#ICYMI - World Series Throwback Special

Just in time for the 2017 World Series, Gary and Chuck revisit iconic plays from the Fall Classic. Featuring physicist John Eric Goff, Houston Astros Announcer and 2005 World Series winner Geoff Blum, Lehman College Baseball Coach DJ Price and NY Yankees fan Neil deGrasse Tyson. Don’t miss an episode of Playing with Science. Subscribe to our channels on: TuneIn: tunein.com/playingwithscience Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/playing-with-science/id1198280360 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 NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free: https://www.startalkradio.net/all-access/world-series-throwback-special/?safari_redirect

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

• 0:09Speaker 00

  I'm Gary O'Reilly

• 0:10Speaker 01

  And I'm Chuck Nice

• 0:11Speaker 00

  And this is Playing with

• 0:14Speaker 01

  Science

• 0:15Speaker 00

  Today it's our World Series Throwback Special, where we will revisit some of the most iconic and everlasting plays of the fall classic. And who can resist a trip down memory lane with these guys? Absolutely not me.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  That's right, and break down the science inside these majestic moments is our good friend from Lynchburg College, Virginia, and the author of Gold Metal Physics, Professor Eric Goff. What's up, Professor? Oh, I'm sorry.

• 0:40Speaker 02

  Just getting ready for some good fall baseball.

• 0:43Speaker 01

  Sounds good, but that's not all. In part three, we have an extra special Playing with Science Q&A. Shall I spoil it, Gary?

• 0:50Speaker 00

  Spoiler away.

• 0:51Speaker 01

  Yes, with Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson and World Series-winning homerun-hitting Jeff Blum. They're going to answer some questions on the World Series, right here on Playing with Science.

• 1:02Speaker 00

  So that's on the menu for part three, so you are not going to want to miss that. And no cheating, go the distance.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Ha ha ha!

• 1:11Speaker 00

  And he will come.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Ha ha ha!

• 1:13Speaker 00

  Hee! Have fun doing that, that's good. Right, now, joining us is our good friend, physics professor Eric Goff. Eric, how are you, sir?

• 1:20Speaker 02

  Doing well, I'm really glad to be back.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're always glad to have you, you know?

• 1:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, you're our resident physics expert.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:29Speaker 00

  Absolutely, so shall we get to our first play?

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Let's take our little trip down memory lane, and of course, Dr Eric, we're going to ask you to break down the science and the physics of these plays, is that cool?

• 1:40Speaker 02

  That would be great.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  All right, let's first go way back in time with one of the greatest players of all time. It's the 1954 World Series. It's the eighth inning in game one, Giants versus the Indians. The score is 2-2, and the Indians have two on base. Indian slugger Vic Wertz is at the plate, and he smashes a ball deep to center field. And the rest is what they say the say-hay kid does best, catches the ball at the wall, and man, does he hurl one. Take a listen.

• 2:22Speaker 01

  Look at this.

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Catches the ball at the wall.

• 2:32Speaker 00

  That is unbelievable.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  God, he's like one of the best defensive players ever.

• 2:38Speaker 00

  Can you imagine Vic Wertz has hit it that far, he's thinking, I'm off.

• 2:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:41Speaker 00

  This is one, bases two, I'm around the bend.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  And by the way, that's a 425 foot shot, which in most, a lot of parks would have been a home run, right Eric?

• 2:50Speaker 02

  Well, you gotta think they're in the Polo Grounds and the Polo Grounds back then had a little wedge out in center field that actually went to 483 feet.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  Right, it was like, it was like a little cutout, right?

• 3:03Speaker 02

  That's right, but the, the ball that Mays caught was just before he got to that cutout and he had a nice shadow there beside of him that I'm sure kept the ball in the sun. So it was just outside the shadow and only, only four men have ever hit a ball out of that park in deep center. So, uh, I mean, you know, Wertz drove it about as far as you can. It would have been a home run in any other park.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 3:28Speaker 02

  So, yeah, I mean, the, the great thing is, is that the left-handed Don Little that was pitching was, uh, replacing Sal Magley, who was the starter. And then once, uh, Mays makes his great pitch, Little was replaced and the apocryphal comment that Little made was, well, I got my man.

• 3:48Speaker 01

  Man, so, uh, when you, when you look at, uh, something like that, first of all, uh, you know, from, from a science standpoint, a physics standpoint, what, what kinda has to happen for a ball to, to go, you said four men have launched the ball out of that park, period, at, at that deep center spot?

• 4:07Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 4:08Speaker 01

  All right. Wh- what has to happen? Have you made any calculations in terms of ball speed, bat speed? What, uh, what happens on a physics level for a ball to travel that far?

• 4:19Speaker 02

  Well, the ball's probably coming off the bat at something like 110 miles an hour.

• 4:23Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 4:24Speaker 02

  Um, it was in the air about five and a half seconds or so before Mays caught it. So this is a really, you know, deep shot, like you said, about 420, 25 feet. And Mays is playing in shallow center field at the time. And you got to remember that sound speed is about one millionth of light speed. So when Mays sees that ball get hit, there's going to be a slight delay before he hears the crack of the bat. So there's a great deal of instinct that's going on. When that ball is hit, he's just sprinting back toward the center field wall. And he catches it right over his left shoulder after running about half the, uh, the length of the outfield.

• 5:03Speaker 00

  So what sort of speed is Willie Mays going at once he starts to chase this down?

• 5:08Speaker 02

  Well, you got to think an elite sprinter is going to do 100 meters in about 10 seconds. So you're talking about 10 meters per second or about 22 miles an hour. So I, I would say, you know, Willie Mays like that early in his career, uh, young, very fit, athletic, he's probably getting, you know, 20 miles an hour, approaching that speed as he's running toward that ball.

• 5:28Speaker 00

  And how far has he got to throw back?

• 5:31Speaker 02

  Well, now he's sitting there at 420 feet and he's got to get the ball back in the infield and, and equally as impressive as the catch was the throw back.

