March 02, 2004
Catching Flys
David Gerstman sent me this article in the NY Times about how Mike Cameron goes about chasing down flyballs. I found this part very interesting.
As a safety on the LaGrange football team, Cameron could watch a quarterback wind up to throw and guess within about a 5-yard radius where the ball would land.
Coming up in the White Sox organization, he played alongside Michael Jordan, and tested better in almost every category. But Cameron failed to reach some flies because he was trying to watch the ball while in full stride.
Cameron has since learned to trust his football instincts. When the ball leaves the bat, he immediately estimates where it may end up. Then he puts his head down and takes full advantage of his speed. Cameron appears faster on the field than on the basepaths because, unlike many center fielders, he hardly worries about tracking the ball when it's in flight.
"I just know where it's going to be," he said. "I have developed a sense of the trajectory of the baseball. The sound of the bat can sometimes be a mirage, but the trajectory gives you an exact sense of where the ball is headed."
The interesting thing is, that's not how it's done normally. There was a very interesting study done that was published in Science in 1995 showing how players follow fly balls. (I believe they attached cameras to the fielders heads.)
The summary of the article is here. Cameron appears to be able to figure out this trajectory without looking, which would be a great advantage.
Posted by David Pinto at
12:21 PM
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don't the outfielders just run to the yellow cross-hair/circle on the grass, and wait for the ball to come down? Oh wait, that's only in the computer games. But if the NFL can have microphones in the QB's helmet, why couldn't the MLB have homing devices in the players hats. Maybe then, Jeremy Giambi will have a regular everyday job.
This seems to remind me a little of Willie Mays, particularly his catch of Vic Wertz's long fly. He just knew where the ball was going to be and got there. I couldn't say for sure how similar they are since I haven't seen that much film of Mays (and he retired before I was born).
Had seen an article a few years back suggesting the same for Deion Sanders (maybe Neyer?). Idea was that he also got some picks by playing the ball and running to it rather than playing the receiver and reacting to the ball, so that playing baseball was an advantage to succeeding in football.
i think you need a phd in math or something to understand that trajectory article. is there a link to translate into english?
