A record 6,105 home runs were hit in 2017
Baseballs really are getting extra lift, and it's not from the exaggerated upper cuts batters are taking, according to a 10-person committee of researchers hired by the Major League Baseball commissioner's office.
But a panel that includes professors specializing in physics, mechanical engineering, statistics and mathematics struck out trying to pinpoint the cause.
Committee chairman Alan Nathan, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says ''the aerodynamic properties of the ball have changed, allowing it tocarry farther.''
The committee's 84-page report was released Wednesday by Major League Baseball. There was no evidence of meaningful change in the bounciness of the balls, formally called coefficient ofrestitution, or alteration in batters' swings, such as upper-cutting.
As for what caused of the change in aerodynamic properties, it remains baseball's great mystery.