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Hot House Home Runs [1]

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Date: 2023-04-12  

Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

After baseball finally took action to end the Steroids Era and inflated home run totals by over-muscled players, ordinary looking guys are getting a home run boost from global warming. A new study by Dartmouth College climate scientists, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, estimates that more than 500 home runs since 2010 are the result of climate change. They predict that as the Earth continues to warm, there will be several hundred additional home runs each season. The scientists believe that 27 additional home runs were hit in Yankee Stadium between 2010 and 2019 and an extra 24 were hit at Citi Field, the Mets home field.

The study was based on observations from 100,000 Major League Baseball games and 220,000 individual batted balls in open-air stadiums and in retractable-roof stadiums when the roof was open. As a scientific check, the scientists find only small and insignificant effects of temperature in a domed stadium or when retractable roofs were close.

All of this is happening because air density is inversely proportional to temperature. The warmer it is, the less dense the air. A batted ball travels further through less dense air. That’s why home run production traditionally rises during summer months. Justin Mankin, an assistant professor at Dartmouth College, explains “That ball flying through the ballpark, it's just gonna encounter less air resistance, and there'll be less drag on it. Baseball is at its core a game of ballistics, so the physics are pretty well understood.”

There are already rumors that the Houston Astros are trying to install a below ground heating system that they can turn on when their team is at bat and turn off when their opponents are batting.

Ocean surface temperature hit a record high since satellite data was available this April, so the long ball boost will definitely continue. Will Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso have to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame with Climate Change asterisks if baseball, the Hall of Fame, and human civilization survive until they are eligible?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/12/2163617/-Hot-House-Home-Runs

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