Three S&T faculty helped strike down claims that “juiced” baseballs were the cause of a spike in Major League home run hits in 1987. Dr. Lee Bain and Dr. V.A. Samaranayake in mathematics and statistics, along with Dr. Terry Lenhoff in mechanical engineering, were hired as independent testers. Bain and Lenhoff brought to the project more than a dozen years of testing baseballs for the National and American Leagues and several manufacturers to ensure rigid specifications were met. The team’s testing methods included “pitching” baseballs with a cannon as well as taking measurements and conducting statistical analysis.
Their findings? There was no foul play. The baseballs all met major-league standards. When juicing speculation resurfaced in 1994, the S&T research was cited in USA Today, causing one writer to call the rumors “ball-oney.”
Now that’s a win for the home team!
Share This Story
Spark a Memory?
Share your story! Fill out the form below to share your fondest memory or anecdote of S&T. If you'd prefer not typing, you can also share by phone at 833-646-3715 (833-Miner150).
EV pioneer
As the auto industry begins to fully embrace the notion of electric vehicles, it has EV pioneers like Jon Bereisa…
Float like a butterfly
Few have shared the ring with Muhammad Ali or been praised by the New York Times as “one of America’s…
Katie (Fritts) and Mitchell Niehoff
Katie (Fritts) and Mitchell Niehoff met in fall 2006 during that semester’s first meeting of the Perfect 10 Improv group….
Savannah (Signaigo) and Nathan Leezer
Savannah (Signaigo) and Nathan Leezer met during Greek Week activities in September 2010 when Nathan, a first-year Interfraternity Council representative,…
Bringing it all together
Before retiring, civil engineering graduate John Mathes headed his own multidisciplinary engineering business that specialized in high-profile contamination projects. In…
Leading Peru’s higher education
After earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from S&T in 1980, Mariana Rodriguez returned to her native Peru to…