• 5:40Speaker 00

  Yes, absolutely.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  When you watch him throw it, he throws the ball with his entire body. He hurls the ball so hard that he spins himself around and falls down and still throws the ball accurately. It's amazing.

• 5:53Speaker 00

  It's not just distance, it's accuracy and distance.

• 5:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:56Speaker 00

  It's just as, as good as the catch, the throw is possibly as good, if not better.

• 6:01Speaker 02

  That's right. You, you know, you got Larry Doby, the great Larry Doby was on second base. Uh, he had run almost to third. He had to go back to tag up and then he ended up getting back to third. But this, uh, the, the game would have gone a lot differently had that ball gone over his head. I mean, that might've even been an inside the park home run.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Right.

• 6:19Speaker 02

  He, he turns around and, and his hat had already come off and he turns around and, and just like a whirling dervish, just fires that ball back into the, uh, infield. So he's, you know, throwing that ball, you know, close to 300 feet or something in the air.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  That's amazing. That's amazing. And so, and we're looking at this, what would you say? Because this happened September 29th, 1954, Polo Grounds here in, uh, here in New York.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  What would you say would be the marked improvement in players between now and then? And then how much distance would you put between Willie Mays then and best players now?

• 7:01Speaker 02

  Oh, I think Willie Mays could play today. I mean, he was he was a gifted athlete. Uh, you know, he certainly had top notch speed that would rival to, you know, the top base dealers today. Um, but clearly players today are bigger, training regimens are better, uh, nutrition's better. They have a lot more coaches, uh, watching their health and their training. Their, uh, transportation's a lot, uh, nicer. They're getting paid a lot more.

• 7:28Speaker 00

  You didn't have to get the bus to the stadium.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  And a lot of these guys relied on that World Series, uh, paycheck for added income. I mean, that was a big deal to make it to the World Series back then.

• 7:39Speaker 00

  I mean, the impact of this was it Mays catch kept the game tied, allowing the Giants to win five two. And I'm, I'm reading this because I've got a favorite name in here, uh, to win the game five two in the 10th inning off of Dusty Rhodes pinch hit homerun. Dusty Rhodes, Dusty Rhodes, what a great name.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  And Dusty Rhodes had a great series with, uh, pinch hitting, but you, if you ever watched Dusty Rhodes's homerun to win that World Series, he gets that in the right field corner just into the stands at 258 feet.

• 8:11Speaker 01

  Oh, right.

• 8:12Speaker 02

  That, that a 258 foot hit wins the game for a homerun, but a 425.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. 425 feet. You, you get caught out where 258 you win the game. That's, uh, that's pretty incredible. Pretty incredible.

• 8:29Speaker 00

  There weren't any MVPs back then in 1954, were there?

• 8:33Speaker 02

  Oh, no, I don't think so.

• 8:35Speaker 00

  However, Major League Baseball have decided for 2017.

• 8:39Speaker 00

  The World Series MVP will now be called the Willie Mays World Series MVP. So, a man who wouldn't have got an MVP back for that particular feat.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  Gets one every single year.

• 8:51Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  Every single year from now on, he will get an MVP because his name is, uh, you can't separate him from being the MVP.

• 8:59Speaker 00

  We're doing a jump from 1954 to 1977. It's October 18th. Yes, and we are going to visit Mr. October. Can only mean one man, Reggie Jackson.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  Chuck, so here we go. It's game six, okay? He comes to the plate. He's walked for his first batter at plate. Then he hits a home run in the second bat. Then he hits another home run at his third at bat.

• 9:29Speaker 00

  He can't do it again, can he?

• 9:30Speaker 01

  No, he can't do it again. But wait, he does it again! That's right, his fourth, his fourth at bat. And, uh, this is guy, he is the only player to ever hit three home runs in the same, uh, game. Now, um, I'm sorry, he's not the only, he's the second, he's the second player. He's the only player of his time, of his era, but the only other player to do it was Babe, of course, Ruth. Uh, he wins the MVP and because of that, he is dubbed.

• 10:03Speaker 00

  Mr. October.

• 10:04Speaker 01

  Mr. October.

• 10:06Speaker 00

  Why not?

• 10:07Speaker 01

  So let's take a look and a listen to Reggie Jackson.

• 10:20Speaker 00

  Goodbye!

• 10:23Speaker 00

  I mean, the pitcher can't believe it. He cannot believe it. He's dialed up his number once again. Am I right there watching that? Reggie Jackson's done this wearing glasses. He's got reading glasses on.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  Unbelievable.

• 10:39Speaker 00

  That's, oh, listen to that noise.

• 10:44Speaker 01

  That's a line drive, so that's a line drive homerun.

• 10:49Speaker 00

  He was the second person to hit three homers in World Series games. There's been four guys who've done it, is it Puyol's and Sandoval? The other two are now in the same conversation as Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson. So it's not a regular occurrence.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  Well, you know, I'd say that during this time, this particular era, the reason why... Now, OK, so Eric, I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna pose this as a question to you. I was about to make a statement, but I'm gonna pose it as a question to you. Babe Ruth does it, but everybody says during that particular time, you know, the athleticism of baseball was nothing like it was when Reggie Jackson did it.

• 11:34Speaker 02

  Let's not forget Babe Ruth did it twice, 1926, 1928.

• 11:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, and he basically says, "I'm lucky." That was his answer for why he could do it, "I'm a lucky guy." But then Reggie Jackson does it in his era, and he's the second guy to do it up until that time. And people say, "Well, Babe Ruth doesn't count." It's much harder for Reggie Jackson to do it because those players were much better than in Babe Ruth's day. And then you got Albert Puls and, wait, who's the other?

• 12:08Speaker 00

  Sandoval.

• 12:08Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 12:09Speaker 00

  Pablo Sandoval.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  So then that happens and people say, "Well, it's even harder because the players are even better." What's your take on that argument? Because can you ever compare eras? Or is it always gonna be that argument that the players are bigger, faster, stronger, and therefore it's harder for the player who does it later in any era of any era? It's harder for that player?

