A little background so you don’t think I’m crazy. I was talking with a co-worker yesterday about the new San Francisco baseball park, where right behind right field is the Bay. As such, long homeruns actually go over the stands and into the water.
For summer day games, they’ve trained retriever dogs to fetch the balls – a kind of kitsch to entertain people. However, for memorabilia reasons a number of people have taken to sitting out there in their boats during games and trying to beat the dogs and each other to the balls (and as a funny sidetrack, people in the bleachers have taken to bringing their OWN balls with the word “SUCKER” written on them, and throwing THAT into the bay on long homers that don’t quite clear into the bay, since the boaters can’t see the ball until it flys over the stands).
This, however, brought up the question – how do they get the balls? Do they float? Do the dogs and boaters have to dive underneath to get them? Or perhaps it’s only a few feet deep – but then, how could the boats get in there?
Like I said, pretty dumb question, but one that’s aroused my curiosity. And the only baseballs I have are autographed ones, so I can’t toss those in the tub to test.
Not wishing to take anyones word for it, I filled up a sink with water and tried three balls, two official American League and one official Eastern League–they float.
The bus I take to work crosses a bridge over Four Mile Run. Upstream from the bridge is a small concrete ledge which spans the water, my guess is for aeration. Further upstream is a ballfield. Sometimes there is a baseball caught in the waterfall under the ledge, presumably until the current is strong enough.
Doesn’t saltwater have a density different than that of freshwater? One would think so. I don’t think, for our purposes, the chemical differences are that important, save POSSIBLY those of cohesion and the ability of a baseball to soak up saltwater.
Yes, baseballs float.
Saltwater is more buoyant than freshwater, therefore baseballs are even “floatier”.
At some point a baseball will get waterlogged and sin. not for a good long while, though.
