#ICYMI: Baseball TweetTalk, with Neil deGrasse Tyson

In the latest installment of our popular episodes where hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly invite Neil deGrasse Tyson into the studio to explain the thinking behind his popular, and sometimes controversial, sport tweets, we turn our attention to baseball. Don’t miss an episode of Playing with Science. Subscribe to our channels on: Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/playing-with-science/id1198280360?mt=2 GooglePlay Music: https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Iimke5bwpoh2nb25swchmw6kzjq SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/startalk_playing-with-science Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/startalk/playing-with-science TuneIn: http://www.tunein.com/playingwithscience NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch/listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Find out more at https://www.startalkradio.net/startalk-all-access/

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:11Gary O'Reilly?

  Today, we return to their expanding universe, that is Twitter-sphere, and explore the thoughts of the Doctor.

• 0:20Chuck Nice?

  The man, the myth, the legend. Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson!

• 0:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I didn't know I was a myth.

• 0:27Chuck Nice?

  Well, mythic hole.

• 0:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mythic hole.

• 0:29Chuck Nice?

  Oh, you are not indeed, you are, you are not a myth.

• 0:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't mind being a myth, I'm just saying, I didn't know.

• 0:34Chuck Nice?

  I see you are here in corporeal form, so I cannot call you a myth.

• 0:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Corporeal form, ooh, off that SAT vocabulary.

• 0:41Gary O'Reilly?

  Raise the bar.

• 0:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Corporeal.

• 0:43Chuck Nice?

  Somebody bought a word of the day calendar!

• 0:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Corporeal.

• 0:49Gary O'Reilly?

  What's tomorrow's? I'm not that far.

• 0:51Chuck Nice?

  I think tomorrow is obstreperous, I'm gonna go with that.

• 0:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no, no, no, you gotta get, stay in the mood and say tomorrow, if today's corporeal, tomorrow's ethereal.

• 0:57Chuck Nice?

  Yes, absolutely. Very good.

• 1:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go.

• 1:01Chuck Nice?

  Neil is a man of words, he loves words, and so, and I appreciate that.

• 1:06Gary O'Reilly?

  But mainly in...

• 1:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Such is the layout.

• 1:08Gary O'Reilly?

  Less than 140 characters.

• 1:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, it would be fewer than 140 characters.

• 1:13Gary O'Reilly?

  Thank you kindly, see the grammar, the grammar has now brought itself forward.

• 1:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Grammar in the house. You're a Brit, you're supposed to know this. We're supposed to be jealous of your command of the language. Why are you staying out of this?

• 1:26Gary O'Reilly?

  We've loosened our grips slightly.

• 1:28Chuck Nice?

  It's too good for me to interrupt.

• 1:29Gary O'Reilly?

  I've loosened our grips slightly on the grammar, and we've allowed you to run free with it.

• 1:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, thank you.

• 1:35Gary O'Reilly?

  That's why we are divided by a common language.

• 1:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, thank you Churchill.

• 1:39Gary O'Reilly?

  Thank you, yeah.

• 1:41Gary O'Reilly?

  On the beaches, here we go.

• 1:43Chuck Nice?

  So, this is our tweet show.

• 1:44Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 1:45Chuck Nice?

  And, uh, and we have the tweet and chief, the tweeter in chief, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

• 1:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, you pluck my tweets from the Twitter-sphere once again.

• 1:54Chuck Nice?

  Yes, we do.

• 1:55Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is a school day for us. This really is, front row of the class, you are now...

• 2:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I hope I remember my tweets that you pull out, okay, okay, what do you got here?

• 2:05Chuck Nice?

  In baseball, or maybe you should read them.

• 2:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I can do it.

• 2:09Chuck Nice?

  It's your voice, so...

• 2:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rarely, maybe one in a hundred tweets, if that often, I will present an opinion.

• 2:17Chuck Nice?

  Ooh.

• 2:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And other tweets may feel like opinions.

• 2:20Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're written with passion, as most opinions are.

• 2:23Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 2:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're actually just facts.

• 2:24Chuck Nice?

  Passionately conveyed facts.

• 2:26Gary O'Reilly?

  Passionately factual.

• 2:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Fact, yes, but this one you, this one I'm ready to read is an opinion. You ready?

• 2:32Chuck Nice?

  This is an opinion. Okay, here we go.

• 2:34Gary O'Reilly?

  Rare one.

• 2:34Chuck Nice?

  Here we go.

• 2:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In baseball, if a pitch hits you on ball four, you should get to advance to second base.

• 2:44Chuck Nice?

  Wow, so.

• 2:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, because if you're hit by a pitch, you take first base. Ball four, you take first base. If hit by a pitch on ball four, you go to second base.

• 2:54Chuck Nice?

  Right, because what you just gave the pitcher was a free pass at beating somebody. It's like, it's, hey, what do I got to lose? It's ball four. I, I don't like this guy. He's gonna take a base anyway. Let me just pop him one.

• 3:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Are you worried that the batter might intentionally get hit by the ball?

• 3:10Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:10Gary O'Reilly?

  Step across. I mean, you know what?

• 3:12Chuck Nice?

  You know.

• 3:12Gary O'Reilly?

  If I'm diving up, I'm gonna step across.

• 3:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, but you could do that for any pitch, and why don't you?

• 3:15Chuck Nice?

  That's.

• 3:16Gary O'Reilly?

  Because it's ball four, and now we've introduced the math. I think by, by the time you get to first base, there's an attorney waiting for you to argue the case against you progressively.

• 3:26Chuck Nice?

  I'm, I'm gonna say that guys who lean into a pitch and take a hit, uh, they, they.

• 3:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They got cojones.

• 3:32Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, they got, they deserve that base, because I believe that ball might be traveling somewhere around ninety miles an hour.

• 3:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, plus or minus ninety miles an hour, it hurts.

• 3:38Gary O'Reilly?

  If you know, if you know the pitcher doesn't have that kind of heat.

• 3:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 3:42Gary O'Reilly?

  And that's not his thing. Maybe you take the percentages, maybe you gauge.

• 3:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't know enough about baseball rules to know if you intentionally go into the strike zone with your body.

• 3:52Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 3:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And get hit, is that really getting hit by a pitch?

• 3:55Chuck Nice?

  Oh, no, guys have done that. There are guys who have leaned into.

• 3:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Into the strike zone?

• 3:58Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, they've leaned in.

• 3:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There was some rule.

• 4:00Chuck Nice?

  Oh, no, the ball, the ball is slightly, the ball's on the edge.

• 4:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 4:04Chuck Nice?

  Okay, and so of course it's a judgment call at that point. And so you lean into the pitch because you wanna take that base. You're guaranteed that base.

• 4:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, but if you lean into a strike, I don't think they give you your base.

• 4:15Chuck Nice?

  No, well, if, if.

• 4:16Gary O'Reilly?

  That's true.

• 4:17Chuck Nice?

  That attorney's come back. Oh, can we look that up, Garrett?

• 4:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 4:20Chuck Nice?

  Garrett, can you look that up? If you lean into what is clearly a strike and take a hit.

• 4:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I, I don't think. I think it's a strike.

• 4:27Chuck Nice?

  What is the rule in baseball? Will you be awarded a base? Or will you be called for perhaps something like interference?

• 4:34Gary O'Reilly?

  So is our listeners though.

• 4:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pitch interference.

• 4:37Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, because he's head of our legal team. And he's right now sourcing a definitive answer to that question. And as soon as we get it, you'll have it.

• 4:47Chuck Nice?

  I like the concept though. Ball four, you get hit, you get a second, you get, you get two bases since you would have gotten a base anyway.

• 4:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Would have gotten a base anyway. So that's, I just, that was just my opinion. I just thought if we needed a new rule in baseball, that should work.