• 12:38Speaker 02

  Well, you got to think the 70s and 80s, the pitching was a little bit more dominant. Once you got into the 90s and the aughts, of course, then the hitting really took off. So, you know, it wasn't that unusual for somebody to be hitting a home in the 30s in the home runs to lead the league. You know, this was, you know, Reggie Jackson could hit, you know, 44 home runs or something like that and lead the league. This was not a, you know, an era where you saw a lot of 50 home runs. I mean, Foster had 52 that year, but, you know, that was rare.

• 13:14Speaker 01

  So, do you think it's about basically the talent at the position? Or is it about the prowess of the athlete?

• 13:25Speaker 02

  So, I definitely think the, I mean, Reggie Jackson was a great athlete. I mean, you know, watching that home run in 71 All-Star game he hit in Tiger Stadium. I mean, that guy could absolutely just whale on a ball. But he also struck out a lot because when you watch his swing, it is a full, open up, I'm going to kill that ball or I'm going to, you know, go down swinging type of swing. I mean, he's almost down on his knee when he swings that bat.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Absolutely, yeah. And it's funny because I never think of Reggie Jackson as a great athlete because he always looked to me like somebody's dad playing baseball. I don't care, I don't care how young he was. He just looked like somebody's dad playing baseball. I don't know what it was. I'm sorry, that's just me.

• 14:10Speaker 02

  The beauty of what Jackson did, I mean, in game five that they, they lost, he had hit a solo home run in the eighth inning. And when he came out in the sixth game, he's walked on four straight pitches in his first at bat. And then his next three swings of the bat are from three straight first pitch home runs. So, he went four straight swings of the bat when he hit a home run.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  Oh my god, now see that, that's amazing.

• 14:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, see that, that's what makes this such a standout because you know, you talk about a guy gets a hot hand, just ridiculous.

• 14:47Speaker 02

  And that's four different pitchers.

• 14:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:49Speaker 02

  Four different pitchers too.

• 14:51Speaker 01

  Unbelievable. All right, well, listen, we gotta take a break and we're gonna come back with some more stuff, right?

• 14:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, right, from Mr. October, we throw straight to a break and when we come back, we'll unlock even more science behind a couple of the more iconic World Series moments with Professor Eric Goff. So stick around, we'll be back shortly.

• 15:13Speaker 00

  Welcome back, I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  And I'm Chuck Nice.

• 15:16Speaker 00

  This is Playing With Science, yes, this is our World Series Throwback Special Episode. And with us to unlock the physics is our good friend, Professor Eric Goff of Lynchburg College in Virginia. Um, right, let's waste no time, Chuck. What's our next clip?

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Here we go, let's, uh, let's, let's bump up to 1988, the World Series home run. It's game one of the series and on October 5th, 1988, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, we have Gibson's dramatic game-winning home run. So Gibson is pinch hitting for the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's the bottom of the ninth, okay? Already, I'm excited.

• 15:57Speaker 00

  You are.

• 15:58Speaker 01

  Bottom of the ninth. This guy is holding injuries to both of his legs. He hits a two-run walk-off home run and of course, the Athletics, Dennis Eckersley of the Athletics that won the game for the Dodgers by a score of five to four. So, uh, Gibson's home run was the only played appearance of the series that helped the Dodgers defeat the A's four games to one and of course, secure their sixth World Series title. And, uh, let's take a look at the clip.

• 16:51Speaker 01

  Tommy Lasorda runs out.

• 16:54Speaker 00

  He is running as fast as I could right now.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  He's running.

• 16:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, he's dragging his legs.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  He's damn near limping around the bases. Amazing. Amazing.

• 17:05Speaker 00

  You know what? When a teammate you you know is physically suffering goes out and says, you know what? I'm here. You want me? I'm playing. It doesn't matter what kind of pain I'm in. You kind of have to get a lift.

• 17:17Speaker 01

  Yeah. So now let me ask you something, Professor. Dennis Eckersley.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  Really a weird delivery on his pitch. I mean, what would you call that? Is that a sidearm pitch? It wasn't really sidearm. He just had a weird delivery and a very weird release point. Does that kind of help or hurt a hitter?

• 17:42Speaker 02

  So Eckersley started off his career as a starting pitcher. I mean, he had pitched a no hitter for the Indians. He was a, you know, not a star, but a decent starting pitcher. When he was moved into the bullpen by, you know, Tony Lasorda, I mean, sorry, Tony La Russa, he

• 18:00Speaker 02

  had this nice delivery for a reliever that doesn't require a whole lot of energy. I mean, he's going in a slightly sidearm way of throwing and his, you know, his go-to pitch was what's called a backdoor slider. And it was a 3-2 pitch and Gibson is supposedly thinking that a 3-2 pitch, 3-2 count, Eckersley's going to go to a backdoor slider. The problem is the slider was a little too much over the plate, didn't quite go in the back door, went more in the front door on that pitch.

• 18:31Speaker 01

  Didn't slide enough and didn't go in the back door.

• 18:33Speaker 00

  Went out the side door.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  When it left his bat, it did go out the side door.

• 18:37Speaker 00

  What fascinated me, that people, the good people of Los Angeles voted this their greatest sporting moment.

• 18:47Speaker 00

  They had the Olympics in 1984, yet this moment, this home run resonated so deeply with them. What was it for you?

• 18:56Speaker 02

  I, I think when you watch the ball go into the stands, notice the brake lights you see on the cars that outside the stadium. There were some people that left early.

• 19:08Speaker 02

  And when they're listening to it on the radio and all of a sudden you see those brake lights come on, you kind of wonder if they might have wanted to stay.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Wow. Oh, man, that's, that's, that's the

• 19:19Speaker 00

  That's why, that's why Eric's the professor, because he noticed the detail.

• 19:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Brake lights in the, and, but that says you're an awful fan. I'm sorry. I mean, no disrespect.

