Carnivores rule.
Note to plaintiff’s attorneys: Killing baseball probably isn’t going to help your public image problem.
Speaking of crazy lawsuits, I don’t think any amount of money could have compensated this guy for the humiliation he had to endure in court as part of his own lawsuit. And he lost. Obviously the result of poor briefing. (Sorry.)
XKCD commemorates the demise of GeoCities.
Stimulus money has been going to companies already under investigation for defrauding the federal government.
U.N. investigating whether NYC’s high rents are a human rights violation. Seriously.
Man mistakenly ends up on state sex offender list.
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on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 11:00 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
Right. Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, Chad, Cuba, North Korea … no human rights problems. The New York City housing market is expensive? UN to the rescue! (Hey, myabe rent control would solve the problem; ha ha ha)
*maybe* rent control. Fraking typos
Yeah, because paying too much for an apartment is equivalent to having your entire extended family tortured, raped and killed by militia.
Stimulus money has been going to companies already under investigation for defrauding the federal government.
There is the root of the problem. Rather than awarding contracts on a value provided basis, we tilt the playing field in favor of transexual, handicapped Aleuts, give them preferences (that is, they get payed more for delivering the same goddamed product) and act surprised that people would actually lie about their transexual, handicapped Aleut status.
Who could have possibly foreseen that?
Re: The Baseball Lawsuit
I noted a lot of the comments over there dwelt on whether there was any actual liability for the manufacturer – Louisville Slugger – for the poor kid’s death.
While I don’t think the manufacturer should be held liable for a normal risk of a sport, the question is moot. It really depends on the jury and if they decide based on their sympathy for the pilight of the victim (or in this case, the victim’s family) or on the strict facts of the matter. I have no idea what the jury selection rules are in Montana, but I’ll bet that the plaintiff’s lawyer has tried as hard as possible to load the jury with the most fluffy touchy feelly types he could out of the jury pool and strictly exclude anyone who might tend to think in terms of facts.
Note to plaintiff’s attorneys: Killing baseball probably isn’t going to help your public image problem.
Wait until these bloodsuckers discover boxing. I’ve a theory that boxing gloves do not eliminate the brain damage caused by getting punched in the head repeatedly.
The research I’ve seen on aluminum vs. ash bats indicates that the sweet spot is larger for aluminum bats* but velocity of the batted ball struck within the sweet spot is the same. IOW, more high velocity batted balls but not batted balls at a higher velocity.
* I know. Only a hopeless baseball geek would know this crap off the top of his head and link to it in a political website.
Of course the U.N. taking up all that prime land for free has no effect.
J sub D @ 11:23
I suggest you watch out for cross dressing Aleuts in wheelchairs.
The UN is welcome to move someplace with low rent.
Like Mogadishu, Bagdad or Detroit.
Actually, rent control both the cause of the problem of high rents in NYC and a human rights issue.
The long-term effect of rent control is to discourage the building of new apartments that could conceivably fall under rent control laws: in other words, apartments for lower and middle class renters. Even if new buildings are exempt, what’s to stop them from coming under rent control in the future, given the political climate? The result is it only pays to build and own upscale apartments, since these do not risk falling under rent control.
People should be free to rent apartments at a market rate, and in a free market, temporary shortages and the high prices that result from them encourage more supply to be brought to market. Freedom is a human rights issue; though, sadly, economic freedom is the last thing the U.N. (and most governments) are concerned with.
#10, I agree, rent control is a disaster. I was trying to sarcastically propose the standard government solution – “it hasn’t worked before, so lets try it again on a larger scale”.
Absurd. Housing is not a “human right” because it cannot be a human right to compel other people to give things to you under threat of state violence. It IS a human right, however, to be free of unjustifiable coercion – including the government telling you at what price and under what conditions to rent out your property to others.
There’s a good CATO article on the unintended consequences of rent control: http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-274.html
At least one commenter on the site gets it:
“I must have missed the provision whereby everyone has a fundamental right to live in New York City.”