• 4:59Chuck Nice?

  Anything to liven this game up, as far as I'm concerned. Uh, but JP Arensibia, who is a catcher, uh, um, former catcher of, uh, major league baseball catcher. Uh, gave us some really interesting insights.

• 5:14Gary O'Reilly?

  And we had Holden Kushner on, who's a host for, for tuning on their major league baseball. And they were saying they are looking to really get something going to, to get this thing up and invigorated. So I don't know whether you've struck a little bit of a vein there, a little bit of a golden vein.

• 5:31Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, basically what, what, what, what JP was saying was that the league is looking for ways to make the game more exciting. And he'd said it in the most diplomatic way possible because he's a former major league baseball player. Cause you know, the flip side of that coin, the flip side of that coin is the game is boring.

• 5:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 5:48Chuck Nice?

  That's the flip side, you know?

• 5:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Slow.

• 5:49Chuck Nice?

  It's slow. Right. And it's not boring to the person who's a purist. It's, it's not boring to the guy who sits there with that little card.

• 5:55Gary O'Reilly?

  That's what they want.

• 5:56Chuck Nice?

  I've seen them at the ball games and they're keeping, you know, that, that, that's a person who loves, or somebody like me who loves a pitching duel. You know what I mean? Where, because that to me.

• 6:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But here's the thing.

• 6:05Chuck Nice?

  I love the tension that builds during the pitching duel.

• 6:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I'm older than both of you.

• 6:08Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 6:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, long baseball games were two hours.

• 6:14Chuck Nice?

  That was a long baseball game.

• 6:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Long baseball games and, and would not be uncommon to have a 90 minute baseball game at most a hundred minutes. And nowadays they bottom out at two hours and they typically go three, three and a half.

• 6:25Chuck Nice?

  Right. And so why the length and why the change of length?

• 6:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So watch, cause, cause I did this experiment once.

• 6:30Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 6:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So back in the video days, uh, where, where there's like videotape. I said, I wonder how long the action of a full nine inning baseball game.

• 6:39Chuck Nice?

  Oh, I'm with you.

• 6:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you, you, you just edit out all the time stuff, nobody's happening. The whole game. Fifteen, twenty minutes.

• 6:47Chuck Nice?

  The entire game.

• 6:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The entire game.

• 6:48Chuck Nice?

  When you just edit out everything that is superfluous.

• 6:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 6:53Chuck Nice?

  Any, any.

• 6:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The time where they're running in from the outfield to switch innings, the time after the pitch. Where, so here's what happened. In the old days, the batter never left the batter's box.

• 7:01Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 7:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Nowadays, every pitch, the batter steps out, they hit the cleats with the bat.

• 7:07Chuck Nice?

  Well, there's a reason for that.

• 7:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They'll rub their hands in the dirt, they'll spit on them.

• 7:11Chuck Nice?

  It's funny, I read a, a science.

• 7:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The whole at bat ritual that was, didn't used to be there. And all it takes, think about it. If it previously took you one minute, now it takes you three minutes at, you're at bat. Everybody takes three times longer to be at bat.

• 7:27Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 7:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just to bat.

• 7:27Gary O'Reilly?

  But there's, there's a whole load of psychological rituals and, and.

• 7:30Chuck Nice?

  Well, that's not a ritual, it's actually, it's actually neuroscience. When you see a pitch and that, and you stay in the batter's box, you don't walk away, you don't, and the, and the pitcher throws you another pitch, you will see the last pitch. So your brain.

• 7:47Gary O'Reilly?

  You're shaking it off.

• 7:48Chuck Nice?

  Right. Your brain will say, here it comes again, when it's not. So your brain lies to you about the pitch that you're seeing. So you walk out of the batter's box.

• 7:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Get a fresh entry back in.

• 7:58Chuck Nice?

  Get a fresh entry back in. So that's why they do that.

• 8:00Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay, so.

• 8:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Are you serious?

• 8:01Chuck Nice?

  No, I'm serious. That's a nor, there, there is neuroscience behind that.

• 8:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Are you saying that Major League Baseball studied the neuroscience research papers?

• 8:08Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 8:09Gary O'Reilly?

  Sure.

• 8:09Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, well, a, a, according to the Scientific American article that I read.

• 8:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wow.

• 8:14Chuck Nice?

  About four or five years ago, so.

• 8:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 8:15Gary O'Reilly?

  There is, there's brain training in baseball in terms of seeing the pitch.

• 8:20Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:21Gary O'Reilly?

  We can probably get into that. But getting, getting back to your little bit of hatred for baseball, or so slightly.

• 8:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hatred?

• 8:26Gary O'Reilly?

  Spectrum.

• 8:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Did that word come out of my mouth?

• 8:30Gary O'Reilly?

  No, my word, my word.

• 8:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait a minute.

• 8:32Gary O'Reilly?

  When you're talking.

• 8:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Get back to your hatred for the, using your vocabulary. Okay, go on.

• 8:37Gary O'Reilly?

  So, when you take baseball and you reduce it down to its action only.

• 8:41Chuck Nice?

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:42Gary O'Reilly?

  You can do that for any team sport, any tennis match, soccer game, NFL game. Baseball isn't alone, so when you when you hang it up there like that.

• 8:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In tennis, the time you're playing versus the time you're not playing is vastly greater.

• 8:56Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 8:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Than it is for baseball.

• 8:57Gary O'Reilly?

  No, no, I don't, but I'm saying if you want the highlights, you can play as many tricks as you like with editing.

• 9:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mm hmm.

• 9:04Gary O'Reilly?

  To reduce that down to say, this wasn't a great game, whichever sport it is.

• 9:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All I'm saying, when I said the baseball could last fifteen to twenty minutes, I'm not talking about highlights, I'm talking about every single pitch.

• 9:14Gary O'Reilly?

  Right. All right.

• 9:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every single pitch.

• 9:16Gary O'Reilly?

  So does this come with television's influence into the sport of baseball?

• 9:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, because they're selling ad time, so sure.

• 9:24Gary O'Reilly?

  The media guys got into buying major league franchises, didn't they?

• 9:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, so well, what you have is you have collaborations, if that's the right word, between a professional team and a broadcast network. So you have the YES Network.

• 9:40Gary O'Reilly?

  Didn't Disney own the Yankees at one stage?

• 9:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't, uh, no.

• 9:45Gary O'Reilly?

  And, uh.

• 9:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Disney owning.

• 9:47Gary O'Reilly?

  Put Murdoch.

• 9:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm thinking if they did, I would have heard about it.

• 9:50Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, sure.

• 9:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't, because I'm native of the Bronx.

• 9:52Gary O'Reilly?

  No, no, no, I'm with you. I may be spreading disinformation, which seems quite popular these days.

• 9:58Chuck Nice?

  All right, so now, uh, we asked the question whether or not a batter who leans into a pitch that is clearly a strike.

• 10:07Gary O'Reilly?

  Ooh.

• 10:07Chuck Nice?

  Does he get the walk? And here is explanations of rule.

• 10:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  By pitch rule.

• 10:13Chuck Nice?

  Six point zero eight hit by pitch. Situation one, batter takes his or her position in the batter's box with their arms extended into the strike zone. Batter is hit on the arm by the pitch while not swinging.

• 10:28Gary O'Reilly?

  Not swinging.

• 10:28Chuck Nice?

  Ruling, dead ball, time, okay? Strike on the batter, no award. So it's a strike. You were, you're right, the batter, the batter, the batter does not get to take a base when he leans. It's a strike. He's, he's given a strike.

• 10:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Situation two?

• 10:46Chuck Nice?

  Situation two, batter swings and misses the pitch and the pitch touches. The batter, ruling, dead ball, strike on the batter, no award.

