Climate Matters: Baseballs can fly farther in a warming climate
You can blame it on changing regulations, better players, or different fields, but all baseball fans know that home runs have become a more frequent aspect of the game over the years.
There have been decades of debates on why home runs are increasing, and studies have shown that a warmer climate is driving more of those homers out of the park.
"It's pretty cut and dry. Warmer temperatures and humidity typically lead to longer ball distances for things like home runs. Obviously, it increases the chance of the ball leaving the yard," says Joey Miller, the voice of the Grand Junction Jackalopes, an MLB-partnered league in the western United States.
Humidity also plays a role. "Humidity leads to lower air density. Water molecules are less dense than nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, allowing them to kind of move freely in that warmer atmosphere," Miller explains.
While warm and humid air offers less resistance, the opposite is true in cooler conditions. Water molecules are packed tighter together in colder air, leading to more air resistance.
Other factors in the history of baseball have also changed the frequency of home runs. In the "Golden Era" of baseball, big names like Babe Ruth took advantage of new rules to drive more balls out of the park, when fields were smaller than those of today.
Some eras were not so golden. "One of the more famous eras, in the 90s, was the steroid era. Obviously, the weather had nothing to do with that." Miller says, "It was people taking performance-enhancing drugs like Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire, hitting home run records that we've never seen." Barry Bonds still technically holds the record for the most home runs in Major League Baseball.
While home runs are exciting, they might not be what all fans want to see in every game. "You see a lot of home runs hitting this league, and sometimes that's not as exciting for fans. You want to see close games, you want to see nail-biters, you want to see down-to-the-wire action, and maybe that's driving a few fans away from the game," says Miller. Still, the Pioneer League introduced a home run derby midseason to draw in more fans.
According to Climate Central, in Atlanta, Georgia, the host of tonight's MLB All-Star game, temperatures have warmed 3.4 degrees in the last 50 years, allowing baseballs to fly farther and out of the park more often.
