Baseball - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Thu, 22 May 2025 21:41:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Baseball - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 The Average Cost of Beer Per Ballpark (2025) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2025/03/28/the-average-cost-of-beer-per-ballpark-2025/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-average-cost-of-beer-per-ballpark-2025 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 19:37:50 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=16377 The Average Cost of Beer Per Ballpark

Beer and baseball just go together…. like… baseball and cracker jacks…. or baseball and peanuts…. or baseball and soft pretzels. You know… come to think of it, all of these foods are very salty and make you want to drink… I wonder if thats a coincidence?

Beer prices at Major League Baseball (MLB) stadiums in 2025 vary significantly, reflecting each team’s pricing strategies and efforts to enhance fan experience. While some teams have introduced value menus to offer more affordable options, others maintain higher prices, especially for premium or craft selections. So its no wonder you wanna know where you can get the most bang for your buck, so lets see what stadiums and ballparks have the best cost to beer ratios!

Union Craft Brewing’s beer at Camden Yards. (photo courtesy of Union Craft Brewing)

Average Beer Prices Across MLB Stadiums

Based on available data, the average price for a 16-ounce domestic beer at MLB stadiums in 2025 is approximately $7.50. However, prices can range from as low as $3.00 to as high as $15.00, depending on the stadium and beer type.

Notable Examples

  • Most Expensive: At Steinbrenner Field, home to the Tampa Bay Rays’ spring training, a 16-ounce beer can cost up to $15.00, the highest reported in the league. Bookies.com

  • Affordable Options: Teams like the Baltimore Orioles and Milwaukee Brewers have introduced value menus, offering beers for as low as $5.00 to attract more fans and provide a family-friendly experience. MarketWatch

  • Special Promotions: The St. Louis Cardinals offer $5.00 beers at the Budweiser Terrace during all games, providing fans with a more affordable beverage option. Reddit

Price Per Ounce

Analyzing beer prices per ounce provides additional insight:

  • Highest Per Ounce: The San Francisco Giants have one of the highest per-ounce prices at $0.73, reflecting the premium pricing at Oracle Park. ESPN.com

  • Lowest Per Ounce: The Colorado Rockies offer beers at $0.25 per ounce, making Coors Field one of the most affordable stadiums for beer.

Average Beer Prices in 2025

While the average beer price at MLB stadiums in 2025 hovers around $7.50 for a 16-ounce domestic beer, fans can find both more affordable and more expensive options depending on the stadium and available promotions. Teams are increasingly offering value menus and special deals to enhance the game-day experience and make attending games more accessible to a broader audience.

🍺 Average Beer Prices at MLB Ballparks (2025 Season)

 

Team Stadium Average Beer Price
Baltimore Orioles Oriole Park at Camden Yards 10.99$
Boston Red Sox Fenway Park 10.50$
Chicago White Sox Guaranteed Rate Field 10.50$
Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field 10.49$
San Francisco Giants Oracle Park 9.00$
Pittsburgh Pirates PNC Park 8.91$
Milwaukee Brewers American Family Field 8.49$
Texas Rangers Globe Life Field 8.00$
Philadelphia Phillies Citizens Bank Park 7.69$
Houston Astros Minute Maid Park 7.50$
New York Mets Citi Field 7.50$
Cincinnati Reds Great American Ball Park 7.49$
Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 7.00$
Oakland Athletics Oakland Coliseum 7.00$
New York Yankees Yankee Stadium 6.00$
Detroit Tigers Comerica Park 5.29$
St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium 5.25$
Miami Marlins loanDepot Park 5.00$
Tampa Bay Rays Tropicana Field 5.00$
Cleveland Guardians Progressive Field 5.00$
Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium 5.00$
Seattle Mariners T-Mobile Park 5.00$
San Diego Padres Petco Park 5.00$
Minnesota Twins Target Field 4.99$
Atlanta Braves Truist Park 4.99$
Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field 4.99$
Los Angeles Angels Angel Stadium 4.50$
Toronto Blue Jays Rogers Centre 4.44$
Colorado Rockies Coors Field 3.00$
Washington Nationals Nationals Park 3.00$

Now, as you can see, by the low prices of some of these parks, this obviously doesn’t indicate the best beer is being consumed! The math was accumulated over the total prices of beer items listed in various places in the parks, and also takes in some discounts and different methods that some (season ticket holders, etc.) have of reducing the costs. Its also prince per ounce, so costs may seem off balance due to this as well.