• 10:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So the swing outweighs the the ball contact.

• 11:00Chuck Nice?

  Exactly. So you swing and get hit, you're struck, you struck out. Don't try to clean it up by taking a.

• 11:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Situation three, what do you have here?

• 11:07Chuck Nice?

  Situation three, batter takes proper position in the batter's box. Pitch is inside and the batter makes no attempt to avoid being touched by the pitch. Ruling, dead ball. In other words, he took the hit.

• 11:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 11:24Chuck Nice?

  Just took it. Ruling, no award.

• 11:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So they just get, it just counts as a ball, even though you got hit.

• 11:30Chuck Nice?

  Even though you got hit.

• 11:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you have to actually actively get out of the way of the pitch.

• 11:35Chuck Nice?

  So it looks as though the ruling is this, if you are not, if you look like you are intentionally in any way taking a hit, they're not gonna give it to you.

• 11:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Or or passively or actively.

• 11:46Chuck Nice?

  Passively or actively, whether you just stand there and don't get out of the way, or whether you lean into it either way, you can't, you're, you can't take.

• 11:53Gary O'Reilly?

  They want you to hit that ball, don't they?

• 11:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wow.

• 11:56Chuck Nice?

  Interesting, interesting. Well, thank you, Garrett, for giving us the rule.

• 12:00Gary O'Reilly?

  Thank you to our legal team.

• 12:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Our crack research team there.

• 12:03Gary O'Reilly?

  Absolutely.

• 12:03Chuck Nice?

  However, it still says, it's still a pretty cool and interesting prospect to say.

• 12:08Gary O'Reilly?

  You know what?

• 12:09Chuck Nice?

  That if you take a hit and fall for it.

• 12:11Gary O'Reilly?

  It will find its way back at Major League Baseball HQ.

• 12:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's just an offering, that's all.

• 12:16Gary O'Reilly?

  It's great.

• 12:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, that's all.

• 12:18Chuck Nice?

  There you go. All right, so we move on to another tweet, please. Another baseball tweet, please, let's bring it up, Neil.

• 12:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  This is nasty.

• 12:26Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 12:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, careful observation, that was me doing the statistics on this. Careful observation reveals that players and coaches of a three-hour baseball game

• 12:38Chuck Nice?

  Oh.

• 12:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  spit at least six gallons of saliva onto the field.

• 12:44Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god. Wait a minute. Now, Neil.

• 12:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What?

• 12:48Chuck Nice?

  First of all. Why, why, that's number one.

• 12:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why, what do you, William Shatner?

• 12:54Chuck Nice?

  Why, why, why would you? Why would you measure spit like that?

• 13:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's number one.

• 13:05Chuck Nice?

  But what I want to know is, uh, how do you measure the spit?

• 13:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 13:12Chuck Nice?

  The spittle.

• 13:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you want to know the anatomy of this calculation?

• 13:15Chuck Nice?

  Yes, exactly.

• 13:16Gary O'Reilly?

  Please, we do, because we've got this far, we might as well have everything.

• 13:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, alright, so here you go, you ready?

• 13:20Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 13:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, um, I made an assumption, which could be off by a little bit, and so then you just scale the answer appropriately.

• 13:27Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 13:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That every time you spit, you're spitting one cubic centimeter of liquid.

• 13:33Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 13:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cubic centimeter's not that much.

• 13:34Chuck Nice?

  It's not a lot.

• 13:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Not a lot. Maybe you're spitting-

• 13:36Chuck Nice?

  Those guys are hawking some loogies.

• 13:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They're hawking loogie.

• 13:39Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, they're, yeah, yeah.

• 13:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Looogies.

• 13:41Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 13:41Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Looogies.

• 13:42Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, they're loogies, man.

• 13:43Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 13:43Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 13:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hawka loogie?

• 13:44Chuck Nice?

  You hawka loogie.

• 13:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hawka loogie.

• 13:46Chuck Nice?

  Hawka loogie. Hock.

• 13:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so, that was first assumption.

• 13:50Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 13:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, here's how you make the measurement. Watch the camera focus on one player and another, okay?

• 14:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  One out of four times, in the five seconds the camera's on a player, the player's spitting.

• 14:11Gary O'Reilly?

  Is it like yawning?

• 14:12Chuck Nice?

  That was my-

• 14:12Gary O'Reilly?

  It's a contagious thing.

• 14:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, no, no.

• 14:14Gary O'Reilly?

  But once the first guy spits, they all kind of get that down the line.

• 14:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The camera's looking at the player, the players aren't looking at one-

• 14:19Chuck Nice?

  They're not really looking at each other.

• 14:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, I could-

• 14:22Chuck Nice?

  Even though that would be kind of cool if spitting was contagious.

• 14:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That if in these four or five, five-second bits-

• 14:28Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 14:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A player is always spitting.

• 14:30Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 14:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That means every player is spitting once every thirty seconds.

• 14:37Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 14:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 14:38Chuck Nice?

  Alright, and so, once every thirty seconds-

• 14:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 14:41Chuck Nice?

  Course of the game.

• 14:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So now you have twenty-five players, now there are players not on the field.

• 14:45Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 14:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Players sitting down.

• 14:46Chuck Nice?

  So you're counting them as spitting too?

• 14:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, of course, they're spitting in the dugout, just look at them.

• 14:50Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god, I am getting sick.

• 14:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So you have, I think it's twenty-five active players, and the dugout, it's what, you know, you got the bullpen and the dugout and the players on the field. Okay, so every player spitting, but it's it's really reliable, just do your own measurement. Look at how often the cameras on a player.

• 15:08Chuck Nice?

  Uh huh.

• 15:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And how often that and any random player is spitting. You can get loogie cam.

• 15:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now you're nasty.

• 15:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Your observation wasn't. Wait, wait, so it's one cubic centimeter of saliva every thirty seconds.

• 15:26Chuck Nice?

  Thirty seconds.

• 15:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Every player for three hours. Oh, God. And it just it just simply adds up. That's all I'm saying. Are you are you conscious of the fact that you may well have underestimated? Well, so it could be out. So I did I say approximately or?

• 15:42Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, yeah, but but but no, honestly, it's it's clearly an underestimate based on the time and you're using one cubic centimeter.

• 15:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 15:53Chuck Nice?

  Which, like I said, that's not a lot comparatively.

• 15:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I tried spitting and I could not spit one cubic centimeter. Not chewing that stuff.

• 16:00Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, but you gotta chew the crap.

• 16:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I gotta chew chew the tobacco.

• 16:03Chuck Nice?

  Right, you gotta chew the tobacco.

• 16:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, there are people who don't spit saliva, such as A-Rod. A-Rod spits shells of. The nuts. Of of of.

• 16:15Chuck Nice?

  Pistachio, no, um.

• 16:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, no, the other one.

• 16:17Chuck Nice?

  Sunflower seeds.

• 16:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sunflower seeds. So he's spitting shells of sunflower seeds. So that's not I so that still takes a volume. So this mixture would be like hawked loogies, uh, um, shells of nuts as well as just pure saliva.

• 16:32Chuck Nice?

  You know what? I don't know why, but I am so hungry right now.

• 16:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Chewing tobacco. So now, how many how many games in a season for a major? Hundred and sixty two. How many teams? There's, uh, how many teams are there?

• 16:44Chuck Nice?

  Well, I have no idea.

• 16:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Two teams, something like that. I don't know. A lot. Yeah, so this is a lot of saliva.

• 16:49Chuck Nice?

  It's a lot. It's a lot of, yeah, it's a lot of spit.

• 16:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I had a. By the way, I used to spit because I thought it was cool.

• 16:54Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 16:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  When I was in middle school.

• 16:55Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 16:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And I found myself generating more saliva for having done so. After about a week of it.

