The objectives of this study were to (1) use kinetics from motion analysis and inverse dynamics to calculate the stress experienced by the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) during a typical pitch cycle, (2) compare calculated maximum UCL pitching stresses to failure properties, and (3) investigate correlations between UCL stress with anthropometric and pitching biomechanical parameters. Prior motion analysis experiments of eighteen 10- to 11- year-old baseball pitchers throwing 10 fastballs were analyzed. Maximum internal elbow varus torques were calculated using inverse dynamics methods during a typical pitch cycle. Calculations used axial loading stress equations and maximum internal elbow varus torques to quantify the maximum UCL pitching stresses. UCL ultimate stresses and number of cycles to failure were calculated from prior studies with a scaling procedure to estimate youth participant values. The calculated maximum UCL pitching stresses were then compared to the estimated ultimate stresses using a paired t-test. The first major result of this study was that the maximum UCL pitching stresses were 33.83 MPa lower, on average, than the estimated ultimate stresses (p < 0.001). A second major result of this study was the estimated average number of cycles to failure of the UCL were 80,000+ higher, on average, than the maximum season (p < 0.001) and annual (p < 0.001) pitch counts. A third major result of this study was maximum UCL pitching stresses were significantly and positively correlated with pitch speeds, maximum shoulder external rotation torque, and maximum elbow varus torque. These results suggest 10- to 11- year-old pitchers are not likely to experience a UCL injury. The findings of this study are supported by clinical observations of elbow injuries in youth pitchers occurring primarily in other tissues.

No description available.

[Formulae and special characters can only be approximated here. Please see the pdf version of the abstract for an accurate reproduction.] Ball-impact injuries in baseball, while relatively rare, have the potential to be catastrophic. These injuries are primarily attributed to impact by the ball after it has been hit, pitched or thrown. As the closest infielder to the hitter, the pitcher is at greatest risk of being struck by the batted ball. This thesis investigated the influence of bat and ball design on ball exit velocity (BEV) and the potential for impact injury to pitchers. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to quantify the dynamics of bat-ball impact for bats of various moment of inertia and baseballs with different mechanical properties. The analysis was conducted using ANSYS/LSDYNA explicit dynamics software. To replicate a typical bat-ball impact in the field, the model required input of bat linear and angular velocity and orientation in three-dimensional (3-D) space, at the instant prior to impact. This data was obtained from 3-D kinematic analysis using two high-speed video cameras operating at 200 Hz. Seventeen high-performance batters used a wood bat and a metal bat of equal length and mass to hit baseballs thrown by a pitcher. Hitters developed significantly higher resultant linear velocity for both the proximal (38.3 ± 1.8 ms-1;) and distal (8.1 ± 1.8 ms-1) ends of the metal bat (compared with 36.4 ± 1.7 ms-1 and 6.9 ± 2.1 ms-1 respectively for the wood bat). They also achieved a significantly more “square” bat position just prior to impact with the ball (264.3 ± 9.1 deg compared with 251.5 ± 10.4 deg). These factors are important in transferring momentum to the batted ball. Mathematical description of the large-deformation material behaviour of the baseball was also required for this analysis. Previous research is limited to compression tests to 10 % of ball diameter, despite conjecture that during impact with the bat, the ball might deform to 50 % of its original diameter. Uniaxial quasi-static compression tests on seven models of baseballs investigated baseball behaviour during deformation to 50 % of ball diameter. The resulting force-displacement relationship was highly non-linear. Hence FEA was used to derive and verify a relationship to describe the time-dependent and elastic behaviour of the ball during the 1 ms period typical of bat-ball impact. The results of the bat-ball impact analysis indicated that for hits made at the point of maximum momentum transfer on the bat, the metal bat produced greater BEV than the wood bat (61.5 ms-1 and 50.9 ms-1 respectively). The higher BEV from the metal bat was attributed to greater pre-impact bat linear velocity, and bat orientation during impact. The more perpendicular horizontal orientation of the metal bat at the instant of impact resulted in a greater proportion of resultant BEV being directed in the global x-direction (toward the pitcher), compared with the wood bat. This indicates increasing bat moment of inertia (the relative mass of the bat barrel) may be a potential control strategy for BEV. BEV was also reduced for impacts using a baseball with values for instantaneous shear and relaxed modulii approximately 33 % less (9.9 % reduction in BEV for metal bat, 9.7 % for the wood bat).

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Statistics, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-68).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Charles Link, Dept. of Economics. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this study was to narrate a history of baseball from its origins to the merger of the National and American Leagues in 1903. The author endeavored to produce a work that was interesting to sports enthusiasts and informative to researchers. He also attempted to relate the significance of the development of the institution of baseball to nineteenth-century American society. Based on accepted historical research and writing procedures, a study was completed which exposed the true birth of the game, the expansion and development of the sport from amateur clubs to professional teams, the growth of professionalism under the National League, the commercialization of the business, and the dominant players and teams of that era. The work interpreted the history of baseball in the nineteenth century by defending proposals in a chronicled account. By accomplishing his goals, the writer has added to the body of knowledge in this field. To a limited degree he explained the sociological evolution of the United States over that period of time.

No description available.

