from Amazon
Friday, February 27, 2009
Nick Punto trying to decide between a team of scientists and a stopwatch
Sliding head-first into first often is unnecessary and greatly increases the risk of injury. Punto isn’t so sure. “For some reason, I think it’s faster,” he said. “For all the people who have told me it’s not, I still think it is. “We’ll never know. Until there is a swimming pool at the end of the 100-meter dash, we’ll never know. Who’s going to dive onto a corked field on a 100-yard dash? Nobody.”
When timing batters who run through first base, and those who slide into the base, scouts have determined that sliding slows down the runner. “I’ve heard that, too,” Punto said. “I think people are slower when you slide, feet-first. I think when you dive, it’s quicker, as long as you hit the bag before you hit the ground, or simultaneously.”
He should hire a team of scientists to test his theories. “I would like to, actually,” he said. “As much as I’ve dealt with over the last 10 years of my career, I would love to get somebody on it. I’ve gotten a lot of mail from people saying it’s not faster.”
Can’t Nick Punto do a dash from home plate to 1B, running through, five times and get the first-base coach to record his time with a stopwatch. And then, can’t Nick Punto repeat that same dash five times, but this time sliding head first. Why would you need a team of scientists, and reading and talking about this all your life, when you can answer this question with ten runs of 4 seconds each? 40 seconds of running time for him, 20 seconds for the coach to write down the answer, 2 minutes of rest in-between, and in less than 30 minutes, Nick Punto will have the answer that has vexed him since he was 8 years old.
(Hat tip: Repoz)
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