Numbers and information comes via Market Watch.

See Also

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We are also now on BlueSky as well, so make sure to check us out there also. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of May 2025.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

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The Closest and Best Brewery Near Every MLB Ballpark https://thebeerthrillers.com/2025/03/27/the-closest-and-best-brewery-near-every-mlb-ballpark/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-closest-and-best-brewery-near-every-mlb-ballpark Thu, 27 Mar 2025 21:11:54 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=16374 The Closest and Best Brewery Near Every MLB Ballpark

In honor of baseball season kicking off today, let’s take a look at the best breweries nearest to each of the MLB ballparks throughout the country.

There’s nothing quite like catching a Major League Baseball game on a sunny afternoon—or under the lights—with a cold beer in hand. But while stadium beer options are improving, true craft beer lovers know that the best pints are often found just outside the ballpark gates.

Whether you’re a baseball diehard on a ballpark tour or a local looking to elevate your game-day experience, we’ve rounded up the best and closest craft brewery to every MLB stadium. From legendary lager halls to modern hop havens, these breweries are perfect pregame or postgame destinations.

Slugger by Sly Fox Brewing at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA


🧢 American League

Baltimore Orioles – Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Checkerspot Brewing Company (0.5 miles)
A short walk from Camden Yards, Checkerspot is a haven for local beer lovers. Their Flagship Helles and Juniperus IPA are favorites—perfect for cooling down after a humid Baltimore afternoon.

Boston Red Sox – Fenway Park

Trillium Brewing Company – Fort Point (2.5 miles)
While not next door, Trillium’s Fort Point taproom is worth the trek for juicy IPAs, saisons, and some of the city’s most revered hazy offerings.

Chicago White Sox – Guaranteed Rate Field

Revolution Brewing – Kedzie Taproom (5 miles)
A Chicago staple, Revolution is known for Anti-Hero IPA and its barrel-aged Deep Wood series. A short ride from the South Side gets you to one of the Midwest’s best breweries.

Cleveland Guardians – Progressive Field

Market Garden Brewery (0.7 miles)
Just down the road in Ohio City, Market Garden pours a great lineup with something for everyone—from their classic Progress Pilsner to seasonal sours.

Detroit Tigers – Comerica Park

Atwater Brewery (1 mile)
Set along the Detroit River, Atwater serves up hometown classics like Vanilla Java Porter and Dirty Blonde Ale. A short walk or quick drive makes it a game-day go-to.

Houston Astros – Minute Maid Park

8th Wonder Brewery (0.4 miles)
Just blocks from the ballpark, 8th Wonder celebrates Houston with creative beers and a vibrant taproom. Try Dome Faux’m, their ode to the Astrodome.

Kansas City Royals – Kauffman Stadium

Boulevard Brewing Company (7 miles)
A bit of a drive, but no KC beer tour is complete without Boulevard. Hit up their Beer Hall before or after the game for Tank 7, Space Camper, and more.

Los Angeles Angels – Angel Stadium

Golden Road Brewing – Anaheim (1.5 miles)
A SoCal staple, Golden Road’s Anaheim outpost is minutes from the stadium and offers a laid-back beer garden with a solid core lineup.

Minnesota Twins – Target Field

Fulton Beer (0.2 miles)
Fulton’s taproom is practically in Target Field’s shadow. Sweet Child of Vine and Lonely Blonde are local legends worth sipping with a brat and baseball.

New York Yankees – Yankee Stadium

The Bronx Brewery (1.5 miles)
A short ride into the heart of the Bronx brings you to this hip, industrial-style brewery with a strong lineup and community spirit.

Oakland Athletics – Oakland Coliseum

Drake’s Brewing Co. (1 mile)
Tucked behind a warehouse facade, Drake’s Barrel House delivers West Coast IPA gold and a cozy outdoor space for pregame pints.

Seattle Mariners – T-Mobile Park

Fremont Brewing (3.5 miles)
A drive across town brings you to Fremont, a must-visit brewery with a loyal following and an award-winning lineup, including their legendary Lush IPA.

Tampa Bay Rays – Tropicana Field

Green Bench Brewing Co. (0.6 miles)
Located in downtown St. Pete, Green Bench is one of Florida’s finest, offering everything from Berliner weisses to barrel-aged stouts.