• 17:00Chuck Nice?

  The more you spit, the more you have.

• 17:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, the more you have to spit.

• 17:03Gary O'Reilly?

  Right. Strange, you talking about the spitting and the professional players. I had a teammate who was so, young player, was so nervous, he would sit there and just spit.

• 17:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Really?

• 17:13Gary O'Reilly?

  Unconsciously, just spit, but pure nerves.

• 17:16Chuck Nice?

  I can just hear, I can just hear people out there right now going.

• 17:23Chuck Nice?

  It's totally like gacking.

• 17:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So here's, so here's my thing. So the good thing about a simple calculation.

• 17:30Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 17:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's what I say, six gallons. So, so if I converted cubic centimeters to imperial gallons correctly. Let's assume I did that correctly for, just for the moment. So if we find out the average spit is a half a cubic centimeter. Or two cubic centimeters, then it goes, it's three gallons or twelve gallons.

• 17:48Chuck Nice?

  It's a very simple.

• 17:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The point is, it's a lot of spit.

• 17:52Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, it's a veritable tsunami of spit.

• 17:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 17:55Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 17:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So Loogie Cam, I think will be the future of the game.

• 17:59Gary O'Reilly?

  It's an awful lot more than we ever considered.

• 18:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, thank, that's the.

• 18:02Chuck Nice?

  All right. I say we move along. Let's, let's do a teaser. Why don't you read your next one? Because we only have less than a minute left. Here it is. Go ahead.

• 18:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Hand-stitched balls, rubbing mud, leather mitts, wooden bats, pine tar. Baseball, a game untouched by modern materials.

• 18:27Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, it's the, it's the old way.

• 18:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm just saying.

• 18:30Chuck Nice?

  Baseball, we fear change.

• 18:35Gary O'Reilly?

  No, is it better or is it worse?

• 18:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, if changing materials will improve the performance of the player, I think you should do it.

• 18:43Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 18:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because you go to see performance, you don't go to see the absence of performance.

• 18:47Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 18:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So if a, now I'm told that, well, we'll pick it up, you ran out of time.

• 18:52Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, we're out of time, but we'll pick it up when we get back.

• 18:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pick it up when we get back. I'm ready for it.

• 18:55Gary O'Reilly?

  Wood versus aluminium? Another thing we got in was JP and Ansi Bia. So we'll take that break, we'll have more baseball, thoughts of the good doctor.

• 19:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And we'll tell you what aluminium is when we get back.

• 19:10Gary O'Reilly?

  Welcome back, I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 19:12Chuck Nice?

  And I'm Chuck Nice.

• 19:13Gary O'Reilly?

  And this is Playing with Science. We are exploring the tweets of Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson and focusing most definitely on the sport of baseball. Before the break, we were discussing pintar, hand-stitched balls, wooden bats, and getting into old versus new. Now, when we spoke to JP Aaron Sibia, and we spoke with Charles Lu.

• 19:35Chuck Nice?

  Yes.

• 19:36Gary O'Reilly?

  What's the best material you could have for a baseball bat? And Charles went with aluminium.

• 19:41Chuck Nice?

  Absolutely.

• 19:42Gary O'Reilly?

  And JP said, "Oh baby, I'm a power hitter, give me that aluminium bat, please."

• 19:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes, yes. So the aluminium, so what I was told by a saber-metrician, so someone who thinks long and hard and deep about everything that, every bit of detail in baseball that even baseball fans would not care about.

• 20:02Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay.

• 20:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Just to put this on scale. What he told me was that in professional baseball, MLB, if the batters used an aluminium bat, it would kill the pitchers. Because it would come off the bat fast. Right now, they barely have enough time.

• 20:22Gary O'Reilly?

  To react.

• 20:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To react, correct.

• 20:24Gary O'Reilly?

  Ooh.

• 20:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Barely. They can just get a mitt in front of their face and not get hit by the ball. With an aluminium bat, that time is dropped to below their reaction limits and you would basically, you would harm.

• 20:37Chuck Nice?

  So you would increase the exit velocity to a point where reaction would not be possible.

• 20:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Where at a typical hard-hit ball, we'll reach the pitcher before the pitcher can react and you can, you will hurt the pitcher.

• 20:49Chuck Nice?

  Yo, I am all about this.

• 20:51Gary O'Reilly?

  See, that's the other side of the coin, right?

• 20:53Chuck Nice?

  Awesome. You just made baseball my favourite sport!

• 20:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you can use an aluminium bat and hit a 400-foot homerun every time, and you'd kill the pitcher.

• 21:02Gary O'Reilly?

  You just drill a hole through the pitcher.

• 21:03Chuck Nice?

  Now see, that's a, I'm paying for this.

• 21:05Gary O'Reilly?

  This is where I knew it would go.

• 21:06Chuck Nice?

  I will pay to go see this!

• 21:08Gary O'Reilly?

  Fans want this.

• 21:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So this is, so this is kinda like.

• 21:12Chuck Nice?

  Gladiator baseball.

• 21:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Batters' revenge to the pitcher.

• 21:16Chuck Nice?

  Love it.

• 21:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The batter's revenge on the pitcher. You would only sort of accidentally hit it back to the pitcher because you don't have that much control.

• 21:22Chuck Nice?

  I was gonna say, you would have to be the best. First of all, if you could do that, you would never hit the pitcher. You would just place the ball out of the park every single time and be the greatest home run hitter ever.

• 21:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Ever. So that would be like batter's revenge on the fact that you're a sitting duck in front of a 90 mile an hour fastball.

• 21:38Chuck Nice?

  Wow.

• 21:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But I'm just saying, that's what he told me and, and so I, I had no reason to doubt what he said.

• 21:45Gary O'Reilly?

  We should get a poll as to whether or not they want to see the pitcher in danger or whether they want to see something else going on.

• 21:51Chuck Nice?

  I just want to see the sports report that evening. Tragically, another death today in Major League Baseball.

• 21:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, you gotta lighten it up. You say another busted nose.

• 22:00Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly. Yeah, don't make it. Another fractured orbital bone.

• 22:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Orbital, yeah, occipital orbital.

• 22:07Chuck Nice?

  Yeah, right. Oh, that's cool, man. Wow, what, that's fascinating. That makes sense.

• 22:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How about some other things? So for example, um, so they use pine tar so they can be sticky. Surely there's some artificial stickiness that works better than pine tar.

• 22:20Chuck Nice?

  The gloves now.

• 22:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What's that?

• 22:22Chuck Nice?

  The gloves now.

• 22:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Gloves, gloves will do it. Gloves, you know, in fact, you can put the material that the pass receivers use.

• 22:29Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 22:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Have you felt the gloves that they wear?

• 22:31Chuck Nice?

  Right, that gel material like Odell Beckham.

• 22:35Gary O'Reilly?

  Odell Beckham Jr., when the Nike innovation team, he came in and they'd explored a whole raft of different surfaces.

• 22:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so your hand goes up, the ball just hits and sticks to your hand. So, yeah, so gloves help that, then you don't need the pine tar. But I, it was kind of fun to watch old time, like, um, the Yankee catcher from a few years back. Uh, he didn't wear gloves. He just.

• 22:58Gary O'Reilly?

  Penya.

• 22:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, uh.

• 22:59Gary O'Reilly?

  Yogi.

• 23:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Penya.

• 23:00Chuck Nice?

  Yogi.

• 23:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Going way back.

• 23:04Chuck Nice?

  He way back.

• 23:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Posada.

• 23:06Gary O'Reilly?

  Posada. All right, we go ahead. Jorge Posada.

• 23:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Jorge Posada, no gloves. My boy, just there it was in the pine tar and it was sticky and there he was.

• 23:16Gary O'Reilly?

