This week, I read a peer-reviewed article called Corked bats, juiced balls, and

humidors: The physics of cheating in baseball, written by Alan M. Nathan, Lloyd V.

Smith, Warren L. Faber, and Daniel A. Russell. All of these men have a degree and work
for a university in either the Engineering or Physics department so their research will be
completely unbiased. In this blog, I would like to show the mathematics behind a corked
bat and determine, in the writers mind, whether a corked bat really makes a ballplayer
better.
In June 2003, Sammy Sosa was caught using a corked bat. A corked bat is a bat
that is hollowed out and replaced with a lighter material, usually cork, tennis balls or
another less-dense material, which causes a higher bat speed. According to the article,
the authors are conducting experiments at the Sports Science Laboratory at Washington
State University. During the experiments, the baseball is fired from an air cannon, to a
baseball bat that is allowed to pivot on impact (page 575). Page 576 describes the
procedures of the experiment. The first bat used was the control bat, which was a normal
bat. The second was the same bat, hollowed. The bat was then filled with cork. Each
time, the bat was hit 6, 6 and 12 times respectively, with the same ball at 110 mph.
At the end of the article, the authors conclude that the ball is not hit further using
a corked bat by calculating the COR, which is ratio of the speed of the ball off the bat
to the pitch speed (577). Now, the question is, if a corked bat does not cause the ball to
travel farther, why do baseball players use them and why is it illegal? The answer is that
since the bat is lighter, the hitter can swing faster with a higher acceleration. This will
help the batter by getting around quicker (577), which is baseball talk meaning the
batter can wait to swing longer and adjust to the pitch easier.
As a baseball player, I always thought that a corked bat was illegal because it
caused the ball to be hit further than a normal bat. This is not the case and this is new to
me. I know that shaving the inside of the barrel, which is also illegal, helps lighten the
barrel but I did not know that corking does the same thing. Since this is the reason for
why people use corked bats, I am glad that this is illegal because before I finished reading
this, I was confused as to why it was still illegal, but now I understand and hoping that
people that use corked bats, will be prosecuted.
Nathan, Alan M., Lloyd V. Smith, Warren L. Faber, and Daniel A. Russell. "Corked
Bats, Juiced Balls, and Humidors: The Physics of Cheating in Baseball." American
Journal of Physics 79.6 (2011): 575-77. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Mar.
2015.