What's behind baseball's home-run binge? CT may have an answer
In 2017, 6,105 home runs were hit in Major League Baseball games—breaking the steroid-fueled record from 2000. Homers have been on the rise since the middle of the 2015 season, and researchers decided to use CT to peer inside these "juiced" baseballs for an answer.
FiveThirtyEight.com. reported researchers from Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and Kent State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry used CT to peer inside the cores of the post-2015 baseballs for an answer.
Inside the ball, researchers noticed its composition was slightly less dense than the balls used before the 2015 All-Star game. While not enough to account for the uptick in home runs, separate research found these baseballs were bouncier and less air resistant.
Add up all these changes and the post-2015 ball might travel up to 8.6 feet farther, resulting in a 25 percent uptick in home runs, according to the article.
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Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.