Bradford has an article on the WEEI site today that begins:
http://www.weei.com/articles/column/baseballs-bigger-swings-examining-why-were-middle-historic-home-run-pace
"Entering Tuesday night Major League Baseball players were hitting more home runs than ever before in its history, averaging 1.23 homers per game. That's ahead of the No. 2 most prolific season, 2000...."
And it goes on to quote players about the differences they've noticed between major and minor league balls, then follows with some statements from an MLB spokesman:
"As a quality control effort, we routinely conduct in-season and off-season testing of baseballs in conjunction with our consultants at UMass-Lowell to ensure that they meet our specifications. All recent test results have been within the specifications. In addition, we used a third-party consultant to test whether the baseball had any impact on offense in recent years, and he found no evidence of that.
"It's no secret that the balls in the Majors and the Minors have slight differences. The Minor League ball is a good ball, just like the ones used at the collegiate level are good. The Major League balls are made under a different manufacturing process and have a more rigorous quality control process. Again, balls have to meet our testing specifications (and they have)."
To which I would respond that it is also no secret by their very own words that major and minor league balls are different and that the former have more stringent quality control. There is a measurement (I want to say co-efficient of restitution but I'll just call it X) that they use to grade the baseballs. This would actually be X +/- a certain percentage. It would be simple to arrange matters so that major league balls are manufactured so the majority of them come out on the percentage side favoring liveliness but still fall within the bounds. The ones at the other end of the spectrum could be sold in souvenir shops, etc....i.e., I trust MLB about as much as I do politicians.
http://www.weei.com/articles/column/baseballs-bigger-swings-examining-why-were-middle-historic-home-run-pace
"Entering Tuesday night Major League Baseball players were hitting more home runs than ever before in its history, averaging 1.23 homers per game. That's ahead of the No. 2 most prolific season, 2000...."
And it goes on to quote players about the differences they've noticed between major and minor league balls, then follows with some statements from an MLB spokesman:
"As a quality control effort, we routinely conduct in-season and off-season testing of baseballs in conjunction with our consultants at UMass-Lowell to ensure that they meet our specifications. All recent test results have been within the specifications. In addition, we used a third-party consultant to test whether the baseball had any impact on offense in recent years, and he found no evidence of that.
"It's no secret that the balls in the Majors and the Minors have slight differences. The Minor League ball is a good ball, just like the ones used at the collegiate level are good. The Major League balls are made under a different manufacturing process and have a more rigorous quality control process. Again, balls have to meet our testing specifications (and they have)."
To which I would respond that it is also no secret by their very own words that major and minor league balls are different and that the former have more stringent quality control. There is a measurement (I want to say co-efficient of restitution but I'll just call it X) that they use to grade the baseballs. This would actually be X +/- a certain percentage. It would be simple to arrange matters so that major league balls are manufactured so the majority of them come out on the percentage side favoring liveliness but still fall within the bounds. The ones at the other end of the spectrum could be sold in souvenir shops, etc....i.e., I trust MLB about as much as I do politicians.