Citation

McBeath MK. Perception 1990; 19(4): 545-552.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Stanford University, CA 94305-2130.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, SAGE Publications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2096372

Abstract

Batters in professional baseball are confronted with pitches that appear to curve, dip, wobble, or rise. The rising fastball is a pitch where the ball appears to hop up as much as a third of a meter with a sudden increase in speed. Physics experiments confirm that many reported trajectories are possible, but not the rising fastball. The present paper shows how the apparent rise may be explained as a perceptual illusion due to the hitter underestimating original speed of the pitch.

Language: en