Athletes are constantly attempting to do anything they can to get ahead in their respective sports. It make sense too, a players earnings and potential future contract is tied to their individual production the same as any industry, based on how well they perform at their job can be the difference in millions of dollars. focusing directly on the sport of baseball, which is a sport that has had a complicated history rooted in athletes using performance enhancing drugs as a way to get ahead and up their production.
This actually began before what is known as the steroid era, with the use of "greenies" which are a type of amphetamine originally prescribed to air force pilots in order to stay away and focused while flying. No different than ADHD medicine today these pills were able to enhance a players focus to a point where they were deemed not only unhealthy but as a way to affect the competitive balance of the league. Baseball is a handeye based sport and anything that can improve your reaction time while keeping those skills intact was deemed an unfair advantage.
Then there was the heralded steroid era where athletes began taking performance enhancing drugs along the lines of Human Growth Hormone or HGH, along with other testosterone increasing drugs in order to increase muscle mass and strength. This increase in strength led to a massive boom in power in the sport. Players began to hit monstrous homeruns, and many argued that the famous race to break the single season homerun record between Mark Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa saved the sport through massive intrigue in the record breaking affair.
Baseball has since then cracked down on these types of drugs as they've been deemed unsafe for consumption and also affect the competitive balance of the sport. The question is where does baseball draw the line? Take another more recent cheating controversy regarding the stealing signs scandal of 2017 by the Houston Astros and various other teams. As a fan of modern technology and innovation in sports I appreciate the lengths to which the Astros went in order to pull off one of the greatest cheating scandals in modern sports. A catcher will traditionally signal to a pitcher using their fingers to determine what pitch will be thrown next. Generally speaking 1 finger denotes a pitchers primary pitch which is almost always a fastball. 2 fingers, 3 fingers, 4 etc. will all mean a certain pitch to a certain pitcher. A catcher will also put down multiple different signs in order to throw off the opposing players from knowing what pitch is on the way. They especially ramp up the randomization when a runner is on second base as its possible for him to relay the signs to a batter. Where the Astros crossed a line was their use of modern technology and built a predictive model to essentially track a few rotations of catcher signs, and then eventually they would be able to predict what the next pitch is using cameras to track the signs. Where they leveraged technology once again was the use of a buzzer underneath players jerseys used to signal what pitch is coming in real time to the batter.
The idea of stealing signs is something thats been apart of baseball since its conception. The issue of crossing the line occurs when the use of technology is abused to steal those signs and relay them to players. Baseball came down very hard on the team when the news came out of their grievances. They clearly said this behavior was against the rules of the sport and in turn punished the team accordingly. Other teams like the Red Sox and Yankees were caught using digital technology and apple watches to obtain the same result of sign stealing. The use of said technology was outlawed by the league as it was once again deemed a competitive advantage.
In response to this scandal teams became very active in looking for ways to avoid the sign stealing fiasco in the future. This year the MLB adopted the use of technology known as "PitchCom" which allows the whole team to wear devices under their hat and connected to a pad that the catcher controls allows for the calling of pitches to occur. Technological innovation like this is promoted at the professional sports level as it is something that overall is healthy and good for the sport. However there is still some innovation that has been deemed toxic for the sport.
My work on stuff+ models and the studying of the sport of baseball has led me to the learn the importance of spin-rate on a baseball. Spin-rate is measured in rotations per minute (RPM) and tracks how many rotations the ball makes on its flight path toward home plate. This can lead to the illusion of a fastball dropping less than average based on higher spin rates applied to the pitch and in turn creating a more deceptive fastball that induces more swings and misses. The same occurs when applying more spin to a breaking ball as it can increase horizontal movement and vertical movement as it travel to home plate. If there was a way to increase your spin rate along with velocity as well, teams will be jumping at the opportunity to do it, and they have as I mentioned in my blog post about the study of biomechanics and its affect on pitchers velocity and spin rate. However, players crossed the line when they began using a foreign substance known as "Spider-Tac," in order to doctor the baseball and get a better grip on the ball just allowing pitchers to manipulate the spin and increase RPMs.
This is yet another occurrence of the MLB having to step in and make a ruling against the use of this performance enhancing technology. However, this is where I think they might be wrong in some of the changes they made. Hitters have always been allowed to use pine tar on their bats in order to enhance grip, and thus improve performance in swinging the bat. Why is it deemed fair to use a foreign substance to doctor a bat, but we are prohibited from doctoring the baseball. Both lead to an enhance in performance however the MLB knows that offense and run scoring is a better product for fans to witness, and in turn will increase revenue and fan excitement.
Lastly, technology has been advancing in the design of players bats that is leading to an increase in performance. Newer studies have been determining the importance of bat speed and how having a faster bat allows you to get to more pitches leading to less strikeouts, while also increasing the exit velocity hitters can express on a baseball. Training for bat speed using weighted bat programs, and working on hitter biomechanics is completely fine and promoted. However there has been a slight improvement in the technology of bat design that has also been a new development in modern baseball. If you look closely enough you will see certain players have an unusually large knob at the bottom of their bat. The science behind loading some weight toward the bottom of the bat is something that has been proven to increase a players bat speed. The MLB has not done anything to outlaw these technological advancements, and it once again falls in line with their philosphy of promoting offense over pitching because its what sells the game.
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