Baseball Has A Baseball Problem

how many cows does it take to make 2.4 million baseballs that's the number of baseballs that mlb uses in a single year and that number keeps going up and up this ball has killed players coaches and fans according to one report the ball injures over a thousand fans a year and one fan was even arrested because he caught one and didn't give it back currently mlb is in the middle of a massive conspiracy theory a year after rob manford said he wanted to increase offense home runs suspiciously spiked a few years later after mlb bought the company that made baseballs the home run spiked even higher justin verlander described the balls as quote a [ __ ] joke another player accused the league of juicing the balls on purpose solely to pay players less and mob even admitted something was different about the balls but accusations of juice baseballs are nothing new there's evidence that babe ruth's home run record was only possible because of juice baseballs there's evidence that the steroid era had more to do with juice baseballs than the steroids themselves and according to one company they have definitive proof that mlb juiced the balls pitched to mark maguire to help him beat the single season home run record in 1998 mob says that the balls in 2022 are the same but batting average is at an all-time low run scoring hasn't been this low since the 80s home runs are dramatically down and players are even claiming the balls are changing shape but is mob actually doing this on purpose or is this the cow's fault the mob has a very big problem with the baseballs i mean they're bad everyone knows it every pitcher in the league knows it they're bad the op doesn't give a damn about it they don't care the cargill meat solutions plant in pennsylvania slaughters around 1 500 cows a day and an insane amount of these cows are turned into baseballs but for some reason peta doesn't care in fact they have a bigger problem with the term bullpen just baseball instead adopts the term armbar so would it offend him to say this story is some bull there's a reason why peta doesn't speak out against moe baseballs which is a relief because the baseballs themselves have become one of the league's best marketing tools charlie sheen once bought over 2 000 tickets to a single game so he would have a better chance of catching a home run ball he had the entire left field bleachers to himself and still didn't catch one in the old days mlb would confiscate every single ball hit into the stands until 1921 when a fan sued the giants for mental anguish because they confiscated a foul ball that he caught he won the case and within a few years all fans were entitled to any home run or foul ball they received this has caused millions of fans to come to games it's also caused some of the most violent and bizarre moments in baseball history my wife catches the ball and this jerk he throws the ball back onto the field and i would do it again steve bartman wanted to catch a foul ball so bad he got in the way of a pivotal out in the 2003 nlcs the cubs later blew the series and he became the most hated man in america the ball was later bought by a chef who blew it up at his restaurant then boiled the remnants of the ball blended it into the restaurant's marinara sauce added the sauce to their spaghetti and put it on the menu for customers to buy and eat for 11 when barry bonds broke the all-time record for home runs the fight for the ball was so bad a man in a wheelchair was knocked over and an usher almost died of an asthma attack when bonds hit his record-breaking 73rd home run in 2001 a fan sued another fan claiming he stole it out of his glove the guy caught the ball and he got tackled beat down there's a pile of people who's at the ball and a little asian guy goes i got it the judge eventually ordered the two to sell the ball and split the profits suing over this turned out to be very stupid because even though the ball sold for over 500 grand it was not enough to cover the fans legal fees each ball is made out of cows slaughtered in pennsylvania cowhide produced in tennessee wool from sheep in new zealand yarn woven in massachusetts rubber produced in mississippi and even a layer of mud from a secret river in new jersey this is to make the ball less slippery umpires used to do this by spitting tobacco juice and rubbing it into the ball until one day a third base coach brought his own mud from home to replace the spit 80 years later his descendants collect this same mud and sell it to mlb to be placed on every single major league baseball the mud hole is on public land so this technically may not even be legal and the only people who actually know where this mud comes from are the four to five people who collect it every single year if any one of these ingredients is changed in the slightest it can affect the game dramatically by either deadening the ball or juicing the ball according to some reports mlb altered baseballs to help mark maguire break the single season home run record there's also evidence that babe ruth's homeroom records the records during the steroid era and the massive homework surge in the past five years were all due to juice balls in each one of these examples the ball has changed but did mob actually do this on purpose before we get to that a word from today's sponsor have you ever had trouble getting it up that's okay i won't tell anybody and neither will roman the digital health clinic for men dedicated to helping cure ed something that 52 percent of men will experience but thanks to roman you no longer have to let ed get in the way of your big moments when you go to get roman.com doesn't exist you'll get 15 off your first month plus free two-day shipping you will get a free online evaluation all from the comfort and privacy of your own home all while avoiding the awkward face-to-face interaction with your doctor and pharmacist that prevents so many men from getting cured the process is straightforward discreet and will make sure you're ready for the occasion so get roman ready and go to getroman.com baseball doesn't exist today every major league baseball starts with a rubber core made in a small factory in mississippi inside mark maguire's 70th home run ball there was an extra layer of rubber that according to the company who studied it was directly added to make the ball go further mlb denied this however a study found that the cores of the steroid era balls were 30 bouncier than in seasons before another study found that the baseballs in the steroid era could go up to 48 feet further than the balls from the 40s and this massive increase doubles the likelihood of a home run mlb uses around 370 feet of yarn for a single baseball in 1921 they switched to a yarn that was from the same sheep but was a slightly different grade this small change helped homers increase over 400 percent in only four years and helped babe ruth go from leading the league with 11 homers to leading the league with an insane 59 home runs the balls used by babe ruth and in the steroid era were likely juiced compared to other seasons but mob has been accused of juicing or deadening balls so many times i can't even mention them all and in the past five seasons these conspiracy theories have gone to another level justin verlander inferred mlb literally bought rawlings just to juice the baseballs dallas kykel claimed the balls were literally morphing into ovals and pete alonso speculated that the juice baseballs were a scheme conducted