In the Pink

Five Thirty Eight reviews research funded by ESPN Sports Science that shows a difference is the pink rubber wrapper of the baseball core that indicates a change in the baseball:

Looking inside the balls and testing their chemical composition revealed that the cores of recent balls were somewhat less dense than the cores of balls used before the 2015 All-Star Game. The newer cores weigh about a half a gram less than the older ones, which might be enough to cause baseballs hit on a typical home run trajectory to fly about 6 inches farther. That alone is hardly enough to explain the home run surge of recent seasons, but when combined with previous research finding that baseballs began to change in other small ways starting around the same time, it suggests that a number of minor differences may have combined to contribute to the remarkable upswing in home run power we’ve witnessed since 2015.

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It’s not just that the inside of the ball looks different — the chemical composition of the cores appears to have changed as well.

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This test showed that the pink layer of the core in baseballs from the new group was, on average, composed of about 7 percent more polymer than the same area in baseballs from the old group. Additionally, an analysis with a scanning electron microscope showed that the same layer in the new balls contained, on average, 10 percent less silicon, relative to the amount of other ingredients in the pill. According to the Kent State researchers, these chemical changes produced a more porous, less dense layer of rubber — which explains the results seen in the CT scan at the Keck School.

The CT scans of the baseballs are very cool, and you can clearly see the difference in the pink rubber layer between the older and newer balls.

It is of course the great paradox of MLB balls that the balls that perform very differently can meet major league specifications. So the balls from 2014-2015 and the balls from 2016-2017 can both meet the specifications in the rule book, while one is juiced and one is not.

This also isn’t necessarily a grand conspiracy. Manufactures, over time, save money by reducing the amount of material they need to get the same result. The plastic bottles we buy today use much less plastic than the original models from the 1960s. Just a few years ago I remember the caps on plastic Coke bottles being reduced in height by about 1/3. When the price of petroleum was high, that was likely a huge cost savings for the company, given the number of bottles they sell. Prescription doses come down over time, cars are lighter but stronger, etc.

The change in the chemical composition of the pink rubber sounds like Rawlings coming up with a way to save money on manufacturing. Many there is less raw material. Maybe the process to make the rubber uses less energy. Maybe this core saves Rawlings a nickel per ball. I’m estimating 150,000 balls get used by MLB teams during the season (spring and regular seasons). That’s about $7500 in Rawling’s pocket. If the process can be uses across all balls, then the savings get huge.

Arguing against that is the other changes in the ball, especially less air resistance. What I find most interesting is that somehow MLB wants shorter games, but also wants higher scoring games. The best way to shorten games would be to keep even more batters off base, so most innings would be 1-2-3. Juicing the ball runs counter to that.

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