Mythbusters: Baseball Myths

Today, I ran across a pair of old Mythbusters episodes that took on several of baseball's most notorious myths. Can a corked bat hit a baseball farther than a regular baseball bat? Does eye black really work? Does adding humidity to a baseball reduce it's tendency to be hit for a home run? Is there such a thing as a rising fastball? Is it faster to slide or slow down into bases that you can't overrun in a game? Can a fastball ball hit hard enough cause the baseball's hide and stitching to be torn apart?

The answers are:
1. There is no available video for the first myth, but Mythbusters proved that putting cork in a bat actually reduced the momentum of the batted ball by up to 50%. In other words, if Sosa truly was playing with a corked bat, not only was he cheating himself out of homeruns, but he was also significantly more powerful than fans ever gave him credit for!

2.
Yes, but it only works on reflected glare (not direct sunlight)

3. I couldn't find a video for the humidity myth, but Mythbusters proved that there is a noticeable impact on the home run propensity of baseballs stored in humid areas.

4.
No.

5. I couldn't find a video for the sliding myth, but Mythbusters proved that sliding is unequivocally more effective by fractions of a second.

6.
Not by a human, no.