Texas Rangers – Globe Life Field

Legal Draft Beer Co. (1.1 miles)
Just a mile from the ballpark, Legal Draft delivers sessionable beers in a laid-back Arlington setting—perfect for pregame hops or postgame analysis.

Toronto Blue Jays – Rogers Centre

Steam Whistle Brewing (Next to the stadium)
You can’t get any closer than Steam Whistle. Located in the historic Roundhouse just steps from Rogers Centre, this pilsner-focused brewery is practically part of the stadium experience.


âšľ National League

Arizona Diamondbacks – Chase Field

Wren House Brewing Company (3 miles)
A quick Uber ride rewards you with one of Phoenix’s most acclaimed breweries. Valley Beer is a crisp, local lager that hits the spot on a game day.

Atlanta Braves – Truist Park

Fire Maker Brewing Company (7 miles)
Named one of the best new breweries in the U.S., Fire Maker’s hazy IPAs and fruited sours make them worth the trip from The Battery.

Chicago Cubs – Wrigley Field

Half Acre Beer Company (4 miles)
Cubs fans can hop a short ride north to Half Acre’s Balmoral taproom for a full menu of IPAs, lagers, and wild ales. Daisy Cutter is a Chicago icon.

Cincinnati Reds – Great American Ball Park

Rhinegeist Brewery (0.5 miles)
Just a few blocks from the stadium, Rhinegeist’s massive taproom offers panoramic views, house-made cider, and some of the best IPAs in the state.

Colorado Rockies – Coors Field

The SandLot Brewery (Inside the stadium)
Tucked inside Coors Field, SandLot was the birthplace of Blue Moon and remains a working brewery today—making it a unique ballpark destination.

Los Angeles Dodgers – Dodger Stadium

Angel City Brewery (4 miles)
Located in the Arts District, Angel City offers unique brews like Avocado Ale and a sprawling indoor-outdoor space—ideal for cooling down postgame.

Miami Marlins – loanDepot Park

Wynwood Brewing Company (2 miles)
Wynwood is Miami’s OG craft brewery, serving up hop-forward ales and Latin flair in the heart of the arts district.

Milwaukee Brewers – American Family Field

Leinenkugel’s Barrel Yard (Inside the stadium)
Yes, inside the ballpark. The Barrel Yard is a working brewery overlooking left field—offering fans a truly immersive brewpub experience.

New York Mets – Citi Field

Mikkeller NYC (Previously in the stadium)
Note: Mikkeller NYC closed in 2020, but nearby Queens Brewery is a solid backup with inventive, bold beers and Mets-themed brews.

Philadelphia Phillies – Citizens Bank Park

Yards Brewing Company (2.5 miles)
Philadelphia’s brewing roots run deep, and Yards leads the charge with classics like Brawler and Philadelphia Pale Ale.

Pittsburgh Pirates – PNC Park

Southern Tier Brewing – Pittsburgh Taproom (0.3 miles)
Located right across the Allegheny River, Southern Tier’s North Shore location is perfect for a game-day hang. Grab a 2XIPA and enjoy the view.

San Diego Padres – Petco Park

Ballast Point Brewing – Little Italy (1.2 miles)
San Diego is a beer mecca, and Ballast Point’s Little Italy spot is a short stroll from the stadium. Sculpin IPA is a San Diego legend.

San Francisco Giants – Oracle Park

21st Amendment Brewery (0.2 miles)
Just steps from the park, 21st Amendment serves up crowd-pleasers like Brew Free! or Die IPA and Hell or High Watermelon Wheat.

St. Louis Cardinals – Busch Stadium

Urban Chestnut Brewing Company (2 miles)
UCBC blends Old World and New World styles with German precision. Their Midtown location is just a short hop from the stadium.

Washington Nationals – Nationals Park

Bluejacket Brewery (0.3 miles)
A game-day favorite, Bluejacket offers creative, well-crafted beers just a block from the ballpark, plus a full kitchen and patio.


⚾🍺 Final Thoughts

Whether you’re in town to see your team on the road or exploring your own backyard, combining baseball and craft beer is always a win. These breweries bring flavor, community, and a touch of local pride to America’s pastime.

Got a favorite pregame pint spot we missed? Let us know in the comments or tag us on social media with your ballpark beer pics!


