.200 been causing the team's baseballs to actually dry out, making 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.680 them bouncier and a little bit lighter. And Cowell reasoned 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.440 that the moisture loss had made the baseballs harder to throw, 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.720 more likely to fly when hit, and this resulted in 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.760 more home runs. So to correct the problem, Cawl did 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:44.840 something pretty ingenious. He installed this giant walk in humidore 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.880 at corse Field, specifically for storing these baseballs. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.680 Like one of those climate control rooms for fancy people 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:53.799 who have cigars. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.480 Yes, yeah, exactly, And it looks like one of those 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:58.960 big walk in coolers that they use at restaurants, except 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:02.760 this one maintains this steady temperature of seventy degrees fahrenheit 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.280 and fifty percent humidity, which is the optimal conditions for 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.519 storing a baseball, which I'm sure you knew already. 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.960 Oh yeah, of course, So I'm guessing the human door 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:12.760 did the trick. Then. 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:13.200 Yeah. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.320 The Rockies started using it in two thousand and two, 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.120 and over the next nine seasons, the average number of 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.480 home runs at Corsfield dropped twenty five percent. It was 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:23.680 such an effective way to ensure the integrity of the 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.240 game that many other teams have since installed humidors of 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:26.640 their own. 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.400 That is so weird that baseball teams across the country 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:34.000 have humidors for the baseballs. But it's kind of unfortunate 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.040 it hurt their home run stat right, Yeah, well, you 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.960 know it wasn't completely a selfless act. The team's reputation 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.560 was on the line since the elevation was clearly affecting 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.760 their home games. Anyway, since we're talking baseball, I thought 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:47.800 it'd be fun to celebrate the start of this year's 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:49.680 baseball season by shining a light on some of the 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.080 sport's unsung heroes, from the fans of the bleachers to 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.560 the ballpark organized high above home plate. It's a big 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:58.920 roster to cover, But now that we've warmed up a 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:22.640 little bit, let's die. Hey their podcast listeners, welcome to 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.360 Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:27.719 joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketter and on 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.440 the other side of that soundproof glass, munching his way 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:32.640 through a big box of crackerjack. 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.799 Actually, I didn't know they made them of this size. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.560 It's a giant box. That is our friend and producer, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.880 Dylan Fagan. Yeah, but I don't think he likes it 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:42.919 very much. Every time he takes a bite, he seems 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.119 to be wincing. Well, that's because Dylan insisted on getting 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.960 a box that still had a plastic prize inside. But 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:51.720 you know, since the company phased those out decades ago, 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.440 he had to resort to buy in an old, sealed 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.440 off box from eBay. So I'm guessing these aren't the 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.520 most you know, fresh Crackerjacks that are in there, so 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.760 we'll have to check that expiration day. I'm pretty sure 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.240 that popcorn was popp during the Reagan administration, if I'm 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:07.120 not mistaken here. 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.120 I really hope the prize is worth it. And that's 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.239 what nostalgia I really remind you of, Like Cereal boxes 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.800 used to have toys in them, Like kids don't get 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.440 any of that anymore, like all the surprises and things. 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.359 But speaking of Crackerjacks, I was curious how the snack 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.839 got so intertwined with baseball, and it turns out the 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.039 product launch at Chicago's World Fair in eighteen ninety three, 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.040 and by the turn of the century it had become 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.640 one of the top selling concessions at American ballparks, right 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.640 up there with peanuts and hot dogs. And then in 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.520 nineteen oh eight, the link between baseball and Crackerjacks was 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:47.240 cemented forever when this lyricist named Jack Norworth wrote baseball's 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:49.960 unofficial anthem, take me out to the ballgame. 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.159 That's right, And of course there's that line, buy me 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.880 some peanuts and crackerjack I don't care if I never 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:55.440 get back. 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.320 Yeah. But what's really interesting is that when Jack Norworth 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.800 wrote the song, he'd actually never attended a baseball game, 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.320 and for that matter, neither had the song's composer, Albert 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.280 von Tilzer. They wrote the most famous baseball song in 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.480 the world with zero firsthand knowledge of the sport they 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:13.120 were talking about. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.000 That is amazing, And so I guess it's like the 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:17.640 song's really a cry for help, then, like they're begging 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:19.480 to be taken out to the ballgame because they've never 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:20.120 been before. 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.919 Not exactly. So the pair just recognized there was a 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.440 growing market for songs about baseball, and they managed to 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.520 write one of the catchiest choruses. Ever, But believe it 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.400 or not, there is some long forgotten context to this 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.239 song because while most people are familiar with the song's 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.479 iconic chorus, you know that it actually has two full 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.479 verses that are rarely sung. And you might think, well, 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:43.920 how big a difference could a few extra lines really make? 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:47.720 But honestly, those verses kind of recontextualize the song. