The great victory of the Yankees concerned their team more than the torpedoes: NPR

On Monday, March 31, when the Philadelphia Phillies at the home opening at the Citizens Bank Park, with two withdrawals at the end of the first round, with the counting to a ball and a strike, the Bryce Harper Phillies Harper hit the ball. You could hear it – slap. And this crowd (in which I was) wanted her to review the closure. “Ohhhhhhh!” went this crowd, which jumped on its feet. Back went the left field player of Colorado Rockies, Jordan Beck. And then, standing so close to the wall that he could have reached his back and hit the panel of the Blonde beer Yuengling with his left elbow, Beck grabbed her. The thing may have traveled 370 feet, a few meters a few meters from a home run. But Harper was out.

This happens all the time. Baseball is a game of long distances, but also small. So something with even a modest effect on the trajectory of the ball is intriguing. And that is why there have been so many discussions on last week of bats.

Unlike normal wooden bats, which are the widest towards the end, torpedo bats are slightly larger to a few centimeters closer to the middle. This means that they have more of their weight where players tend to hit the ball. They look a bit like bowling pins, and they have been there for some time. They were not invented or used for the first time in the match of March 29 in which the New York Yankees beat the Brewers 20-9 Milwaukee, reaching a total of nine circuits, four of which are in the first round and three on the First three games of the game. But this bizarre and bizarre game, especially because it presented such a dominant performance by one of the most spoken teams in baseball, highlighted the bats that some of them used.

All the Yankees who struck circuits used Torpille bats; Aaron Judge, who struck three, including a great home, was not. But many of them were. And now, a bunch of more guys on a bunch of other teams are considering there, although some people emphasize that it really depends on the place and how you tend to hit the ball. What “works” for another player may not help you at all. But it’s always interesting – even if they help a littleA squirtMaybe they give this ball a chance to overcome this sign of Yuengling.

Just to clarify: these bats are unambiguously legal, and no one really claims. It’s not cheating, and it’s not a fault. It’s just one thing to try, and maybe it’s important, and maybe that is not the case. Perhaps it counts psychologically, either because it gives the striker more confidence, or because it gives less to the launcher. Maybe it has one or twice a season, for some players. There are people-priests who think there are very early evidence that they could help certain strikers against certain launchers, perhaps. If they do, more players will try them, and probably more will use them, and there will be much more data – enough to tell you something.

People love a story, however. The idea that this bizarre game was the result of Torpille’s bats is a better story than: “Huh. Weird!” After all, the Yankees swept this series against the Brewers, but they then lost two out of three against the Arizona Diamondbacks. They lost two games in total (from Friday), which is the same number as plot Other teams during the first week, including the Blue Jays of Toronto and the Rays of Tampa Bay in the own Yankees division.

The Yankees are playing, at the moment, like a good and great baseball team, what the Yankees are … fundamentally always. They are not unbeatable and they do not hit the circuits every time they come on the plate. They hit a plot Among them, and the head of the team is Aaron Judge, who struck five circuits and who, once again, does not use Battedo. He’s just … it’s Aaron Judge.

Sometimes an aberrant value is just an aberrant value. After all, the Yankees made five mistakes in this 20-9 match, and they have not made any other mistake this season so far, so it was a strange game in more than one way.

You do not only succeed in animated events; You succeed in what is happening during a long season, on many bats, on many swings that do or do not send the ball on the Yuengling panel. This is exactly why you are just fighting a few centimeters away, you might be able to advance the ball, even sometimes a year. “Torpededo” is probably an overly aggressive word for a different -form baseball bat, but “potentially gradually advantageous design” does not take place in the language in the same way.

If Torpille’s bats are an innovation that will not be because they transform you into a judge Aaron or make your team mark 20 points per game. What matters most is if, without anyone being able to say it, they help you do a little better for a long time. It’s baseball for you – and a lot of other things in life too.

This play also appeared in the NPR Culture Hour Culture Newsletter. Register for the newsletter So you don’t miss the next one, and get weekly recommendations on what makes us happy.

Listen to the pop happy hour culture on Apple podcasts And Spotify.