 

Team Name Stadium Brewery Distance
Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field Wren House Brewing Company 3 Miles
Atlanta Braves Truist Park Fire Maker Brewing Company 7 Miles
Baltimore Orioles Oriole Park at Camden Yards Checkerspot Brewing Company 0.5 Miles
Boston Red Sox Fenway Park Trillium Brewing Company – Fort Point 2.5 Miles
Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field Half Acre Brewing Company 4 Miles
Chicago White Sox Guaranteed Rate Field Revolution Brewing – Kedzie Taproom 5 Miles
Cincinnati Reds Great American Ball Park Rhinegeist Brewery 0.5 Miles
Cleveland Guardians Progressive Field Market Garden Brewery 0.7 Miles
Colorado Rockies Coors Field The Sandlot Brewery (Inside the Stadium)
Detroit Tigers Comerica Park Atwater Brewery 1 Mile
Houston Astros Minute Maid Park 8th Wonder Brewery 0.4 Miles
Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium Boulevard Brewing Company 7 Miles
Los Angeles Angels Angel Stadium Golden Road Brewing – Anaheim 1.5 Miles
Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium Angel City Brewing 4 Miles
Miami Marlins loanDepot park Wynwood Brewing 2 Miles
Milwaukee Brewers American Family Field Leinenkugel’s Barrel Yard (Inside the Stadium)
Minnesota Twins Target Field Fulton Beer 0.2 Miles
New York Mets Citi Field Queens Brewery 9.4 Miles
New York Yankees Yankee Stadium The Bronx Brewery 1.5 Miles
Oakland Athletics Oakland Coliseum Drake’s Brewing Co. 1 Mile
Philadelphia Phillies Citizens Bank Park Yards Brewing Company 2.5 Miles
Pittsburgh Pirates PNC Park Southern Tier Brewing Company – Pittsburgh Taproom 0.3 Miles
San Diego Padres Petco Park Ballast Point Brewing – Little Italy 1.2 Miles
San Fransisco Giants Oracle Park 21st Amendment Brewing 0.2 Miles
Seattle Mariners T-Mobile Park Fremont Brewing 3.5 Miles
St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium Urban Chestnut Brewing Company 2 Miles
Tampa Bay Rays Tropicana Field Green Bench Brewing 0.6 Miles
Texas Rangers Globe Life Field Legal Draft Brewing 1.1 Miles
Toronto Blue Jays Rogers Centre Steam Whistle Brewing (Adjacent to the Stadium)
Washington Nationals Nationals Park Bluejacket Brewery 0.3 Miles

There is so many good choices of breweries around all of the different stadiums and ballparks, but hopefully this gives you an idea and a starting place to check out. Hopefully your team wins (unless their playing against the Phillies) and cheers!

See Also

  • Average Cost of Beer per Stadium (2025)
  • Best Craft Beer at Each Ballpark (2025)

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We are also now on BlueSky as well, so make sure to check us out there also. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of May 2025.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

]]> 16374 Book Review: The Physics of Baseball (Robert K. Adair) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/04/24/book-review-the-physics-of-baseball-robert-k-adair/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-review-the-physics-of-baseball-robert-k-adair Sat, 24 Apr 2021 14:55:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7523

The Physics of Baseball by Robert K. Adair

America’s Game

Its start of the season, its springtime, flowers are blooming, people are getting vaccinated, and for the first time in what feels like forever, people are getting to watch baseball in person, ahhhh what a glorious time it is, its baseball season! America’s game! The Phillies have started off 3-0 against the Braves and then quickly dovetailed into their normal season low. Ahhh what a great time!

Whats better than baseball? Thinking about baseball like a nerd! And no I don’t mean the sabermetrics like in Moneyball…. I mean even nerdier…. deep…. gritty…. nerdism….. I’m talking about….

PHYSICS! Everybody’s least favorite science!

So what’s better than combining our favorite sport with our least favorite subject right?

Physics

You can’t do baseball without physics. As Jesse would say (from Breaking Bad) “Yea… Science bitches!” I love science, but more in the “thats cool how it works” kind of way, and not so much in the “forms” and “figures” and “equations” kind of way. It all looks Greek and Hebrew and Gibberish to me when looking at X – r/1 (n/200) = v/3 or some such. I dunno…. that was purely made up contrivance there on my part, so take it for what it is. But this book is … somewhere between a layman’s work and a bit too heavy on jargon and equations.

