Real Life Research … By Real, Live Researchers: Big is Better at Bat

By Alison apRoberts, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Mar. 26–When Mickey Mantle was batting well, he said the ball looked as big as a grapefruit. When Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals was in a batting slump, he said the ball looked like an aspirin.

They aren’t the only players to report that the bigger the ball looks, the better they do at bat. Now, a study by psychology researchers at the University of Virginia backs up this bit of batting lore. Softball players with higher batting averages perceived the ball to be bigger than those who had lower batting averages.

The study, which sounded like a great way to hang out on the field and call it science, was published in the scholarly journal Psychological Science and reported by Newswise, a research-oriented news service.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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