• 19:28Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 19:29Speaker 01

  No disrespect to anybody listening to us in LA, but, yeah, listen, I'm just speaking as an Eagles fan. You gotta learn how to love your team, uh, when they screw you over year after year after year. You don't leave the stadium, you know what I mean? Because that's your badge of honor. It's like, I'm sticking with these guys. I'm going down with the ship. And then you go home and you scream about how they suck. And that's about, that's, that's the whole process. That's the whole process that, that makes you feel better and, and, and, you know what? I'm, I'm about to cry. I'm sorry.

• 20:00Speaker 00

  Don't be sorry for him.

• 20:02Speaker 02

  There's some great science in that swing of Gibson's because, I mean, he had hurt his legs in the, the championship series against the Mets. And he's coming up to bat, the great Eckersley's on the mound. Uh, the A's had gotten four runs on one swing of the bat when Jose Canseco had hit a ball into the camera in center field. So they, that's where their four runs came from. I mean, they got this powerful, uh, ball club, the A's that had won 10 more games that year than the Dodgers. Then you get, uh, you got Gibson up there and, you know, his legs are bad, so he doesn't have that full extension whenever he's got the stride. He doesn't have that. But if you notice the swing, he still gets the hips rotating slightly and he gets the torso rotating.

• 20:45Speaker 02

  So all of that nice stored energy in his body and the core is unleashed when that, uh, backdoor slider hangs up in the strike zone.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Very cool, man. Yeah, I mean, uh, that it's gotta be, maybe that's why people love this moment so much is because to have injuries to both your legs and be able to ding a homer uh, in the World Series is amazing. But anyway, it's a great moment and I'm glad that we had a chance to take, take a look at that. Let's get to our throwback number four. Let's jump forward in time. A little bit more and we're going up to 1991 and this is the Twins uh, versus the Braves in the Fall Classic and we're talking a little Kirby Puckett. We're already in extra innings here, right? So I think it's like- Am I right? This is considered the greatest World Series of all time? A lot of people think the series itself, so uh, cause every game kinda went down to

• 21:39Speaker 01

  like the last at bat and it's like, it's just super, it was full of drama. This whole series was just full of drama. And here we are, game six, we're looking at uh, uh, 11 innings and the score is tied 3-3. Kirby Puckett, take a look.

• 21:54Speaker 03

  Into the left-hander, delivers. Puckett swings and hits a blast, deep left-center, way back, way back. The Twins go to the seventh game. Touch 'em all, Kirby Puckett.

• 22:07Speaker 01

  Touch 'em all.

• 22:10Speaker 03

  And the Twins have won this game, four to three. A dramatic homerun by Kirby Puckett. He's just now getting to the plate and he touched it amidst all his teammates and the Twins win the game.

• 22:26Speaker 01

  Amazing. Eric, here's the thing about that, it kinda looks like he goes down and stretches out to grab that ball. Did, did, am I wrong?

• 22:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, when you think about the ball interacting with the bat, it turns out that the pitch speed is only about one-sixth the contribution to the homerun as the bat speed.

• 22:49Speaker 01

  Cool.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  The bat speed is much more important. So when Reggie Jackson hits one off of a knuckleball or you got Kirby Puckett hitting Charlie Liebrand, who certainly wasn't a, a speedball thrower. I mean, the bat speed is important. So you've got a, you know, a little powder keg like Kirby, Kirby Puckett up there who just explodes onto that pitch. And you'll notice the leg will come up a little bit. You get all this, you know, strength uh, in the thighs and in the core that's gonna rotate on that pitch and it doesn't take long for it to leave the, the, the field.

• 23:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, and Kirby Puckett, for those of you who remember, the guy was built like a fireplug, you know, seriously, he was like just this little, it was like a little box of power, you know, that's the way he was built. And what kind of, what does that stature do for a hitter? When you have a guy like Puckett who's built the way he is, you know, he was, he looked like he was almost as wide as he was tall.

• 23:49Speaker 00

  We've got the big power hitters, we're used to seeing those, and you've got this little compact bundle of energy. I mean, there must be some sort of difference in dynamic, Professor.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  And so, does it, is it easier or better to be taller? And, and, and does that stretch the strike zone? Or is it easier and better to be like Kirby Puckett, where you're just like this, like I said, a fireplug?

• 24:12Speaker 02

  So, I mean, a typical bat's gonna be 31 to 35 ounces, and a, you know, a big, huge, you know, Dave Winfield, or a Jose Canseco, or some of these bigger players, they're gonna use a heavier bat, you know, Babe Ruth used a heavy bat. And these things have, you know, big moments of inertia, you get a lot of energy transfer when you swing that heavy bat, but you don't have quite as much control. So you get a diminutive player like Kirby Puckett, and, and, you know, like I said, he's like a little powder keg, and you got these big thighs, you got, you know, a strong core, and he gets a lot of bat speed on a short swing. It's not a huge, big looping swing like you saw from Reggie Jackson.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  Right, not, not a long wind-up, he just kinda, it's almost like it's a snap.

• 25:01Speaker 02

  Just a compact swing, that's right.

• 25:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I wanna ask you this, Professor, because you're such a fan of this game, when you look at the hitters of today, and let's, let's just go back to maybe like the aughts, so we'll start around the 2000s, okay? Who do you say?

• 25:24Speaker 01

  Who would you say has the best swing and would be considered the best hitter of this current era?

• 25:30Speaker 02

  Well, if you're talking about the aughts, I mean, I'd have to go with Albert Pujols. He dominated the aughts like I don't think anyone else did. I mean, he had an incredibly powerful, compact swing. He hit for high average certainly early in his career. He was probably the best of that decade.

• 25:51Speaker 00

  Yeah. You call them the aughts. Yes. See, at home in the UK, the noughties. The noughts. The noughties. The noughties. The noughties, yes. Sorry, I'm learning another language. I'll catch up soon enough.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  Well, the noughties is what people in the aughts were putting in their body to help them hit some of those things.