[...] Radley’s Morning Links – “Killing Baseball”) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Paddling [...]
Theoretically speaking, I don’t see any circumstances where the bat manufacturer could be held liable for thier purposeful design. Hypothetically I could design a bat that results in a ball that travels 400 mi/hr. It’s still just a tool though. Now if somebody’s little league association decided to approve that bat they might have a potential lawsuit on thier hands.
Not to be all conspiratorial, but — per Mario’s comment — could this explain why rent control was not abandoned long ago, i.e., it encourages the development of luxury properties, which can be taxed at a higher rate?
getting rid of gapping underwear flys and aluminum bats from baseball would both be good services to society. The fact that either thing has continued to exist makes me question whether markets in America are truly free. Go plaintiffs attys in both cases! Your causes are just.
[...] Via Radley again. [...]
Wood bats should be the standard at every level from Little League up.
The whole metal thing was a mistake to begin with — they might as well have started using fake grass, or let a steroids junkie hit for the pitcher, or…. oh wait…..
Seriously though, wood bats make for real baseball.
As an avid beer league softball player, strict regulations are imposed on bats. They have to meet certain ASTM standards regarding performance. There is also BPF (Bat Performance Factor), which is simply the increase in the liveliness of a ball hitting a bat compared to throwing a ball against a solid wall (i.e., 20% faster rebound = a BPF of 1.20).
NCAA rules for baseball state that the ball cannot have an exit speed from the barrell of more than 97 mph.
So, its not like you get bats in official play that eject balls at 100 mph plus, in theory.
Possibly, but that would require quite a lot of forethought, planning, and delayed payoffs.
My guess is that it sticks around so persistently because it’s an intuitive, obvious solution to an apparently simple problem that works short-term, but makes the problem worse long term. Those sorts of “solutions” tend to suffer from a positive feedback loop whereby it gets done once, the problem gets better, and then when the problem returns twofold, they apply the solution again, twofold, because it worked the first time, right?
The war on drug users is an example. The sex offender hysteria is another. Printing money to get out of a depression is another.
BTW, Bud Selig doesn’t need any help killing off baseball. He’s doing a fine job.
So, its not like you get bats in official play that eject balls at 100 mph plus, in theory.
Wouldn’t the exit speed depend entirely upon the pitch speed? The faster the ball is thrown, the faster it leaves the bat if hit squarely. In fact, a wood bat would have no problem achieving an exit speed of 100+ MPH given the proper pitch.
Basic conservation of momentum.
The way I see it, getting hit with baseballs moving at very high speeds is a natural risk of the sport — especially for pitchers — no matter what type of bat is used. I still think metal bats ruin baseball, but that has nothing to do with safety concerns and everything to do with the nature of the game.
On wooden bats vs metal bats:
I doubt that the kid would have survived no matter which kind of bat the hitter was using. The difference in the velocity of the ball would not have substantially changed the injuries received.
If the hitter had been using a wooden bat, I am quite sure the plaintiff’s lawyer* would be arguing that the manufacturer “should have known that wooden bats were safer.”
Q: What’s the difference between a lawyer and a catfish?
A: One’s a scum-sucking bottom feeder, the other is a fish.
Show of hands, men:
How many of you would ignore the feeling of a belt sander abrading your johnson?
Conservation of momentum deals with the closed system. If the ball and bat before being swung/thrown is zero, then the final sum is also zero. Thus, if the bat, after contact, continues with the same momentum (mass + velocity), then the ball gained zero momentum, thus keeping the same amount it had when started. If the bat slows down, then the energy is transferred to the ball (in a perfect system, not absorbed in the muslces of the swinger, air resistance, gravity, etc). So, if a kid throws 90 mph, your swing would have to slow down 10 mph at point of impact (as mass isn’t changing) for the ball to leave at 100mph.