  Fans love him for that.

• 23:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I, I, I just thought it was something classic about that.

• 23:20Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, that's cool.

• 23:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  These wusses that need gloves, right? Um, so yeah, the gloves will improve your, your grip. But also, if the glove is too spongy,

• 23:28Chuck Nice?

  Hmm.

• 23:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then your hand is not actual, your hand has give against the surface of the bat. So, and fractions of an inch make a difference between a pop-up and a homerun.

• 23:40Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 23:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Difference between a homerun and a.

• 23:43Gary O'Reilly?

  I'm guessing for a catcher in his mid, the intimacy and feel that has to come through the hand, through the leather and be able to feel that they've got total caress on that ball when they catch it.

• 23:56Chuck Nice?

  Oh, man.

• 23:57Gary O'Reilly?

  There we go. I'm taking it to another place now.

• 23:59Chuck Nice?

  That.

• 24:01Chuck Nice?

  Come here, baby. This is my glove.

• 24:03Gary O'Reilly?

  Play him a science after hours.

• 24:05Chuck Nice?

  My glove is this. Whose glove is this?

• 24:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what they could do, so holding materials aside, what they could easily do is have a laser-measured strike zone. And then you don't need the umpire and.

• 24:21Gary O'Reilly?

  They do it in. Oh, ding ding ding ding.

• 24:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Excuse me. Wait, wait. They basically have it in tennis.

• 24:26Chuck Nice?

  Yes, they do.

• 24:27Gary O'Reilly?

  They do, but.

• 24:28Chuck Nice?

  However.

• 24:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And they accepted it.

• 24:30Gary O'Reilly?

  You've got to listen to the baseball show we do with.

• 24:33Chuck Nice?

  J P R and C B I.

• 24:35Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, because.

• 24:35Chuck Nice?

  He talks about what you just said.

• 24:37Gary O'Reilly?

  Book on the umpire.

• 24:38Chuck Nice?

  Gives us a little peek behind the curtain of what goes on with the umpires.

• 24:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Voting this way. What I'm saying is you could do that.

• 24:46Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 24:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And it would be precise every time.

• 24:48Gary O'Reilly?

  Prompting a debate.

• 24:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So now, but I don't have a horse in this race if I can mix sports.

• 24:54Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 24:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I don't have a ball in this glove, right?

• 24:59Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 24:59Gary O'Reilly?

  So.

• 24:59Chuck Nice?

  Whose glove is this?

• 25:03Gary O'Reilly?

  I like this glove.

• 25:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I like it. Nice glove.

• 25:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Two of these. I want one on each hand.

• 25:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so.

• 25:16Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh, dude.

• 25:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So here's the interesting thing.

• 25:18Chuck Nice?

  Go ahead.

• 25:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What makes baseball interesting is not knowing.

• 25:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  If the umpire is gonna accurately call the ball or the strike.

• 25:27Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The edges of the strike zone. And this creates another dimension.

• 25:32Chuck Nice?

  There you go, bro.

• 25:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Of uncertainty for the batter.

• 25:35Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 25:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because the pitcher wants to throw a strike, but if they throw a strike, you're more likely to hit it. So they have to throw something that looks like a strike, so that you try to hit it and you don't get good, good, good, um, wood on the ball.

• 25:50Chuck Nice?

  Exactly.

• 25:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So it's, it's, it's, it is cat and mouse like no other one-on-one encounter in.

• 25:55Chuck Nice?

  There is another dimension, isn't there Chuck? Awesome, yeah. Well, no, and that, that, that is a, uh, that's, that's very salient, what you just said. And then the, what JP told us was that in addition to that.

• 26:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 26:07Chuck Nice?

  There is a political aspect, because when you mouth off to an umpire. Mm-hmm. He then says, "Oh, really? Okay." And what he'll do then is not give you the calls. He sends you to the naughty base. And you're, you're.

• 26:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, yeah, so, yeah, don't, so, so plus, they'll give you, I saw umpires give Jeter a call, that they were not giving some other players who were just nasty players.

• 26:32Chuck Nice?

  Well, that just makes sense. I mean, come on, he's dreamy Derek Jeter. Are you kidding me? Dreamy. Guys, gorgeous. Okay. All right, let's go do another tweet before Chuck just really melts. Completely melts into Jeter's arms. All right, all right, here we go. Next up. Uh, oh, good.

• 26:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right, this is physics 101 right here. I just thought I'd toss it out there.

• 26:52Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 26:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Laws of physics show that it takes twice as much energy to throw a baseball 100 miles an hour than it does to throw one at 70 miles an hour.

• 27:01Chuck Nice?

  Interesting. Okay.

• 27:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Twice as much energy.

• 27:03Chuck Nice?

  Now.

• 27:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why it's so hard. How, how many people throw 100 miles an hour?

• 27:07Chuck Nice?

  100 mile an hour baseball, right.

• 27:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  How many, like five ever, you know, I mean, how many people, that number is not as high as you think it would be, given how many people throw 90 miles an hour.

• 27:15Chuck Nice?

  Now, here's the deal. I know that that is physics 101.

• 27:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 27:18Chuck Nice?

  But there are a lot of people out there who don't know why that is, so maybe you should tell them. Why? Good cover. Well done. No one saw through that.

• 27:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And plus you saved me from saying it. So, uh, in, in physics, once we finally learned what energy was and characterized it and how, what forms it can take. Okay. That birthed the industrial revolution. Just so you know how important this is. Ooh. So, energy, and it's your ability to transform it from one form to another. Okay. Is the foundation of every machine we've ever built. Gotcha. Alright, with you, yeah. Okay, so, why do cars work? Because we take chemical energy. Mm-hmm. In the fuel and convert it to mechanical energy, which is you moving down the street. The pistons going up and down. Where did the chemical energy come from? It came from living matter. Mm-hmm.

• 28:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That once got its energy from the sun, plant life that was buried and got converted into fuel. So we have sunlight converting to chemical energy, converting to mechanical energy. Gotcha. And once we learned this, it blew open civilization. Pictures are solar powered. That's right. Actually, ultimately, we are all solar powered. There you go. Because even if you eat steak. Right. It's some cow. Right. What does cow eat? Grass. What did, how did, how did the grass grow? Uh, photosynthesis. And where does the sun get its energy from? Um, I'm gonna say, oh wow, you got me on that one. It is thermonuclear fusion. I was about to say, the plasma that is so-called burning. Yeah, yeah, so we, we are thermonuclear fusion driven. Right. Ultimately. I like it. I like it very much.

• 28:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Gonna get that. Be like he. Get a badge. Yeah, yeah. At the back. Thermonuclear fusion. So this, this was the problem. I saw, there's a bumper sticker, uh, one of these sort of green bumper stickers. Right. Left-leaning green bumper stickers. It says, "No nukes." No nukes. And the O in the no is the sun. Right. I'm thinking, no! No, no, no, cause that's still thermal. Excuse me. That's a. I know what you mean. Right. But the physics of this doesn't play. Right, exactly. Cause how the hell do you think the sun is making its own damn energy? Did you like go buy them and flip them a bird and go, "You commie!" and keep going?

• 29:28Chuck Nice?

  No, no, the nukes.

• 29:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Commie liberal. Commie liberal bastard, you! Hold them over and then just give them the one-to-one lecture. Yeah, yeah, no, I don't, I don't, I don't get angry with people for not knowing. An educator. Of course, right. The pitcher, Aroldis. Yank him out of the car, drag him to the side of the road, and then you give them a lecture.