by mlb to pay players less but this is a problem that may be unavoidable a study done by the ringer found that the rubber core inside the ball in the second half of 2015 was a half gram lighter than the balls in the first half this half gram difference led to the highest second half increase in offense in baseball history baseball is made out of a ton of different ingredients all sourced from different places around the world small changes to the supply chain are bound to happen and the smallest change can make a massive difference for example each ball is stitched together with red cotton in 2017 rawlings switched distributors thinking it wouldn't make a huge difference but the entire league noticed immediately there was a league-wide blister epidemic dozens of pitchers claimed the ball was unfair david freeze hit this home run and admitted afterwards he had no idea how it went out and more home runs were hit in 2017 than any other season in history the change in the ball that caused this outrage turned out to be the laces which were on average nine percent thicker dr meredith wills discovered that this made the ball rounder and more aerodynamic finding that a change as small as a nine percent increase in lace thickness led to an insane 46 spike in home run the juice balls in 2017 were out of hand and even mlb acknowledged the balls were going further conducted a study and decided to make the laces less thick but decreasing the lace thickness also decreased the height of the laces which turned out to make the ball even more aerodynamic making the 2019 ball even more juiced in 2017 2019 shattered the 2017 home run record and featured some of the cheapest homers in history but the laces were not the only problem each ball is covered in cowhide tanned in tennessee dr meredith wills studied the ball and found that the leather was slightly smoother a normal person would probably hold both of these balls and never feel the difference there was a huge difference in 2019 home runs over 450 feet increased 117 from the year before which also featured a juiced baseball but as soon as the playoffs started something weird happened home runs completely stopped and for the next three seasons they have steadily decreased until 2022 where mlb may have its biggest baseball problem yet there goes deep left it is high it is god now what did what did i do wrong what did i see wrong he's at first base the phillies hitting coach said when they went on their first west coast road trip in los angeles the balls felt completely different speculating they might have been juiced helping them hit a league leading 14 home runs in seven games some players are claiming the balls are literally changing shape and alex manoa and others say mlb is using several different balls within the same game and they may be right this graph shows in the 2019 playoffs some balls were flying further than ever while others hit at the same speed and launch angle were being caught by outfielders in 2020 dr meredith wills thought mlb used two different balls throughout the season again one going significantly further than the other and in 2021 emily even admitted they used two different baseballs with different weights throughout the year and this may be the reason why in the old days mlb went through only a handful of baseballs a game by the end of the game they were scuffed and covered in pitchers tobacco spit a strategy they used to make it harder for hitters to see the ball this strategy worked so well it killed someone ray chapman was hit in the head with a ball he didn't see it hit him so hard and made such a loud sound the third baseman fielded it and threw it to first because he thought he hit it chapman later died from the head injury causing mlb to force balls to be regularly switched some pitchers take this to the extreme in 2021 lucas sims got a brand new baseball that he didn't like so he threw it out he immediately got another ball didn't like that one either and threw it out the umpire ended up throwing him four brand new baseballs in a row and he threw every single one of them out sims did this solely because it was raining and he wanted the umpire to delay the game but this really isn't that far from what happens on a regular basis according to molly knight the average baseball today only lasts one and a half pitches before it's replaced in 2005 the league used 900 000 baseballs in a year in 2019 this number went up to close to 1.2 million and this is probably an understatement if you count practice balls spring training balls and playoff balls rolling says that makes 2.4 million baseballs for mlb in a single season that means it takes 880 million feet of yarn and 16 000 cows to play a single major league baseball season these cows would most likely be slaughtered anyway because of their meat which prevents the negative press you'd expect from organizations like peta but using this many balls is getting mlb in trouble for a completely different reason every game used ball that returns to the dugout is authenticated and many are sold there are 700 baseballs up for auction on mlb.com right now and many more on sale at every single mlb stadium and it doesn't matter how insignificant the ball is mlb will sell it your spencer turnbull ball in the dirt to nomar mazara all 90.6 miles per hour these balls cost at least fifty dollars while they cost less than ten dollars to make this is a very easy way for mlb to make money but it also is screwing them over because due to supply chain issues in 2021 they literally didn't have enough baseballs forcing them to use two different balls that year one seemingly significantly more juiced than the other something people suspect also happened in 2020 and in 2022 pitchers are not only complaining that every ball is different they are saying they are morphing this ball wasn't even hit but clearly there is a huge bulge in the seams the fact that this ball passed inspection is extremely puzzling mlb says there have been no changes to the 2022 ball but not only are pitchers complaining because each ball feels different hitters are complaining because they're not going as far in april mlb teams averaged 0.9 homers a game that's a 54 decrease from april 2019 teams are averaging 4.04 runs a game which is as low as it's been since 1980. exit velocity has increased to all-time highs while balls are traveling on average six feet shorter compared to last season the ball is constantly changing but there's a good chance mlb is not doing this on purpose baseballs are unique no matter how many quality checks are done two balls are never exactly the same two baseballs could fall under mlb specifications and one could travel 50 feet further than the other and 3.3 feet of distance increases the chances of a home run by 10 mlb's stated goal is to keep the makeup of each ball consistent a task that is probably impossible despite the ball not going as far the league is still on pace to hit more home runs than in 2016 the year before the quote juice ball was introduced and as weather warms up they will without a doubt start going further until more balls are collected and studied we won't know what changed about the ball we'll probably never know if mlb did it on purpose and if you look at the history of baseball the balls being randomly juiced and deadened depending on the year will probably never stop

Channel: Baseball Doesn't Exist

Views: 3,394,617

Keywords:

Id: y8InFV3_AQc

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2022