• 26:08Speaker 01

  Ah, Professor, you are sharp. That was good stuff right there. I'm gonna take it. Well, listen, man, and so now I'll give you that same question for right now because we're not through this decade yet. We're seven years through this decade. What do you think right now? Who do you see kind of dominating this particular era and generation?

• 26:29Speaker 02

  I like to watch Bryce Harper hit.

• 26:32Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 26:33Speaker 02

  I mean, that guy's got, I mean, when he really is up there with his, you know, his teeth grit and he's got the determined look on his face, he really knows how to punish a baseball.

• 26:42Speaker 01

  Nice. Very nice. Very nice. Man, this is good stuff.

• 26:46Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 26:47Speaker 01

  This is good stuff. I wish we could do, it's great to take a little look back at the World Series, to break down some of the science and the physics involved in some of these great plays and, you know.

• 26:56Speaker 00

  I'm glad we got the chance to share it with you because your love of the game, the Costner reference there for baseball.

• 27:04Speaker 01

  I saw what you did there.

• 27:06Speaker 00

  Thank you very much.

• 27:07Speaker 01

  I saw what you did there.

• 27:08Speaker 00

  So it's great to get a feel, because especially for me, baseball is something I'm getting to grips with and learning more about every day. So thank you.

• 27:18Speaker 02

  Well, thank you for cricket so we could make baseball.

• 27:21Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 27:22Speaker 00

  I think you may have improved it, but don't tell anyone in the UK I said that. Oh, too late. Right, we're gonna take a break. Up next, a special treat on Playing with Science. Yes, we have a World Series winning, home run hitting Jeff Blum. And that man, yes, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Stick around.

• 27:44Speaker 00

  Welcome back, I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 27:45Speaker 01

  And I'm Chuck Nice.

• 27:46Speaker 00

  And this is Playing with Science. And this is our World Series throwback special. And for our final segment, we've got something special just for you. Yep, Facebook Live with Yankee fan Neil deGrasse Tyson and Houston Astros announcer and former player Jeff Blum.

• 28:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, and for those of you who don't know, Jeff hit the homer in the 2005 World Series while playing for the White Sox against the Houston Astros. And he is now...

• 28:11Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 28:12Speaker 01

  ...the announcer for the Houston Astros. And Neil deGrasse Tyson, of course, being a Bronx-born, huge Yankees fan. So, we recorded this segment on Friday, October 13th, just hours before the Yankees actually played the Astros in the playoffs, so...

• 28:30Speaker 00

  Enjoy!

• 28:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Enjoy!

• 28:32Speaker 00

  Hey, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Yankees fan. Jeff Blum, Astros announcer. Game on!

• 28:41Speaker 01

  Game on!

• 28:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 28:43Speaker 01

  Game on! And this is Gary O'Reilly. And I'm Chuck Nice. And this is Facebook Live. Thanks for joining us. And the reason why Gary pointed that out is because we're here in studio talking about baseball, man!

• 28:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Baseball, and I brought my trainer with me, DJ Price.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  This is DJ Price.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  Hey DJ, welcome!

• 28:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He coaches college baseball here in town. And I said, "Well, come on by, because I know he's going to have some opinions."

• 29:04Speaker 00

  Jeff, welcome to Playing with Science. You're outnumbered, dude. You are seriously outnumbered.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  I'll tell you this much, if those of you who are tuning in right now via Facebook Live, you can ask us anything you want. If you want to ask Jeff Blum something about the Astros, if you want to ask Neil something about baseball and the universe, if you want to ask DJ something about baseball and training, we got it all here. If you want to ask me something about, I don't know...

• 29:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Joke!

• 29:33Speaker 01

  ...my general life.

• 29:34Speaker 05

  I need a joke, right here.

• 29:35Speaker 01

  Maybe you need, or if you want to ask Gary something about

• 29:38Speaker 00

  Anything you like.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  How soccer and baseball, um, actually, um, uh, compare and contrast. You can do that and I'll be taking your questions as we go through. So somebody already said, Neil, I love your shirt. Um, and, uh, uh, clearly you are a Yankees fan because you are from?

• 29:54Speaker 05

  Born and raised in the Bronx, Bronx in the house.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  Right on, right on.

• 29:59Speaker 05

  Uh, he lives in the Bronx too, so.

• 30:01Speaker 01

  And Jeff and DJ is wearing an Eagles hat. Let me just point this out. Anybody who's a science fan knows that, uh, I am a huge Eagles fan. So thank you, DJ.

• 30:11Speaker 00

  All right, Jeff, who's gonna win Astros Yankees?

• 30:14Speaker 05

  The game or the series?

• 30:15Speaker 00

  All of the above. All of them.

• 30:17Speaker 01

  It's tonight game one? Tonight game one is game one, right?

• 30:20Speaker 05

  I can't give it away, yeah.

• 30:22Speaker 01

  Tonight is game one. Jeff, are you, uh, you on, you're on tonight announcing tonight's game, correct?

• 30:26Speaker 05

  No, you know what? I'm done. Regional sports, uh, TV broadcasters are done. They go regional. I'm a fan tonight.

• 30:32Speaker 01

  Oh, good for you. You get to watch the game.

• 30:34Speaker 00

  Why the Astros and not the Yankees for you?

• 30:36Speaker 05

  Um, Dallas Keuchel pitches very good at Minute Maid Park and the Astros offense. Uh, so they're setting records with their OPS that I know Neil loves in the playoffs over nine hundred.

• 30:48Speaker 01

  The add and percentages.

• 30:50Speaker 00

  Pushes buttons.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  Add percents.

• 30:52Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:53Speaker 00

  He's messing with your mind.

• 30:54Speaker 01

  If I'm eighty percent good and you're eighty percent good, we're not together a hundred and sixty percent good. That's not how you do numbers, but go on. Go, go, Jeff, yes.

• 31:03Speaker 05

  No, the Astros are good. They're young, swinging the bats good, and they put a hurting on Tanaka in two thousand fifteen, last time they faced off in the playoffs.

• 31:10Speaker 01

  You got memories there, okay?