• 29:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That'd be so funny. Aroldis Chapman, is it? First of all, wait. Re burns it at a hundred and something. Right, so here you go. So, energy scales, here, scales as, so one form of energy is kinetic energy. Right. Energy of being in motion. In motion. Okay, so, anything in motion has kinetic energy, and there's a formula for that. It's one half times the mass of the thing, times the velocity of the thing squared. Okay. All right, we're squaring. We're squaring. So, a baseball at seventy miles an hour, square seventy, what do you get? You get four hundred and ninety. Okay. Uh, square a hundred miles an hour, what do you get? Hundred times a hundred. Hundred times a hundred.

• 30:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Factually correct. Is it like that? Factually correct.

• 30:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sorry, seventy squared is four thousand nine hundred. Right. Okay, I said that wrong. Yep. Like, seven times seven is forty-nine. Right. You carry the two zeros. Two zeros, right. Four thousand nine hundred. Um, so, put a pin in that number. Right. Uh, you square a hundred miles an hour, you get ten thousand. Right. And ten thousand is about twice four thousand. Right, four ninety times, right, so, right. That's how you get it. So, a hundred squared is twi- basically twice what seventy squared is. I could have said seventy-two or whatever would get you exactly. Right, that would have given you an example, but who cares? Who cares, right, it's the idea that matters. It's the idea. Okay. So, to go from seventy to a hundred, twice as much power is needed. Correct. Now, now, I went to one of those MLB, um, traveling arcades. Okay. You ever, you ever been to one of those? Where there's a pitching cage. Yeah, yeah.

• 31:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, and it's just fun, and there's a bunch of trucks that they open up and you go in and you play. It's, it's a great PR for MLB. Right. And they had a pitching cage. Uh, and so I thought, let me, let me throw. I'm a, I'm a in shape guy. Okay. Was at the time. Right. Uh, yeah, I have strength, I have speed, I have agility. I took the ball and I threw it as fast as I possibly could. It went like seventy-two miles an hour. That's not a bad pitch. No, excuse me, that. What if a pitcher in MLB throws seventy, it's a

• 31:46Chuck Nice?

  Well, you can't play Major League Baseball.

• 31:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now the slow ball.

• 31:51Chuck Nice?

  That's called an off-speed pitch. That's called an off-speed pitch.

• 31:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm putting everything I got into this pitch.

• 31:56Gary O'Reilly?

  The thing is, you would fool a Major League batsman with that pitch. Because he's thinking, here comes the heat.

• 32:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 32:01Gary O'Reilly?

  Swing it at a ball that

• 32:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here comes Tyson. Badass Tyson. And they don't know, that's all I got. Seventy mile an hour pitch. So you just square it, and this is why, for example, it is much more dangerous to drive. Who's got, you got a quick calculator here?

• 32:17Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes, it's called you.

• 32:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so if you drive, um Yeah, so if you're driving fifty miles an hour.

• 32:28Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 32:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? And square that, what do you get?

• 32:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Two thousand five hundred. Okay, so what is the square root of five thousand?

• 32:38Chuck Nice?

  Oh, God. That's a good one.

• 32:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  God, we don't need God for this one.

• 32:42Chuck Nice?

  I do, because

• 32:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Thank God for the really hard calculations.

• 32:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Do you know which button the square root button is?

• 32:50Chuck Nice?

  I don't, no, they don't have one. Five thousand.

• 32:53Gary O'Reilly?

  The screen.

• 32:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I get, alright, cut.

• 32:55Chuck Nice?

  You have a one that

• 32:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I got one here, man.

• 32:58Gary O'Reilly?

  Please be patient, listener.

• 33:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  These hosts of the game here. Okay, so, uh, what did we say? We said

• 33:04Gary O'Reilly?

  Five thousand.

• 33:05Chuck Nice?

  Five thousand.

• 33:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So fifty squared was two thousand five hundred. We have five, uh, so now we want, uh, five thousand square root, okay? And we get, uh, seventy. So if you're driving at seventy miles an hour, your car has twice the kinetic energy than at fifty. What it means is if you are in a head-on collision, there's twice as much energy that has to dissipate by the time everything stops moving. And that energy goes into crushing the car.

• 33:34Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 33:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Breaking the glass, goes into the sound of the collision, and it goes into crushing the squishy things that are inside the car itself.

• 33:43Chuck Nice?

  Right. Unless, of course, you are ejected and go through the front windshield.

• 33:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, then you go through the front windshield at seventy miles an hour.

• 33:48Chuck Nice?

  At seventy miles an hour.

• 33:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then you'll hit something else at seventy miles an hour. Where does that kinetic energy goes? If you hit a brick wall, nothing happening in a brick wall.

• 33:55Chuck Nice?

  Right, exactly.

• 33:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All that energy gets put back into your body.

• 33:58Chuck Nice?

  Right, and you look like a Rorschach test.

• 34:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Rorschach.

• 34:00Chuck Nice?

  Against the wall.

• 34:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Exactly.

• 34:02Gary O'Reilly?

  So going back, going back to the nicer

• 34:04Chuck Nice?

  This is so pleasant.

• 34:05Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's what I like about this conversation.

• 34:08Gary O'Reilly?

  If I've got a guy who's six foot five, really long levers, I'm on a mound, so I am pitching down invariably.

• 34:15Chuck Nice?

  His name is Randy Jackson.

• 34:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Randy Jackson, that's the lost Jackson brother.

• 34:20Chuck Nice?

  Right, that's the lost Jackson brother.

• 34:21Gary O'Reilly?

  Lesser Jackson.

• 34:22Chuck Nice?

  Who was not as good a pitcher.

• 34:25Gary O'Reilly?

  Does the length of the lever not then mean I have less need to upgrade the energy? Or does that?

• 34:32Chuck Nice?

  No, no, he's talking about, he's talking about angle of release. If you're a tall guy.

• 34:36Gary O'Reilly?

  If I've got a longer lever and I'm bringing it to bear on my pitch.

• 34:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is it easier for you to hit 100 miles an hour is what you're saying?

• 34:41Gary O'Reilly?

  To get that speed with a longer lever, is it not, do I not need to use less energy?

• 34:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, you still have to, well, so, so here's the thing, if you, if you pivot at your shoulder, you have a really long arm.

• 34:54Gary O'Reilly?

  Yep.

• 34:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Then if we are both pivoting our shoulder at the same rate.

• 34:58Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 34:59Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But my arm is longer, that ball is moving faster at the end of that.

• 35:02Gary O'Reilly?

  Right.

• 35:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But you still have to, the ball has a mass. You have to, and your, and your arm has mass. So your muscle has to be up, so it's not, it's not the same thing happening.

• 35:15Gary O'Reilly?

  No.

• 35:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so, so back up.

• 35:17Gary O'Reilly?

  Yep.

• 35:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, two arms swinging at the same angular speed, if I have longer arms, I'm throwing the ball faster than you are. But I have to move my arm as fast as you're moving your arm, and it takes me more energy to do so.

• 35:30Chuck Nice?

  Right. Oh, cool.

• 35:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 35:32Chuck Nice?

  Oh, that's cool, that's right.

• 35:33Gary O'Reilly?

  That was this kind of ring.

• 35:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cause I've gotta, I gotta accelerate the ball and, and the weight of my own arm.

• 35:39Chuck Nice?

  So it's, it's the same thing as when you have like two things on a string. And you're swinging them at, one string is shorter and the other string is longer.

• 35:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes.

• 35:48Chuck Nice?

  And the two things on the end of the string, one is going to be going faster on the longer string.

• 35:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  On the longer string.

• 35:53Chuck Nice?

  But it takes more energy to move that.

• 35:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  To generate that speed. And keep that going and to generate that.

• 35:57Chuck Nice?

  Cool.

• 35:58Gary O'Reilly?

  For my, for my logic, it would have been the other way around, which is why I asked the question. Cause I think you're gonna bust that myth.

