Washington University in Saint Louis



WUSTL experts offer tips on baseball as MLB All-Star Game comes to St. Louis

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be played at Busch Stadium in St. Louis July 14. While the big-league season takes its annual break, several WUSTL professors are available to discuss a variety of baseball-related topics, from Albert Pujols' hitting prowess to revenue sharing. The following is a collection of tips from WUSTL researchers over the last few years. Please contact us for assistance in arranging interviews, including broadcast-quality interviews through our free VYVX and ISDN lines.



El Hombre vs. The Babe

St. Louis Cardinals slugger Pujols gets Babe Ruth test at Washington University

El Hombre vs. The Babe
El Hombre vs. The Babe
Baseball purists, especially those of Yankee allegiance, might argue that St. Louis Cardinals homerun-hitting superstar Albert Pujols is simply not in the same league as legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth. Science may never settle that argument, but researchers at Washington University in St. Louis can offer some sense of how Pujols stacks up to the Babe in terms of skills necessary to hit the long ball. Pujols visited WUSTL to take part in a series of lab tests similar to those conducted on Ruth in 1921.


Power play

Small market baseball teams may do better signing a pitcher over a hitter

While the St. Louis Cardinals decide whether to re-sign baseball's best hitter, Albert Pujols, following the 2010 season, they might want to consider a new study by a business professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Mike Lewis, assistant professor of marketing at the Olin Business School, claims that small market teams can get as many as four times more incremental wins by signing a high-level pitcher over an all-star hitter.


Double play

Major League Baseball: sharing revenue, not success

Major League Baseball implemented revenue sharing to create incentives for ball clubs to build their teams and build their fan base. It's ended up having the opposite effect, according to a business professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The amount a small-market team receives from the league may be more profitable than the revenue it gets from winning a game. Michael Lewis proposes an alternative way of distributing MLB revenues that creates incentives for ballclubs to create good teams and fill stadiums. (video available)


Baseball diamond as playground of math and physics

Engineer: Head-first slide is quicker

Whether watching the All-Star Game, a World Series game or just a regular-season Tuesday afternoon game, it's nearly guaranteed that fans will see daring slides, both feet-first and head-first, and even slides on bang-bang plays at first. Who gets there faster, the head-first slider or the feet-first? The head-first player, says David A. Peters, Ph.D., the McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, and big-time baseball fan. He says it's a matter of the player's center of gravity.


Lefties have the edge

Baseball's southpaws play to their strength

Baseball diamonds are a left-hander's best friend. That's because the game was designed to make a lefty the "Natural," according to David A. Peters, Ph.D., the McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and über baseball fan. Peters is a mechanical engineer who specializes in aircraft and helicopter engineering and has a different approach to viewing America's Favorite Pastime.



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Revised:

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009