The National Alliance for Youth Sports compared field reports released in 1995 to those in 2000, illustrating a 5% to 15% increase in adults that have gotten out of line at youth events (Carlozo, 2000). The purpose of this study was to assess the nature and frequency of adult comments at Little League baseball games for children ages 9 to 12. In addition, adults were surveyed in order to evaluate their personal opinions of crowd conduct.The participants in this study consisted of adults attending Little League baseball games in rural Indiana from May 30, 2001 to June 26, 2001. To address the purpose of the study, the researcher recorded adult comments using an adaptation of the Parent Observation Instrument for Sports Events (Kidman et al., 1999). An additional sample of 65 adults attending the last game of the season was purposefully selected to complete the survey portion of the study.The researcher tried to determine if there were significant differences between the nature of the adult comments (positive or negative), the frequency of adult comments by team play (offense or defense), by gender of the adult, by team status (winning or losing), or by competitive level (major league or minor league). Additionally, the researcher tried to determine whether there were qualitative differences between actual comments and adult opinions of comments.A chi square analysis was calculated for hypotheses 1 - 5 (p < .05) and the last hypothesis compared a chi square calculation to the frequency counts on a survey of adults. The results showed a significant difference in the frequency of comments based on the nature of the comment (positive/negative), gender, and competitive level (major league/minor league). There was no significant difference between team status (winning/losing) and frequency of comments made. There was consistency between adults' opinions of comments and actual observations. Observation results showed higher frequencies of positive comments than negative comments. Through survey data analysis, it was determined that adults believed more positive comments were made at the games. / School of Physical Education

Master of Science / Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Todd W. Easton / Baseball is an incredibly complex game where the managers of the baseball teams have numerous decisions to make. The managers are in control of the offense and defense of a team. Some managers have ruined their teams’ chances of a victory by removing their star pitcher too soon in a game or leaving them in too long; managers also choose to pinch hit for batters or pinch run for base runners in order to set up a “favorable match-up” such as a left handed pitcher versus a right handed batter. This research’s goal is to aid managers by providing an optimal positioning of defensive players on the field for a particular batter. In baseball, every ball that is hit onto the field of play can be an out if the fielders are positioned correctly. By positioning the fielders in an optimal manner a team will directly reduce the number of runs that it gives up, which increases the chances of a win. This research describes an integer program that can determine the optimal location of defensive players. This integer program is based off of a random set of hits that the player has produced in the past. The integer program attempts to minimize the expected costs associated with each hit where the cost is defined by a penalty (single, double or triple) or benefit (out) of the person’s hit. By solving this integer program in Opl Studio 4.2, a commercial integer programming software, an optimal defensive positioning is derived for use against this batter. To test this defense against other standard defenses that teams in the MLB currently use, a simulation was created. This simulation uses Derek Jeter’s actual statistics; including his 2009 regular season hit chart. The simulation selects a hit at random according to his hit chart and determines the outcome of the hit (single, double, out, double play, etc.). Once this simulation is complete a printout shows the batter’s statistics; including his average and slugging percentage. VI By comparing the optimized defensive alignment with some commonly used major league alignments, it can be shown that this optimal alignment would decrease Jeter’s average by nearly 13% and decrease his slugging by 35%. It is my opinion that managers should use this tool to help them win more games. These defenses can be seamlessly implemented by any coach or team.

Baseball was once seen as America's pastime, but somehow lost its way. Baseball was inherently American, and stood for more than a game. Yet a number of events caused baseball to fall from grace. Using Ernest Thayer's poem “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of Republic Sung in the Year 1888” as a frame work, this project identifies three events that caused baseball's fall and three additional events that currently threaten the game, which will be evaluated according to Aristotle's doctrine of the mean. Understanding the game's past and present will help to develop a methodology to apply to threats of the game to ensure baseball's future.&lt;br&gt; To begin, this project identifies three events that originally caused baseball's fall: the Black Sox Scandal in the 1919 World Series, two franchises moving from New York to Los Angles, and the Labor Strike of 1994. Each event creates distance between the game of baseball and its idealized past. The first chapter also propels the following three chapters by viewing the current threats of the game as three imaginary pitches for Casey with the goal of attempting to change his original fate from the poem, in which he struck out.&lt;br&gt; Chapter II, Casey's first imaginary pitch, deals with the steroids crisis. The home run era helped to revitalize the game after the Labor Strike, but the success was short-lived. “The Mitchell Report” was first published on December 13, 2007. The report was the culmination of a 21-month investigation of anabolic steroid-use in baseball, and identified 89 MLB players linked to steroids. Although the records and statistics were put into question, the harshest result of this event was that it called into question the ethics of the baseball – with the ongoing suspicion and a lack of trust toward the game, baseball no longer fosters havens of trust. Additionally, the lack of an immediate response by the league showed a delayed reaction, one of deficiency. This is the first strike to Casey in the imaginary at bat.&lt;br&gt; Perhaps propelled by the Steroid Era, the next event that continues to threaten the game is the sabermetric movement, marked by the publication of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (Lewis, 2003). Sabermetrics in general attempt to provide new and more technologically driven metrics to better understand the game. Although learning more about the game is good, dismissing old statistics causes people to lose ground and connection to the past. The over-emphasis of sabermetrics shows excess, again causing Casey to swing too early and miss another pitch. The final event that threatens the game of baseball is the implementation of technology, namely instant replay, into the game, which occurred in 2008. The game of baseball assessed the successes of other sports’ uses of instant replay, withheld implementation over 20 years later than the NFL, and originally made modest additions to the game. The focus on the past helps to preserve tradition and helps to foster a good connection for the game in the present game. With the third pitch, Casey found the balance between deficiency and excess and hit a home run. The final chapter lists ongoing problems to each of the three events identified in Chapters II-IV, provides a detailed critique of progress as understood through Modernity, assesses the ways in which Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean can be used as a philosophical framework to deal with ethical issues, theorizes various uses of this methodology, and finally discusses the ways in which baseball can be preserved for the next century.&lt;br&gt; The afterward revisits the original poem of “Casey at the Bat” and provides an updated version, “Casey’s Hope.” / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD; / Dissertation;