• 36:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That's why we have, yeah, so I, I don't know how you got your logic, because you said by your logic. We'll work on your logic.

• 36:11Gary O'Reilly?

  My logic against yours is not a fair competition.

• 36:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, but the good thing about taking physics classes is that you learn the logic of the universe and that replaces the logic of your life.

• 36:19Chuck Nice?

  Well, the logic of our universe right now is that we do have to take a break.

• 36:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let's do that.

• 36:24Chuck Nice?

  We are past.

• 36:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We ran over, sorry about that.

• 36:25Chuck Nice?

  We ran over, but guess what, it was worth it. And so we're gonna take a break and we'll be right back with more Neil deGrasse Tyson and his tweets.

• 36:34Gary O'Reilly?

  I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 36:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm Chuck Nice.

• 36:36Gary O'Reilly?

  And we are honoured to have Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson with us and his various numerous tweets. And we are sinking our teeth into baseball.

• 36:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What do you got here? If baseball reported averages to four decimal places instead of three, then a 300 hitter would be batting 3,000. Okay. Well, that makes sense. Well, so I just want to make it clear to people when they say he's batting 300. Right. Um, mathematically, that's not what he's batting. He's batting .300. Right. Okay, so he's actually batting three tenths. Right, exactly. So three out of 10 times, he gets a hit. Gets a hit. Right. So... Basically a 70%. He's at a 70% failure rate. Failure rate, exactly. Is what he is. Where you can fail 70% of the time and still get in... You're an awesome player.

• 37:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you still get in the Hall of Fame. So it's just by tradition that we carry an extra two decimal places beyond the first one. So technically, he's batting 300 out of 1,000. Okay? Okay. So, but you're leaving off the 1,000. And if it's just a pure 300 hitter, you're batting three, three tenths. Any of these would work the same way as saying you're batting 300. Okay. But we don't say they're batting .3. We just don't. Right. It's not in the tradition of the reporting of the game. And it also makes them seem like losers. Now, it turns out later in the season, you want to carry a fourth decimal because

• 38:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  a single at-bat has a much lower torque on your average than it does at the beginning of the season. Uh-huh. Think about it. Okay, explain more for me. Okay, I'll tell you. Please. I'll tell you. All right? I've played one game this season. I've had four at-bats. Okay. I happened to get... Uh, four hits.

• 38:33Chuck Nice?

  Oh shoot.

• 38:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So what's my batting average?

• 38:35Chuck Nice?

  The best.

• 38:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What's my batting average?

• 38:36Chuck Nice?

  Batting a thousand.

• 38:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A thousand, you're batting one.

• 38:38Chuck Nice?

  Batting one. Batting one.

• 38:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, now the next game, I'm oh for four. So now I have eight total at bats with four hits.

• 38:48Chuck Nice?

  I'm batting five hundred.

• 38:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Batting five hundred. The next game, I'm oh for four again.

• 38:52Chuck Nice?

  Right, now I'm batting, still batting, two fifty.

• 38:54Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Two fifty?

• 38:55Chuck Nice?

  Fiddy.

• 38:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is that right? No, it would be, uh, no, you'd be batting, uh, no, point, um, no, you're batting three.

• 39:03Chuck Nice?

  No, cause what do I have? No, no, cause I have twelve hits. I mean, I have twelve at bats now.

• 39:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And four hits.

• 39:07Chuck Nice?

  Four hits. Okay, so I'm not.

• 39:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no, four out of twelve, it's four eight twelve. Right, so you go down to, now you're batting three, three, three, three, three.

• 39:13Chuck Nice?

  Right, right.

• 39:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, you're jumping much, many more digits.

• 39:18Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 39:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Early in the season, because the average has fewer, has a smaller baseline on which to calculate it.

• 39:24Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 39:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, by the end of the season, you'd bat a thousand ti- or five hundred times, a single at bat is touching maybe that last decimal place.

• 39:34Chuck Nice?

  Gotcha.

• 39:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you add a fourth decimal place, and then you, then you, you're back in business watching what you're doing.

• 39:39Chuck Nice?

  Cool, cool.

• 39:41Gary O'Reilly?

  That phrase, statistics and damn lies.

• 39:43Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, lies, damn lies and statistics?

• 39:45Gary O'Reilly?

  So you can manufacture that statistic to say whatever really you want it to say.

• 39:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no.

• 39:52Chuck Nice?

  Not, not, not with batting averages.

• 39:53Gary O'Reilly?

  Seventy percent of the time, I'm on three, you know, it's however you want to twist that.

• 39:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, they're both accurate.

• 40:00Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes, absolutely.

• 40:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's just what attitude you want to copy.

• 40:02Chuck Nice?

  Right, right, yeah. I see, no, I see what you're saying. It really, it's, it's really a marketing thing. This is how you want to present it. All right, well, that's cool, right? All right, let's move on. Let's get another tweet in.

• 40:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Next up. Baseball should track extraordinary plays that fielders can bank, and then credit against errors they might later commit. This is another opinion.

• 40:26Chuck Nice?

  Okay, I, I, I don't know if I'm following you there.

• 40:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so you ready? Ready? I, I'm running after the ball, I'm outfield, I'm running after, I do a shoestring catch, and I tumble, roll, uh, uh, roll back to my feet and throw the guy out at second base.

• 40:39Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 40:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, that's gonna make a highlight reel.

• 40:42Chuck Nice?

  Yes, it is.

• 40:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The next game I make an error, that play should cancel out the error. That's all.

• 40:47Chuck Nice?

  Nah, I'm, I'm gonna have to push back on.

• 40:50Chuck Nice?

  Oh, body. No way.

• 40:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I want to bank that extraordinary play.

• 40:55Chuck Nice?

  No, you know why you don't get to bank that?

• 40:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Why not?

• 40:57Chuck Nice?

  Because you get paid eight million dollars a year. That's right. That shoe string catch should be done every single game. You're supposed to be the absolute cream, creme de la creme. And so you're not supposed to make it.

• 41:11Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I want, I want a bank account.

• 41:13Gary O'Reilly?

  You want a bank?

• 41:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I want a bank account.

• 41:16Gary O'Reilly?

  The golden rule?

• 41:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Wait, wait, wait. Especially since if you make a great play, you might have prevented a run.

• 41:21Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah.

• 41:22Chuck Nice?

  Oh, yeah. Well.

• 41:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whereas an error might allow to run.

• 41:24Chuck Nice?

  They call it robbing a guy of a home run.

• 41:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There you go.

• 41:26Chuck Nice?

  When you catch a ball right when it's about to leave the park.

• 41:29Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I'm thinking even Steven. That's all.

• 41:31Gary O'Reilly?

  Doesn't work like that. You get the golden rule.

• 41:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Says the Brit.

• 41:34Gary O'Reilly?

  No, no, no, no. So the sort of overarching sporting attitude in the elite sphere is you're only as good as your last game. In this account, scroll that down to you're only as good as your last play. So whatever you did in the past, baby history, we're living in the now. You're getting nothing for what you did before because every time you step out across that white line, you have to reprove your reputation. You have to improve, reprove, deliver. So there's no way.

• 42:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, that's a new one. That's a new one.

• 42:06Chuck Nice?

  I like it. I like it. That's the Janet Jackson, what have you done for me lately?

• 42:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Lately, that's true.

• 42:10Chuck Nice?

  I like it. I like it.

• 42:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 42:13Chuck Nice?

  Jackson, if you're nasty. All right.

• 42:17Chuck Nice?

  All right. So we're almost out of time. We're at the end. So anything else where?

• 42:20Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I don't think this is not a tweet. I was thinking of tweeting this, but it required more thought than, than I was able to give it. And so I haven't tweeted this yet.

• 42:28Chuck Nice?