I’ve never understood the purpose of the fly in men’s underwear, be they boxers or briefs. I’ve always just pulled the waistband down; ‘over the top’ as it were. Do other guys really fish around to pull it through the flap when they relieve themselves? Does anyone just unzip their pants without unbuttoning the waist as well? Seems messy to me. Can we get a poll, er, vote on who uses this technique?
Baseball pitcher is the most dangerous position in all of major sports, way more dangerous than NASCAR driver, NHRA driver, etc.
I am a baseball fanatic, I pitched as a kid, my kid pitches … I struggle with this dilemma of loving the art and science of pitching and how ridiculously dangerous it is.
When my son gets home from school today, we are going to work on assuming a defensive posture as soon as the pitch is delivered.
I would not, I repeat WOULD NOT, ignore the feeling of a belt sander abrading my penis. I am adamant about that. No kidding.
When I pee, I unzip my fly and pull my penis out of the side of my underwear, not through the front flap.
/self-disclosure
Do other guys really fish around to pull it through the flap when they relieve themselves?
Hah, you must not have seen that episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Baseball pitcher is the most dangerous position in all of major sports
Yeah people talk about the incredibly precise reaction time required to hit a ball. Try catching a ball flying at your face, from 6-10 feet closer than the rubber-plate distance, and at a velocity 10-20 mph higher than you threw the pitch at. I’m just amazed we don’t see more gruesome injuries than we do.
Oh, yeah? Try javelin catcher.
;P
Why don’t pitchers wear more safety equipment? Wouldn’t a helmet, a face shield, and a chest protector virtually eliminate the risk of life-threatening injuries to a pitcher?
My knowledge of the difference between aluminum and wooden bats is limited to the comments here and at volokh, but wouldn’t the difference, however big or small, be rendered insignificant if the proper protective equipment were in use?
If successful, the lawsuit could result in a marginal reduction in ball speed as manufacturers adapt to limit their liability. So what? You reduce the energy of the ball by a few percent, big deal. The ball still has enough energy to cause serious injury to an unprotected head. Wear a helmet designed specifically to attenuate the impact of a baseball traveling at over 100 MPH, and the risk goes down far more significantly.
“Yeah people talk about the incredibly precise reaction time required to hit a ball. Try catching a ball flying at your face, from 6-10 feet closer than the rubber-plate distance, and at a velocity 10-20 mph higher than you threw the pitch at. I’m just amazed we don’t see more gruesome injuries than we do.”
Technically speaking doesn’t the pitcher’s reaction time start the moment he releases the ball? Absolutely it takes less time for the ball to come back but by that point your glove should already be in position so that it only has to move a few inches. This is coming from a non-baseball player who is actually curious.
I don’t doubt that it is the most dangerous position to be in but reaction time doesn’t seem like a factor. It seems like it can be more accurately predicted when the ball will come back to you than the hitter has. And it doesn’t need quite as much timing accuracy as your trying to let the ball come to you (like a bunt) instead of trying to have your bat/ball arrive at the same place at the same time.
Why don’t pitchers wear more safety equipment? Wouldn’t a helmet, a face shield, and a chest protector virtually eliminate the risk of life-threatening injuries to a pitcher?
I mean, yeah, but pitching is an incredibly complex biomechanical process. That’s sort of like asking a figure skater to wear football pads — it might protect them from injury, but it would totally destroy the sport.
Absolutely it takes less time for the ball to come back but by that point your glove should already be in position so that it only has to move a few inches.
I’m sure there’s some truth to that — a pitcher sees where the pitch itself is headed, and the brain instantly starts anticipating what will happen next. But still, pitchers don’t hold a glove up in front of their face as soon as they release the pitch. The general idea is to finish the pitch in the sort of “ready” position you see other infielders using, so you can react to the ball wherever it is hit (on the ground, off to your side, in front of the mound, at your face, what have you). You want to be able to react to anything, not to one specific type of hit.