• 31:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 31:12Speaker 01

  All right, let's get to a question real quick. Um, Jeff Kohler, another Jeff, says, what would happen if you switched a baseball to a cricket ball?

• 31:20Speaker 05

  Ooh, oh.

• 31:21Speaker 01

  How would the game, how would that change the game?

• 31:23Speaker 05

  Is a cricket ball like wood?

• 31:24Speaker 00

  No, no, no, it's, it's the same thing. It's lar- slightly larger because it's got the raised, got raid stitches and slightly larger and red.

• 31:31Speaker 05

  I'm thinking of the wicket ball or whatever.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  So Jeff, it only has one seam.

• 31:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's only has one seam, so it reacts differently when they spin it and stuff like that. The baseball moves a little bit differently, but I think you're right as far as size and weight. And so it's leather covering wood, right?

• 31:45Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm, right. So Neil, would that speed up or slow down the game?

• 31:49Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Uh, if the ball is heavier, stuff is gonna go slower.

• 31:52Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 31:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, I mean, it's, I mean, look at the speed of a golf ball that gets hit and how far it goes. I mean, yeah, plus, you want it to be dense enough so that it can actually win against the air, right? So, so you can, you could, you know, ball up a sheet of paper, throw it as hard as you want. It's not gonna go more than 10 feet. So, the combination of size and weight and density especially, uh, matters here.

• 32:16Speaker 00

  All right. Any more questions?

• 32:18Speaker 01

  Very cool, very cool.

• 32:19Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And who pitches faster? Is it the bo- the bowler, you know, uh, in cricket, or is it the?

• 32:24Speaker 00

  I think the pitcher, the baseball pitcher.

• 32:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Pitcher.

• 32:27Speaker 00

  Cause I mean, a Rogers Chapman's gonna dial up.

• 32:29Speaker 05

  I would say you've got a Rogers Chapman there. He pitches 105 miles an hour. That's incredible.

• 32:33Speaker 00

  He's dialing up three digits, I think.

• 32:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, these guys who do that, how fast do their balls go?

• 32:36Speaker 00

  Don't forget, it's gonna hit, it's gonna hit the, it's gonna hit the ground and bounce.

• 32:39Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah.

• 32:40Speaker 00

  So, they're gonna be not far, yeah, off the pitch. They're not gonna be far behind, but, uh.

• 32:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  All right.

• 32:44Speaker 00

  They're not quite there.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Okay, if you threw a, a baseball through a wormhole.

• 32:48Speaker 00

  Oh, there's always a wormhole.

• 32:49Speaker 05

  There it is.

• 32:50Speaker 00

  There's always a wormhole.

• 32:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  There's a wormhole. Them darn wormholes.

• 32:55Speaker 00

  It's like that pigeon.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  Actually, I, actually, I just made that up, but I know, I know our, I know our listeners. I know how they are.

• 33:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But I have an answer. You could, you can play baseball across the universe through a wormhole. I mean, just think about that. You throw through the wormhole and somebody's waiting on the other side of that hole. And then out comes the ball and then you swing and it.

• 33:14Speaker 01

  And go back and you hit it back through the wormhole.

• 33:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Universe baseball game, that'd be cool.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  Trans-universal baseball. I, I love it. All right, let me find another question very quickly.

• 33:24Speaker 00

  We've invented.

• 33:25Speaker 01

  Uh, can Aaron Judge strike out enough times to cause a black hole in the Yankee's? Son of a.

• 33:32Speaker 05

  There's a black hole in the swing.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  Dare you.

• 33:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  DJ, why is he striking out? What's he doing wrong here?

• 33:39Speaker 06

  I, I mean, he's, he's, he's, he's definitely getting a lot more breaking pitches. I mean, you can tell, tell that he's, uh, he's not going the other way with it. He's trying to pull, he's pulling his left side out, I think, a little bit and, uh, oh, sorry. And, uh, he's not, he's not waiting. He's just not getting the recognition that he needs and he's.

• 33:53Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You're saying he's not as good on the slower pitches, is your, what you're saying?

• 33:55Speaker 06

  Well, I mean, it's easy to hit a fastball, um, within reason. I mean, the, the. Lower pitches are gonna move, they're gonna, they're gonna change planes, so it is definitely something you have to put into perspective and try to go the other way with and he just, in the beginning of the season, he was hitting the ball to the right side a lot more. Yeah. And now he's, you know, he's getting left field happy, center field happy.

• 34:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You agree with that, Jeff?

• 34:13Speaker 05

  No, a lot of it is approach, but you also gotta add in the pressure of the postseason, so when...

• 34:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  A first timer, a first timer.

• 34:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, when the pitch slows down, the game speeds up, and that's not a good combination for the hitter, cuz like he's saying, you start to try and go get the baseball, the baseball's moving, your head starts to move, that means two things are moving, and that makes the game real tough, so he's in a bad place right now.

• 34:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Mm-hmm.

• 34:35Speaker 01

  Oh, they're throwing him a prick tonight.

• 34:36Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Let me jump in there, cuz I know Jeff has to go, Lisa Fraser wants to go, there's Jeff, last one for you. Do you think players that have a better understanding of physics have a better advantage in the game and therefore better performance? Do you think that, Jeff?

• 34:48Speaker 01

  That's a great question.

• 34:49Speaker 05

  Um, I think, I think it's important for these guys to understand that these days, cuz we talked about pitchers pitching on a different plane, but it's the application that worries me a little bit. Sometimes guys let their head get in the way of the game a little bit too much, and then things get a little screwy, so if the guy can understand it and apply it, that guy's gonna have a way better chance, I think, yeah.

• 35:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Interesting.

• 35:07Speaker 01

  Nice answer.

• 35:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Very cool.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Jeff, I know you gotta go, man, thanks so much for joining us, cuz you have to get to, uh, get to another interview right now. He's a wanted man. He's a wanted man.

• 35:17Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Dude, I love the space shuttle up on the shirt.

• 35:20Speaker 05

  No, I love talking with you guys, this is great stuff.

• 35:22Speaker 01

  It's a pleasure, as always.

