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| Lenny Polanco (right) helps students solve a math problem about the movement of a baseball bat. Mary Knox Merrill – staff  The Science of Baseball |
University offers 'Science of Baseball' class
The math and science of baseball can help improve your game.
from the August 14, 2007 edition
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Coach Borushko encourages his group to focus on drawing diagrams and writing the equations, but some end-of-camp excitement is distracting the boys. After he mentions that their on-the-field baseball time may be shortened if they don't finish the problems, markers scribble feverishly.
"It's very easy to keep them focused on the field," Coach Borushko says. "The key to [keeping them focused in class] is to demonstrate the relevance."
One way to clearly show the relevance is by actually bringing a baseball into the classroom.
Peter Haubrich, who's 13, says he learned about circumference by cutting open a baseball and unraveling the insides. The circumference always has to be between 9 and 9.25 inches, he says.
Brendan Gomez, also 13, says he was very excited about the MIT program because it combines sports knowledge with skills that can help him in school. Brendan says that most of the problems have been pretty easy for him, except for a project designed to teach geometry skills. "Making scales [for field dimensions] was the hardest," he says. "It's all about proportions, but you have to draw really straight lines."
Brendan thinks that if he played organized baseball, he would like to be a third baseman because of the continual action. "A lot of balls get hit over there," he says. "If they're going for a triple play, you can get them out."
Andrés Espinal, another 13-year-old, has been playing baseball for eight years but never considered the science behind the sport until attending MIT's program.
"The hardest thing to remember is the equations," Andrés says. "Math is my favorite subject, and I thought this science would help me with my career goal to be a mechanical engineer."
But the program isn't all work and no play. Andrés brags about his no-hitter pitching performance during one inning in the previous day's game.
His stellar outing helped his team, the American League, defeat the National Leaguers for the MIT World Series title, a five-game series for bragging rights.
In the all-star game on this final day of camp, however, Andrés's team hasn't done as well. A teammate keeps statistics, and the American Leaguers often check with him to view runs batted in, errors, and strikes. A month ago, these numbers may not have meant much. Now the boys understand the statistics and see how the numbers show where their game needs to improve.
A rallying cry spreads through the dugout. Time to get those bats cracking!
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