Comments on: TV Simplifies Hitting

By: Wayne Keen

Wayne Keen — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:56:21 +0000

In the early 1970′s, the New York Mets broadcasts used to heavily use the view from behind home plate. It was amazing
to view the curveballs of Koosman and Matlack from that angle. To me it gave a much better perspective on how hard
those pitches would bite and swerve.

You seldom get that perspective these days.

By: Dan Blewett

Dan Blewett — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:36:07 +0000

Thanks for the comment. That’s a good contribution. The one thing that the camera adds to the pitch, however, is lateral movement. I can almost never see my pitches run, and I know a lot of pitchers are the same way. But, if you watch Greg Maddux or Josh Beckett on TV, you can see their pitches run back across the plate dramatically. Out of the hand, thrown in the upper 80s or better, I think the pitcher’s eye doesn’t pick up the ball early enough to really capture the whole flight of the ball. I’ve thrown pitches that look dead straight that my catcher told me started on the white of the batters box and came back to the plate. It’s hard to gauge one’s own velocity as well – 86 looks almost exactly the same as 90 – again, due to the doppler effect you were talking about. The camera has a really unique effect.

By: Gstrat

Gstrat — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:59:03 +0000

OK, so this post is over a year old – I’m going to comment on it anyway !!

Something I learned in physics class about the doppler effect applies to how TV simplifies hitting. You know how a continuous loud noice from a moving source (say a jet or a railroad train) increases in pitch as the source travels toward you and then diminishes in pitch as the source travels away? Same thing occurs visually.

With the TV camera over the pitcher’s shoulder and thus the ball travelling AWAY from the camera’s viewpoint, the pitch will appear on TV to SLOW DOWN pretty dramatically, whereas that same ball from the hitter’s (and catcher’s and umpire’s) viewpoint, travelling TOWARD their viewpoint, will appear to them to SPEED UP.

So even a 100 mph fastball on TV will appear more and more fat and hitable, with less and less movement, as the ball approaches the batter because of the distortion from the doppler effect. As you wrote, only by stepping into the batter’s box yourself will you really appreciate how difficult it is to hit a good pitch.