“Technically speaking doesn’t the pitcher’s reaction time start the moment he releases the ball? Absolutely it takes less time for the ball to come back but by that point your glove should already be in position so that it only has to move a few inches.”
Baseball convention is to measure the speed of a moving baseball in miles per hour. I can think of nothing more nonsensical than this measure. A baseball never travels a mile and it never takes an hour to get where it’s going. I advocate measuring baseball velocity in feet (or meters) per second. Even better than that is reaction time. The networks finally started introducing reaction time in this year’s playoffs. We learn that a fast pitch gives a batter about 0.375 seconds to react, a slower pitch above 0.400 seconds. That 25/1000 of a second can mean the difference between a swing and a miss and a homerun.
For pitchers, you are correct, it is even more dire. The batted ball’s velocity can exceed that of the pitch, the pitcher is about 10 feet closer (roughly 50 feet away) so the reaction time is decreased by 16.6%. The pitcher is often not ready for a comebacker and is virtually defenseless.
Take this opportunity to study the delivery of the various pitchers you’ll see in the World Series. These are the best of the best. I guarantee you that you’ll see a clear majority who finish their pitches off balance and not in a defensive position. There clearly is a reward in this behavior, the risk of being beaned by a batted ball judged so minimal as to not warrant giving away this advantage.
The psychology is such that as a pitcher, you don’t want to start the delivery believing the batter will hit the pitch. And having the thought of assuming a defensive position influences the delivery and the follow-through, to the point that it might affect accuracy and velocity.
The danger is definitely always present, but it is rare — rare enough that it is all but ignored at the MLB level.
“It seems like it can be more accurately predicted when the ball will come back to you than the hitter has.”
It might just be me, but it is not that easy. As a fielder, like a shortstop or outfielder, one can assess the posture and timing of the batter and make a reasonable guess that the ball will go this way or that, but the pitcher simply has less than 0.250 seconds to figure this out AND react.
I was thinking more along the lines that the pitcher knows exactly when he will release the ball (unlike the batter) so the pitcher knows it will come back to him .375 + 0.250 seconds later. You may be right though that thinking about assuming a defensive stance may have a psycological impact that could screw up the pitcher. Like I said, I’ve never pitched. I like hockey, not baseball :)
I guess baseball is more important today than the guy who was wrongfully put on the sex offenders list by a cop with a grudge.
Oh, well. I call Phillies in 7.
Yeah Mike, like a hockey goalie, pitchers are dead without quick reflexes.
Gutsy call Frank. That means the Phillies win a Game 7 in Yankee Stadium. I’ll go with the Yanks in 7.
/sometimes you need a break from being agitated
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569685,00.html
Cop can’t handle scary haunted house, pulls gun on chainsaw man, then proceeds to lie about incident. Suspended WITH pay. “Just following policy” statement in 3 … 2 … 1 …
I pee without removing any clothing — diapers rock.
BamBam @ 39
Love the story about the drunk, off-duty cop pulling his gun because the Halloween haunted house gave him a fright. I’m waiting though for Mothers Against Armed and Drunk Police Officers to comment.
As someone who has pitched, it sucks. The line drives (no matter how fast) are avoidable as long as they are going straight. If there is any bend to that missile, you’re fucked.
Don’t pitch against metal bats at any level. Make those wimps hit like Teddy Ballgame hit.
Now Hockey Goalies from the 50-60s (pre-mask), that was probably a lot more dangerous than a modern pitcher. Those guys were crazy.
#43
I asked a friend who’s a huge hockey buff about this, and he said that back then no one took slap shots, and it was considered bad form to shoot anywhere near the goalie’s actual face (as in you’d get beat up). I don’t know that that makes the activity “safe” but it does seem a LOT les dangerous than the thought of a goalie playing today’s brand of hockey with no mask. Then some guy started shooting slappers, and they started wearing masks.
isxkcdshittytoday.com