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.240 I feel like this is a big setup to tell 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.599 us that the song is actually about football this whole time. 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:53.680 Is that what's happening here? 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:59.680 No, Weirdly, the song is a feminist anthem. Yeah, it's 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.160 all there in the missing verses. So when you look 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:04.600 at the original lyrics and the original sheet music, the 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.440 lyrics tell the story of Katie Casey, a young woman 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.800 with baseball fever who turns down her boyfriend's invitation to 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.000 a vaudeville show and insists that he take her to 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:15.280 a ballgame instead. 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.679 Oh God, so like the chorus is like her counter 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:20.400 offer or something exactly. 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:23.360 And apparently she gets her way because the second verse 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.520 takes place at the ballgame and describes Katie's efforts to 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.960 rally support for the team. And I'm going to play 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:35.280 the recording here adk the game? Do the players right there? 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.880 For name Holy Empire? 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:48.760 He was when the far was just do up, Dodo young, 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:49.720 doer up. 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:55.000 The boys Tea made the gang thing this they take me, 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.760 I'll do the ball game. You know, I thought you 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.040 might be over selling by car at a feminist anthem, 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.080 But once you lay it all out, it does feel 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.120 progressive to write a sports song from a woman's perspective, 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:08.320 especially in the nineteen hundreds. 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.240 Yeah, and she's really a dynamic character. She's up on 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.120 her feet, she's arguing with the umpire, she's leading the 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.600 crowd in a cheer like Katie doesn't feel out of 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.440 place at all in this ballpark. And what's more is 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.400 that she seems to have a better grip on the 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.160 game than most of the men there do. 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.720 Yeah, it's interesting because the songwriter didn't seem like much 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.680 of a baseball fan, but he created this song that 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:29.760 seems like it comes from the point of view of one. 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:31.760 But do you think he based her on somebody that 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.640 he actually knew. Well, that's actually why I brought this up. 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:38.000 So historians now think that Katie Casey was inspired by 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.880 Jack Norworth's real life girlfriend. Her name was Trixie Fraganza, 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.160 and she was a famous vaudeville actress and outspoken suffragist 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.200 in New York City, and the two were dating at 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.120 the time Norworth wrote the song. Now Friganza was even 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.200 featured on the covers of the two original editions of 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.800 the sheet music. That's interesting, you know, it's actually kind 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.360 of a shame the verses have fallen by the wayside. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.120 Thinking with the theme of hidden meaning and take me 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.440 out to the ballgame. What do you know about rooting 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:05.559 for the home team, mango? 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.400 Well, I'm a Philadelphia fan, so I generally know a 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:10.599 lot about heartbreak. 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.960 Yeah, that's very true. Well, the verb root has always 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.280 stuck out to me as odd, because what do plant 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.080 roots have to do with cheering on a sports team. 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.640 I mean, I guess ideas that fans feel rooted to 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.720 their home team the same way that they feel rooted 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.120 to their hometown, like they're all connected by that shared 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:31.200 sense of places. Yeah. 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.520 Actually I was thinking something pretty similar to that, but 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:35.920 when I looked into it this week, it turns out 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.160 we've got it all wrong. So, according to I know, 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.160 this is a big one to get wrong. So, according 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:45.079 to Canadian etymologist Gerald Cohen. The idea of quote rooting 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.960 for a sports team likely comes from animal rooting, like 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.400 when a pig digs up the ground in search of food, 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.880 and Cohen had a pretty firm support for this theory too. 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.000 He cites an eighteen eighty nine New York newspaper in 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.640 which a baseball fan was said to have quote rooted 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.400 more in energetically and with twice the freedom of a 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:03.560 Yorkshire porker. 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.360 I mean, that's a great quote, but it still seems 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:10.440 pretty weird, Like, what was it about cheering for a 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:14.400 team that reminded people of pigs rooting for truffles or whatever. 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.760 Well, Cohen suggested that some excited fans had stomped their 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.880 feet so ferociously while cheering that to onlookers it appeared 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:24.319 as though they were frantically digging a hole. 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:26.600 That is so weird. 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.760 Yeah, well, speaking of pigs, this is the fact I love, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.520 and I think real pigs might appreciate it as well. 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:33.360 All right, what's that? 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.680 So? This fact is about a substance known as magic mud, 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.000 and for decades it's been smeared on every game ball 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.200 in Major League Baseball. So, according to players, coating a 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.480 ball with magic mud increases friction and gives pitchers a 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.320 better grip on the ball. And the strangest part is 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.760 that the magic mud is real mud. It's harvested from 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:58.199 a secret spot along a Delaware River tributary in South Jersey, 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.000 and then it's distributed by the MLB to each team's 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:02.960 equipment measure. 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:04.800 How weird is that is super weird? 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:06.480 And I always think a baseball is like, you know, 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.040 there are things that are banned from being able to 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.080 apply to baseballs, But so Major League Baseball has a 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.560 secret mud that sort of imbues baseballs with magical properties. