Baseball’s flirtation with technology began in 2005 when PITCHf/x® by Sportvision started to be installed in major league ballparks. Every stadium had the system operational by 2007. Since then, the trajectories of over six million pitches have been measured to within about half an inch using three 60-Hz video cameras to track the position of the ball.

Topics
Bioacoustics of mammals, Doppler effect, Newtonian mechanics, Atmospheric thermodynamics, Launch angle, Video camera, Educational assessment, Education, Fluid drag, News and events
1.
Their baseball website has many videos describing the system
at http://www.sportvision.com/baseball/pitchfx%C2%AE.
2.
Here is a sample of the data that Statcast can bring to a television broadcast
: http://m.mlb.com/video/v31459495/?partnerId=as_mlb_20140311_19868264.
3.
Their baseball website
is at https://trackmanbaseball.com/. Additional info can be found at http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu/trackman.html.
4.
Info on their player tracking system
can be found at http://chyronhego.com/sports-data/player-tracking.
5.
The use of PITCHf/x data is described in:
David
 
Kagan
, “
The anatomy of a pitch: Doing physics with PITCHf/x data
,”
Phys. Teach.
 
47
,
412
–
416
(
2009
).
https://doi.org/10.1119/1.3225497
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
8.
Here’s a video of this homer
: http://m.mlb.com/video/v78076783/?game_pk=413799.
9.
There is a thorough discussion of both home runs hit by A-Rod in this game
at http://www.hardballtimes.com/a-tale-of-two-dingers/.
10.

There is confusion on several Statcast pages at mlb.com as to what distance is actually given. The distance on the page we cite is from the back of home plate to the spot on the ground where the ball would strike if it were to get there unobstructed. That measured trajectory up to the point where the ball strikes an impediment is used to extrapolate to get this value.

11.

This is the maximum height of the ball during its flight.

12.

The authors make no apology for the use of English units throughout this paper. After all, they are the traditional units of the national pastime!

13.
See
David
 
Kagan
 and
Alan M.
 
Nathan
, “
Simplified models for the drag coefficient of a pitched baseball
,”
Phys. Teach.
 
52
,
278
–
280
(
2014
).
https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4872406
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
14.
Alan M.
 
Nathan
, “
The effect of spin on the flight of a baseball
,”
Am. J. Phys.
 
76
,
119
–
124
(
Feb.
 
2008
).
https://doi.org/10.1119/1.2805242
Google Scholar
Crossref
Search ADS
 
15.
The Trajectory Calculator is currently undergoing an update
. The version referred to in this paper can be found at http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu/trajectory-calculator-old.html.
© 2017 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2017
American Association of Physics Teachers
AAPT members receive access to The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.