• 35:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  On your, on your Astros shirt, and that's...

• 35:25Speaker 01

  Take you up on that.

• 35:26Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And that's in Memorial to, um, would've been, was that in your 03 jersey, is that right?

• 35:32Speaker 05

  Yes, you're exactly right.

• 35:33Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So that would've been the Columbia disaster in Memorial, cuz of course, the manned space program is based in Houston.

• 35:39Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 35:40Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  Hey Jeff, thanks a lot, man.

• 35:42Speaker 05

  Thank you, Jeff.

• 35:43Speaker 01

  What an honor. You too. And for those of you who are with us via Facebook Live, we're gonna continue with Neil and DJ, and I have a question now, uh, who says, uh, Neil, can't wait to see you in Richmond, did the Yankees use physics when designing the new stadium? Uh, this, that's the only reason I can think of to make it so easy for them to hit homers. Now, first of all, you... You're kind of secretly hatin' on the Yankees. I don't appreciate it.

• 36:14Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Is it a hate innuendo?

• 36:15Speaker 01

  A hate innuendo is there, but it's a very good question in that um how does uh an actual design and construction of a stadium assist in the statistical performance of a player?

• 36:30Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, so, consider that if the air circulation in a stadium, if you have prevailing winds, and you know that they're one way more often than another in the evening, and you want to exploit this for the stadium, you could, and your stadium is like U-shaped, you know, horseshoe-shaped, you can imagine orienting it so that the the air circulates and then comes back out and helps the pitch and helps the the hit ball. The thing is, it's not going to help one team and not the other team. Okay, so, so you you can't claim that this is specifically a Yankee advantage in a game the Yankees are playing against another team. What the Yankees did do in the original

• 37:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  stadium was the Yankees had the farthest point in any field in the major leagues at 464 something feet. It was so far out, the ball would never be hit there, and there was monuments out there, and there's a flagpole. There was stuff out there in the field. Hey, there's extra space. Put some stuff there.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  We're never, we know we're never going there.

• 37:31Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, so now watch. And and that it was left center field. The right field fence was 296 feet. It was the shortest point of any field. So you could hit a homerun, not even hitting it 300 feet. Why? Because the Yankees' power were left-handers.

• 37:49Speaker 01

  Right, so they pulled that way.

• 37:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  In the 1920s, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and so you could, they could just loft homeruns just at any, on a whim. So yes, in that case, they had a stadium designed for their batters. All right? And that way, and so, if you want to talk about homerun asterisks, you can say, oh, you hit most of your homeruns on the short, over the short post.

• 38:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay?

• 38:13Speaker 00

  Home is, your homers are at home rather than on the road.

• 38:16Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, at least half will be, right, right, okay? And that would be more than half.

• 38:19Speaker 00

  This is where we play more games than not, why not build our own advantage in?

• 38:24Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, and in fact, if I always hit to exact right center, then bring that part in, in a promontory.

• 38:30Speaker 00

  I'll even pay for it.

• 38:32Speaker 06

  It's interesting because City Field originally was built for-

• 38:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  City Field for the Mets.

• 38:36Speaker 06

  Yeah, originally built for pitchers, but opposing teams were hitting so well there. They were like, well, how do we get our team to do as well? And they started bringing the fences in. And then opposing teams are still hitting well there, and then the Mets started to come around. But even when you try to build a stadium to match your team, because that's where trying to match your team for pitching, sometimes it doesn't work in your favor.

• 38:55Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  And another way you design a stadium for the pitcher, not the hitters, have very wide foul zones.

• 39:00Speaker 01

  Right.

• 39:01Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So-

• 39:02Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 39:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You can catch a foul ball.

• 39:06Speaker 01

  Right. It's easier to catch foul ball.

• 39:08Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, right.

• 39:08Speaker 01

  Okay, so now, DJ, I got one from you, and this is, um, uh, this is from Soren Holland, who says this, "Hey, how you gonna wear a Brooklyn shirt and an Eagles hat? What's up with that?"

• 39:24Speaker 06

  I mean, I like all sports, I'm a big fan of everything, you know, the Eagles are just a family thing. And then, you know, you can't go wrong with Mike Tyson, I mean, come on.

• 39:33Speaker 01

  You're absolutely right. I just have to, I have to tell you, DJ, that when I saw your shirt, I said to myself, okay, this guy, his ears look delicious, and I'm thinking about that, I might just take a little taste of him.

• 39:48Speaker 06

  You know, I mean, if I would have planned better, if I would have known I was gonna be coming on, I would have definitely worn a Mets gear.

• 39:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, I just yanked him out of the street here. So when you coach at Lehman College, are you mostly a strength coach, a batting?

• 39:59Speaker 06

  I do some, I do most of the speed and strength stuff, I'm the third base coach, and I work with the outfielders and defense mainly, so-

• 40:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Okay, alright, cool.

• 40:07Speaker 00

  Okay, I have a question for you. The Astros have a diminutive hitter.

• 40:11Speaker 06

  Altuve.

• 40:12Speaker 00

  Altuve. What is going on there? Because normally it's the big power, you know, the guy with the guns, just comes out, goes ding. This is a little guy that's-

• 40:19Speaker 06

  It's amazing, he's an amazing talent, and it's funny because he was told at one point that, you know, "We don't need you," like when he originally got signed by the Astros, they told him to go home. And he got on a bus, and he's like, "You know what, I'm not doing this," and he came back for the next day, and they're like, "Well, we cut you," and he's like, "No, no."

• 40:40Speaker 01

  And I am telling you, I'm not going.

• 40:44Speaker 06

  I'm staying here, but he's got a-

• 40:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  It's never good when they put you on a bus.

• 40:47Speaker 01

  No, it isn't.

• 40:48Speaker 06

  Yeah, but they have, I mean, well, this is another

• 40:50Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  You land on a bus.

• 40:51Speaker 06

  Another country, too.