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:17.880 I mean, this honestly sounds a little bit made up. 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.040 I know. And the wildest part is that until just recently, 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.760 nobody knew if it was just another weird like baseball superstition, 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:28.560 or if the mud really does make the balls perform better. 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.640 But then in twenty twenty four, researchers that UPenn finally 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:34.920 got their hands on a sample of the mud and 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.280 they were able to conduct a series of experiments to 0:11:37.320 --> 0:11:41.199 gauge its spreadability, its stickiness, and its grip potential. 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.480 I mean, this is one of those jobs that just 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:46.280 sounds pretty fun, like getting the play around with mud, 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.520 slopping it onto baseballs, measuring how sticky it gets. 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.560 Sign me up for that, I know. But it was 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.839 a little bit more involved than that. So in the end, 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.559 the team's work wound up confirming what the MLB knew 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.679 all along, which is that the mud really is magic. 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.800 As one of the study authors puts it, this is 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.079 the magical thing. The mud spreads like face cream and 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:08.640 grips like sandpaper. 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.480 Okay, I mean those properties, are they really unique to 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.440 this specific mud in New Jersey, Like, there's no way 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.240 to replicate this in a lab or something. 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.160 So the weird thing is that MLB has looked into 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.600 replacing the magic mud with synthetic lubricants, but so far 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.959 all of their attempts to recreate the MUD's mechanical properties 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.040 have been a bust to this point. So right now, 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.440 it's actually much easier just to keep the tradition going 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.800 and keep using the real thing, which I kind of love. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:37.080 Yeah, no, I do too. 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.840 I mean it is interesting with this magic mud stuff 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.199 clearly being sanctioned by the league, and like I was 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.880 saying earlier, you know you still hear cases of pitchers 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:48.439 applying other sticky substances to balls to make their pitches 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:50.520 spind faster and that sort of thing. 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.160 Yeah, which is obviously considered cheating, right. 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.559 Yeah, in the cases of things other than this magic 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.160 mud from New Jersey, I guess. But you know, players 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:01.000 aren't supposed to doctor the ball with any foreign material, 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.679 so there's a limit to how sticky a baseball should be. 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:06.880 But as we've shown, this is a sport steeped in tradition, 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.239 and one of the oldest and most readily embraced traditions 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:14.000 is covertly smearing goop on the ball when nobody's looking. 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:15.880 Well. I definitely want to hear all about it, but 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:28.560 before we do, let's take a quick break. 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:34.800 You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.080 the lesser known heroes and of course villains of America's 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:41.000 favorite pastime. And since we just talked about magic mud, 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:42.440 I think it's a good time to examine one of 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.440 the worst kept dirty secrets in American baseball. That is, 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.480 of course, the dreaded spitball pitch. Mango, I know this 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:50.680 was one of your favorites. You love throwing the spitball. 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:52.920 But before we get to that, Mango, were you much 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:53.840 of a baseball player. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.840 Absolutely not. I mean I wish I played more. We 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.520 played my neighborhood of course, and things like whiffle ball 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.480 and whatever. But in terms of rec league, I really 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.679 only played T ball, and I was a terror on 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.640 the field. Like I would get so excited when I 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.720 hit the ball and I would fling the bat behind 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:18.240 me and race the first base. I injured the volunteer parent. 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:21.320 There's so much like the shin so much they had 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.080 to watch from behind the fence. 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:23.520 Uh. 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:28.120 And also my position was shortstop, and the ball came 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:31.200 to me like every single play, but our first baseman, 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:33.680 who was the coach's kid, could not catch a ball. 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:35.160 So I would get the ball and then I would 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.000 race over and tag people on their way to first 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:41.880 base regularly. And in T ball you play like you 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.760 know there's not three outs an inning. Like every single person. 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.200 Reade, I could picture you doing that because you were 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.400 always fast. I could picture you always just trying to 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.080 chase them down every single time. You know, it was 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.360 around that same age where I broke my arm one year, 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.400 and that and that dreaded dodgeball accident. You may remember 0:14:57.440 --> 0:14:59.600 hearing about when when my pe teacher threw the ball 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:01.880 so hard at me I flipped over and broke my arm. 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:04.680 So what it meant for baseball is they actually allowed 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.120 me to bat one armed and then have somebody else. 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.680 Run for you. So still got to play. 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:11.240 And that's how you ended up on a cover of 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:12.080 Sport magazine. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:17.720 That's right, exactly, all right, Well, let's get back to 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.160 the spitball. So the spitball is known by many colorful nicknames, 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.520 including the spitter or the wet one. Throwing a spitball 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.160 was a common technique used by pitchers in the early 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.080 days of baseball. Now I involved coating a ball with 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.600 foreign substances like salve actually most of the time, and 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.560 it was thought to provide a distinctive dvantage on the mound. 