So, needless to say then, some parts flew over my head, whilst other parts were in my wheelhouse. (When he talks like he would to a third grader, its in my wheelhouse, when he speaks to an educated academician … yea… definitely not in my wheelhouse.)

Spoiler before getting into the review – I think there is still plenty in this quick (106 pages or so, before footnotes, bibliography, and index) book for any baseball (and if there is such a thing as a ‘physics’ fan) fan.

Robert K. Adair

Sadly, it appears we just recently lost (last September) Robert K. Adair. I didn’t know of him or anything about him prior to reading the book, and the book doesn’t give a whole lot of history on his past either, but for the review I looked him up and he has his own Wikipedia page. (Though, at this point who doesn’t? ….oh wait… I don’t….) The book gives a few indications of his qualifications and expertise but not much else and not a whole lot of history of the man himself.

The lead-in for him on Wikipedia page: “Robert Kemp Adair (August 14, 1924 – September 28, 2020) was an American physicist. He latterly held the position of Sterling Professor Emeritus of physics at Yale University.[3][4][5]” (The Emeritus position for Yale was mentioned in the book.)

Adair served in the European theatre after volunteering for World War II and was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze star. After achieving a doctorate in experimental nuclear physics at the University of Wisconsin he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Long Island. In 1959 he joined the faculty at Yale, serving as chair of the Department of Physics and director of the Division of Physical Sciences. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1976 where he served as Chairman of the Physics Section 1986-1989 and Chairman of the Class of Physical Sciences 1991-1994. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997,[1] after a distinguished career in, among many other subfields of physics, weak-interaction (Kaon) physics at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at BNL.

Later, in his retirement, he studied the effects of extremely low frequency (weak) electromagnetic fields on human health and among other responsibilities served on the Committee of the American Physical Society (APS) established to investigate the APS Statement on Global Warming in 2007, which was not without its own internal controversy. He died in September 2020 at the age of 96.[6]

Robert Kemp Adair Wikipedia

He wrote two baseball related works: The Physics of Baseball and The Crack of the Bat: The Acoustics of the Bat Hitting the Ball.

The Physics of Baseball

The Physics of Baseball by Robert K. Adair

Book: The Physics of Baseball
Author: Robert K. Adair
Published: January 1st, 1990 (First Printed)
Edition: Second Edition, Paperback, Published January 20th, 1994
Pages: 160
The Physics of Baseball on GoodReads

The book is mainly broken down into a few main categories (there’s a few others that are brief and just tie in to the overall theme of physics and the book, rather than particulars) and they are: the flight of the baseball, pitching, batting the ball, and the properties of bats.

I liked the pitching segment the best because it discussed the differences in sliders, fastballs (depending on seam and style), curve balls and knuckle balls. I found it fascinating learning the different affects small things like rotation, air flow, humidity, etc, has on the ball’s speed, velocity, trajectory, etc.

The other segments were interesting as well. The flight of the ball was impressive, and is kind of funny in retrospect how he mentions if they ever play in Denver that they would have to change the balls they use. (Spoiler alert – the Colorado Rockies were founded in 1991, and they do not change the balls when playing there.)

The last segment about properties of bats is also interesting, especially as it discusses the various ways of cheating and tampering with bats. He claims (through his equations and physics) that corking bats actually doesn’t provide any benefits to the player and that there is no real benefit to cheating this way. He mentions several other ways in the past they cheated – hammering nails into the bat, cutting the bats, slicing the bats, different things other than corking, etc.

The equations and formulas are a bit hard to follow – for someone like me at any rate. I’m not the biggest formula and equation and nerd on that end, despite my love for science. I like seeing science in work, not doing the work for it, if that makes any sense. I think someone with a good (or recent) high school physics class or college course could do well enough with the formulas and equations, whereas for me, most went right over my head.

Overall this is a fun book for any fan of baseball and physics (and double win if your a fan of both). There is certainly a lot to learn here, especially if you are an active player, mostly for high school or college age, as a professional probably already knows all this – just without the science behind it; they just know it from learned behavior, by playing, by experience.

My GoodReads Rating: ***
My LibraryThing Rating: ***
Global Average GoodReads Rating: 3.70

Be sure to check out my other book reviews:

Also be sure to check out my hike review:

Cheers and thanks for reading everyone! Hope you enjoyed. Let us know your thoughts on the book and hike reviews! Thanks!

-B. Kline

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