Baseball/Softball Bat Physics

Factual Questions
1

It’s that time of year again. Umpire meetings have begun in preparation of the upcoming spring season. There are new rules as there are every year about what you’re allowed to do with bats.

So… My General Question is:
Is there any evidence (other than anecdotal) that heating or freezing a bat will give you more distance on a hit ball?

I’m talking about any type of bat… wood, aluminum, composite.
I’m talking about keeping something in a cooler overnight to practically walking up to home plate with a torch aimed at the barrel of your bat.

I just have a hard time believing it could be a factor. (certainly heating, anyway. I suppose I could see a FROZEN bat getting more distance on a hit ball).

2

My guess would be that a frozen bat would result in greater distance. As to how much compression it would prevent is what it comes down to. I know that baseballs undergo a great deal of compression at collision - but I didn’t think bats did all that much. But here’s an interesting website with some high-speed video:

http://paws.kettering.edu/~drussell/bats-new/ball-bat-0.html

3

This may be considered anecdotal, but it is logical. A composite bat will result in higher ball speed off the bat and more distance because it’s soft. When the ball and bat meet, the bat momentarily indents and then pushes the ball back in the direction from which it came. This is not the case with other materials (at least to the same extent). When a composite bat is cold, I believe, it loses some of its softness/flexibility and, therefore, its advantage. It’s also more prone to breakage. I always hang my bat in the sun when possible, some even use bat warming sleeves.

BTW, and speaking of composite/soft bats, they are only effective when a hard/live ball is used. Used with a soft/dead ball, they offer no advantage. One of the two (bat or ball) has to be hard and the other soft to maximize ball speed/distance.

4

Also anecdotally, I have found that cold (frozen) golf clubs hitting warm golf balls make the ball go further.

5

One thing to keep in mind is that aluminum bats are considerably stiffer than wood and do make balls go further.

6

With regard to metal bats I’d think the manufacturers would make them to be most effective around 70 degrees (which is my WAG at the average temperature of a game). I could imagine some weird ideas might help a wooden bat.

7

I believe that the term you are looking for is elastic, as it’s partially the elasticity that propels the ball as the deformed shapes return to their original.

8

Is that a matter of material stiffness, though? I thought it had more to do with weight distribution.

9

Yes, elastic.