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.640 You know, I've never quite understood this, like how to 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:41.400 spitting on the ball actually help? 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.000 Well, Sometimes the spit was used to reduce the friction 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.560 between the pitcher's fingers and the ball, causing it to 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.240 kind of slip out of their hand with less spin 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.120 than a regular pitch. And other cases, though, the spit 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.320 was actually used to change the aerodynamic properties of the ball. 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.680 Applying spit to one side change the ball's wind resistance, 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:00.960 and weight just slightly, you know, would affect how it 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:04.240 behaved in the air. So, when thrown correctly, a spitball 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.400 would drop straight down as it flew, causing the batter 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:09.720 to hit the top part of the ball on a swing, 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.160 and that would result in them hitting just a ground ball. Now, 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:15.800 the downside of this tactic was that it frequently led 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.040 to fewer home runs and more low scoring games, which 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.360 you'd imagine weren't exactly riveting to watch. In fact, these 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.680 dole outcomes became so routine that early twentieth century baseball 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.000 is now referred to as the dead ball era. 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.200 That's weird. I've never heard about that. But I'm curious, like, 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.280 do we know who's to blame for this? Like, is 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.960 there an inventor the spitball that's credited for this? 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.000 Well, nobody really knows when the first spitball was thrown 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:42.680 or who it was thrown to, but the pitch has 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.360 definitely been used since, you know, at least the early 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:49.560 nineteen hundreds. So George Hildemran of the Brooklyn Superbus is 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.760 known to have experimented with a technique in nineteen oh two. 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.240 He's also said to have shared the trick with several 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:59.680 other spitball pioneers, including Frank Cordon and Elmer Stricklett, who 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.560 in turn taught the move to others. Now the first 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.800 pitchers to lean heavily on the spitball were Jack Chesbro 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.240 of the New York Highlanders and Ed Walsh of the 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.520 Chicago White Sox. Now, the dirty pitch helped them become 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:15.080 the only American league pitchers to ever win forty games 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.280 in a single season, which is a tremendous number of games. 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.600 So that success encouraged other pitchers to follow their lead, 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.560 and by the nineteen tens, throwing a spitball was a common, 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.400 if not controversial practice in professional baseball. 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.120 I love that this was something pitchers had to learn 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:32.520 from a fellow player, like there's some secret art to 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:34.480 spitting on a baseball something. 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:37.879 I don't think they needed lessons in proper spit application. 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:40.960 It's the throwing technique that's pretty hard to nail down. 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:43.240 Not to mention that spitting on the ball wasn't something 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.080 that most players would organically think to do, so the 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.680 idea had to be introduced by someone who already knew 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.120 its advantages. I should note, though, that despite the name 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:56.119 not every spitballer used saliva to make their pitchers less predictable. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.760 They also doctored baseballs with lots of other slick substances, 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:04.119 and including petroleum, jelly, hair products, and of course good 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:05.320 old fashioned mud. 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.480 So it sounds like this was an open secret. Did 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.520 anyone ever object to it in this early era? 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.080 Oh definitely, I mean the ethics of the spitball were 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.040 always hotly contested. In fact, there were rules dating back 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.520 to the eighteen nineties that prohibited players from defacing or 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.840 otherwise damaging the ball, and people argued on both sides 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.480 whether it was appropriate to cover a ball in saliva, 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:29.159 which is just the weird sentence to say gross. But 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.960 it didn't matter either way, though, because the only penalty 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.320 for an illegal pitch was a five dollars fine, and 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:39.280 even that was rarely imposed, And that ambiguity allowed spitballing 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.080 to thrive for a time. But the arguments against it, 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:43.720 of course continued to multiply. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.520 You mean, like how gross it is to throw a 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.240 ball code with human spit argument in. 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.119 Itself, Yeah, that was the most frequent complaint, But others 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:55.399 worried that throwing a spitball put too much strain on 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.199 a pitcher's arm and could actually do serious damage if 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:02.119 used to frequently. End Though, the spitball wasn't banned because 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.720 it was unsanitary or unfair or dangerous, the real reason 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.600 it was outlawed was to make the sport more exciting 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.280 for fans and profitable for the team owners. So spectators 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.800 were tired of these low scoring games, mixing the spitball 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.199 and others so called freak pitches was a way to 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.680 inject some much needed life into the games. Generating more 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.000 fly balls and home runs. Kind of keeps the crowd invested. 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:27.960 That makes sense, and so when did this spitball band 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:28.679 go into effect? 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:32.160 So officially, the nineteen twenty season was the last year 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.200 in which spitballs were allowed on the field, and after 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.240 that any player caught defacing the ball with saliva or 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:40.720 anything else was supposed to be expelled from the game 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.840 and possibly for an entire season. However, in a surprising 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:49.359