One of Yogi Berra’s most classic quotes was “you can’t hit and think at the same time.” Berra is known for making statements like this but if you’re talking about hitting a major league fastball he’d be 100% right. How in the in the world can a hitter’s brain even process hitting a fastball that’s coming at them at 95 mph and higher? First the brain has to recognize the ball is coming, then it has to signal to the body to swing. But how can this be done in such a tiny window of time?
The distance from the rubber to home plate is 60’6 but if you take into account a pitcher’s stride it’s more like an average of 55 feet. It takes a fastball traveling at 90-95mph 400 milliseconds to get from the pitcher’s hand to the catcher’s glove. It takes the human brain 80-100 milliseconds just to process the image of the ball. Add to that the the average swing time of a being being 150 milliseconds and that batter is at a huge disadvantage.
So how in the world do hitters even hit? Glad you asked because the video below explains it all.
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