  All right.

• 42:28Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What was the question now?

• 42:29Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay, spoiler.

• 42:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay. If you're an outfielder.

• 42:33Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 42:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And you always make the highlight reel for extraordinary catches.

• 42:38Chuck Nice?

  Okay.

• 42:40Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Does that just mean you're slow?

• 42:43Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 42:46Chuck Nice?

  I, I understand that.

• 42:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 42:48Chuck Nice?

  Okay, cuz here's the deal.

• 42:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay.

• 42:50Chuck Nice?

  Let me, let me see if I'm following you. I'm with you on this one.

• 42:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  With me?

• 42:53Chuck Nice?

  I get you. So let me, somebody, let me see if I'm following you correctly. So, here's the deal. Uh, ball is hit, hard to right, to right field, okay?

• 43:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right center.

• 43:03Chuck Nice?

  Right center, right center, that's even better. Hard to right center, okay? And, I take off, and

• 43:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're the right fielder.

• 43:09Chuck Nice?

  And I'm the right fielder, and I'm running, I'm haul assing, and then all of a sudden, I lay myself out, and I snag it, I hit the ground, I bounce, I come up, and I hold it up, and I'm like, yes! And everybody's like, ah! Now, same play.

• 43:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Now, I'm the center fielder.

• 43:25Chuck Nice?

  Now, you're a center fielder, hard right. I am fast as I don't know what. I get there and wait for the ball, poof, pop fly.

• 43:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pop fly.

• 43:33Chuck Nice?

  Pop fly.

• 43:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, dude.

• 43:34Chuck Nice?

  Why? Cuz I'm fast.

• 43:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Cuz you're fast.

• 43:35Chuck Nice?

  Right. So the slow dude always looks like he's doing something special. But really, he's just slow.

• 43:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's what complicates it.

• 43:44Chuck Nice?

  I like it.

• 43:45Gary O'Reilly?

  I got, I got the other point.

• 43:46Chuck Nice?

  I like it.

• 43:47Gary O'Reilly?

  Okay, so, you're, you're looking at it and saying, he got there late because he's slow. What if, he shouldn't be within the same zip code of this catch? And the only reason he gets there, he's that quick. He's cheater, fast.

• 44:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So we know in advance

• 44:03Chuck Nice?

  Right.

• 44:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That he is slow. That's all I'm saying.

• 44:06Chuck Nice?

  Yeah.

• 44:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  We know he's slow.

• 44:07Chuck Nice?

  And that's why he always looks like he's making a great play.

• 44:10Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's what complicates it, to your point.

• 44:12Gary O'Reilly?

  Oh no, so here we go, yes, yeah.

• 44:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Master Brit fellow. Here's, to your point.

• 44:17Gary O'Reilly?

  Why do I think, why do I think that's not good for me?

• 44:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  No, no, no, it's, it's, it's all said with affection. Okay, here's, here's

• 44:24Chuck Nice?

  They are our closest allies.

• 44:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's what I think you're trying to say.

• 44:27Gary O'Reilly?

  Yes.

• 44:27Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay? That the slow person has a smaller circumference, a smaller perimeter in which he can make the play. Cuz he doesn't run very far, between the sight of the hit ball, and when the ball gets out there.

• 44:46Gary O'Reilly?

  There's another point I'm on.

• 44:47Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Whereas the fast person

• 44:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Covers a wider area of the outfield, so their perimeter is

• 44:55Chuck Nice?

  Much wider, much wider, yes.

• 44:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And so their coastline gives them more opportunity to make a spectacular

• 45:05Gary O'Reilly?

  In defense of the guy who's towing a trailer, right? A good pro

• 45:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Slow people, yes.

• 45:12Gary O'Reilly?

  That's it, right? So, a good pro knows the limitations. So if the guy's really fast, his limitations, as you've highlighted, are that much bigger. Now, the guy who doesn't have the foot speed

• 45:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  They have lower limitations.

• 45:25Gary O'Reilly?

  No, in terms of the space they can cover. The guy who's got less speed, knows he's got less speed, yet, he's been in the majors X amount of years, possibly 10 years. There's a reason why. What doesn't happen down at his feet, happens between his ears. He will now know the pitch, the batter, the way, the series

• 45:46Chuck Nice?

  You're saying he's the smarter player, he has to be smarter.

• 45:48Gary O'Reilly?

  He will be moving.

• 45:49Chuck Nice?

  Or he just could be lucky and be on teams where there's a center fielder who's like, "I got it, I got it."

• 45:55Gary O'Reilly?

  It's not all about speed sometimes. The intelligence and experience of a player will make him naturally move before and position himself to compensate for the lack of speed, which is why the guy's been an all-star five out of 10 years that he's been in the major leagues. Doesn't have the foot speed, but he's got something going on upstairs. Now, that's another side of the coin you might or might not wish to consider.

• 46:19Chuck Nice?

  Well, for the purposes of this tweet, that guy doesn't exist.

• 46:22Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  I would say, I would say, um, there's no amount of intelligence that will compensate for not being fast.

• 46:32Gary O'Reilly?

  No, no, no, don't get me wrong.

• 46:34Chuck Nice?

  Oh my god, that is so funny.

• 46:36Gary O'Reilly?

  I'm not saying, guys, you wouldn't want a team full of Olympic sprinters that could do the job, but the guys don't all have the same foot speed, so the guys that can exist without the foot speed

• 46:46Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're saying they're compensating.

• 46:47Gary O'Reilly?

  They've got something else going up there. They know, they're reading, they are ahead of the place.

• 46:52Chuck Nice?

  Well, I gotta tell you something, what you just said about there's no amount of intelligence that can compensate, all right, just very quickly, I, a long time ago when I was in corporate America It's a head on speed thing, that's what I'm saying. We did this team building exercise where you go away for a weekend. You were once in corporate America. Yes, I was. Please, let's not go there. The record show. Let the record show. Anyway, part of the seminar, the guy, when it comes to putting together a team, he says, he says to everybody, so, when you're putting together a team, let's say we're putting together a football team, what would you want? Would you rather have a guy who is the fastest, the most incredible physical specimen ever? Or, but maybe he's not that bright? Or would you rather have a guy like Rudy? Remember the movie Rudy?

• 47:35Chuck Nice?

  A guy who will give it 150%, even though that's impossible, but he would do it every single time. He'll give you 150%. He's completely dedicated. Rudy the bench warmer guy who got to play. He's like, what guy would you want on your team? And so a bunch of people put up their hands and said, I want Rudy, because that guy's like, you know, he's got grit. He's got, and I went, give me the stupid, give me the stupid fast dude. And he said, absolutely, you want the stupid fast guy, because there's no accounting for that. You cannot make that up. Right.

• 48:06Gary O'Reilly?

  Yeah, I'm just gonna teach him to catch. You can do the rest.

• 48:09Chuck Nice?

  There you go.

• 48:10Gary O'Reilly?

  All right, so talking about super intelligence, we can only add to that sentence, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

• 48:16Chuck Nice?

  Neil, thanks, man. Thank you. So, should I tweet that, the outfielder thing? I like the outfielder thing. I like it. I, I.

• 48:22Gary O'Reilly?

  Somehow, I still don't feel I'm coming out well out of this. Right. On that point, let's say goodbye. Thank you once again for being our guests here on Playing with Science. I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 48:34Chuck Nice?

  And I'm Chuck Nice.

• 48:35Gary O'Reilly?

  We've had the pleasure of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, and we look forward to your company.

• 48:39Chuck Nice?

  And a pleasure to serve you. Thank you, sir.

• 48:41Gary O'Reilly?

  Thank you kindly. And more tweets, I'm sure, from Neil in the future. Stay tuned. We look forward to your company next time.