How Weather Affects Baseball Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

How Weather Affects Baseball

How does the weather affect baseball?  Well, as a baseball flies through the air, the air pushes back against it, resisting its motion and decreasing the distance the ball travels. If you do not believe air can provide much resistance try it by sticking your arm out of a car window at 60 mph and feel the push. The density of air is different from place-to-place and from day-to-day depending on temperature, humidity and air pressure. In thin (or low density) air a ball can travel faster and farther because there is less air resistance.  Thus, let us breakdown the importance of these atmospheric variables on baseball:

1. Pressure.  Air under low pressure is less dense, or thinner, than air under high pressure.  This is the main reason long balls carry farther in Denver since the atmospheric pressure at that altitude is always about 15% less than sea level pressures.  A hit that would have flown 400 ft at sea level would carry to 430 ft in the thin air of Coors Stadium.  This is the reason why many baseball players like to play in Denver.  This permanent effect of Denver's high altitude is duly noted by the oddsmakers resulting in totals typically in the 12-14 range, reducing the opportunity to simply bet OVERS and win most of the time.  As a general rule, the day-to-day pressure changes of the atmosphere are not considered by the oddsmakers, but these daily pressure differences at stadiums caused by the meanderings of the high and low pressures depicted on weather charts are very small. On a low pressure day the pressure is only one or two per cent lower than on a normal day, so a 400 foot shot would only carry a whopping 402 feet! Obviously this effect is too small to worry about, especially since there are other atmospheric factors that actually make a big difference!

2. Humidity. Air with high humidity is less dense, or thinner, than dry air.  However, this effect so slight it it would only account for a long ball traveling a few inches farther on a humid day.  However, there is a significant and unexpected effect of humidity such as a baseball in a humid environment is actually heavier and less elastic than a dry ball, therefore, the ball cannot be hit as far.  The exact amount of this effect can only be determined experimentally, however, it is a generally known fact that a baseball that would normally travel 400 feet shot on a day with average humidity would go travel about 415 feet on a very dry day with low humidity.

3. Temperature. Warm air is less dense, or thinner, than cold air.  Thus, a baseball that would normally travel 400 feet at 75 degrees might travel 408 feet at 95 degrees.

4. Wind. Air moving along in the same direction the ball is flying pushes back less on the ball, allowing it to travel farther.  In fact, wind is the most common weather  consideration that most handicappers take in affect when betting baseball totals.  A 400 foot shot in calm conditions might be a 445 foot blast with a 15 mph wind directed out to center field.  So you can see on many occasions wind is more important even than the altitude in determining the total runs scored in baseball games.

A great tool to check the weather for each game, can be found at Daily Baseball Weather Data.

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