• 40:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 40:53Speaker 06

  So, uh, but yeah, so, I mean, he stuck around and they, they kept him. And, um, you know, so now he's, he's MVP talent, but

• 41:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 41:00Speaker 06

  He has an unbelievable knack for making quality contact. His bat is always where the ball is. We were talking about Gardner before.

• 41:06Speaker 00

  So why, why is it now a little guy can do that? Whereas before little guys weren't.

• 41:09Speaker 01

  Bat speed.

• 41:10Speaker 06

  It's bat speed.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  It's all about bat speed.

• 41:12Speaker 06

  Because you gotta think about it. It's a bat path. So his hands get through the zone very quickly. And, you know, let's say he's, you know, he's using a 32 inch bat, which is probably going to be about 29, 30 ounces, give or take. I mean, he uses a tool that matches his size. And now all he has to do is make good contact with the ball that's coming 95 miles per hour. You're going to send that ball someplace.

• 41:32Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But is, is his strike zone smaller? They have to shrink down the strike zone?

• 41:36Speaker 06

  Oh, definitely. I mean, his, his, his strike zone, the, the natural strike zone is going to be between knees and the, the letters, basically. So, you know, he's, he gets down nice and low. He's going to get a lot more pitches to hit because.

• 41:47Speaker 00

  So we were talking about Aaron Judge being thrown kryptonite.

• 41:49Speaker 06

  Yeah, he's six.

• 41:50Speaker 00

  What's his, what's his?

• 41:51Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  He, I, I looked it up. He's 6'8", 284 pounds.

• 41:56Speaker 00

  Total opposite.

• 41:57Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, but he's kind of proportioned. So he walks around and he looks normal and then he stands next to someone else. I said, whoa.

• 42:03Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 42:03Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Like what, what, Jolly Green Giant just walked in.

• 42:06Speaker 06

  He's next to guys in the, in the dugout and they're, he just towers over them.

• 42:09Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, you just see a head moving across.

• 42:10Speaker 06

  Interestingly enough, I'm watching the game, he crouches down. He actually does bend his knees if you watch him. He's not trying to, he, he doesn't let them exploit his size. He actually gets down a little bit.

• 42:21Speaker 01

  All right, let me get to one more question because we're, we're running out of time here.

• 42:23Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Running low, okay.

• 42:24Speaker 01

  All right, we're running low on time here. Neil, Neil, this is from Valerie Williams. Hey Neil, uh, if you were to throw a wiffle ball on Mars, how much different would the throw be compared to a regular baseball on Mars with Mars's gravity and atmosphere? It's a very good question.

• 42:38Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  What's good about that question is, of course, a wiffle ball, it could leave your hand at 100 miles an hour.

• 42:42Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 42:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  But it gets to the batter going, nothing.

• 42:44Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 42:45Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Because it is totally absorbing the air.

• 42:47Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 42:48Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The air resistance is, is all about that. Um, and so on Mars, the air pressure is 1/100th? Of what it is here?

• 42:55Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 42:56Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, yeah, you're not, yeah, there's hardly any air.

• 42:59Speaker 01

  There's no pressure at all.

• 43:00Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So you can take a wiffle ball, throw it 100 miles an hour and get hurt by it.

• 43:04Speaker 01

  So the thin, thin, so the thin, thin atmosphere allows that wiffle ball with all those holes in it.

• 43:12Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Here's how to think about it.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  Go ahead.

• 43:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  The wiffle ball will behave in a thin atmosphere the way a heavier ball would in a heavier atmosphere.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  Gotcha.

• 43:18Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right.

• 43:19Speaker 01

  So the thin atmosphere makes a wiffle ball heavier.

• 43:21Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Well, no, it makes it, it will slow down as much.

• 43:24Speaker 01

  Right, won't slow down.

• 43:25Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Right, and with a lower gravity, you know, oh, I want to make sure we get this in. Um, I calculated and tweeted long ago, there is a slowest possible pitch.

• 43:34Speaker 01

  Where? Here on Earth?

• 43:35Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes.

• 43:36Speaker 01

  Yes, okay.

• 43:37Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sorry, sorry, yeah, on Earth.

• 43:38Speaker 01

  Listen, I'm considering who I'm talking to. I'm just considering my source.

• 43:44Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yes, yes. So if you calculate it, so the, anything slower than this is going to bounce before it hits the catcher.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 43:52Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So 25 miles an hour at 45 degree angle.

• 43:57Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 43:58Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  That is the slowest possible pitch.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  Slowest possible pitch to make it over the plate.

• 44:02Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Make it to, from the pitcher to the catcher, 60 feet, 6 inches.

• 44:06Speaker 01

  Right.

• 44:06Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Anything slower than that, at any other angle, is not going to make it.

• 44:11Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 44:12Speaker 00

  It's just going to tail off.

• 44:13Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, it'll tail off, that's right.

• 44:14Speaker 01

  That's super cool.

• 44:15Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  So, so on a different planet, it will be airborne. Although there's, we brought up the tweet. Baseball, oh, I said 30 miles an hour. And I'm thinking, oh, my tweet from five years ago says 30 miles an hour. Uh-oh, I'm going to go check.

• 44:28Speaker 01

  Now you got to redo all your calculations. You got to do all your calculations. It's either 25 or 30.

• 44:34Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Yeah, but that's.

• 44:34Speaker 01

  Either way, it's how fast I'm throwing a ball.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  All right, listen, we are out of time.

• 44:42Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 44:43Speaker 01

  So, uh, make sure that you check out, uh, Gary and Chuck Nice on Playing with Science. Um, and, uh, you can find everything that we do on StarTalkAllAccess.com. No matter what it is, if it's StarTalk, it lives there, plus things you can't find anyplace else. So make sure you check out StarTalkAllAccess.com. Neil, thank you.

• 45:04Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Sure, and DJ, thanks for coming in.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:06Speaker 00

  It's been a pleasure.

• 45:07Neil deGrasse Tyson?

  Some baseball expertise.

• 45:08Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 45:09Speaker 00

  I'm Gary O'Reilly.

• 45:10Speaker 01

  I'm Chuck Nice.

• 45:11Speaker 00

  Catch you next time.