Posted: 2025-09-27 07:29:59 (ET) [ 87 views ]
Everyone who considers baseball pitching knows that a spinning baseball traveling through the AIR will bend either a little or a lot, depending on the direction of the spin.
Everyone who watches baseball is aware that speed in the 90 mph ranges is very fast, so a hitter must be good to hit it.
Everyone who sees a curveball realizes that it is slower, but curves, and; there are as many varieties of a curving pitch (depending on the pitchers ability to spin it one direction or another) as there are pitchers with different abilities.
Baseballvmi.com is built around what others don't think about very much. That is; the air that causes these pitches to differ. The air is different (either a little bit or a lot) every day, every location and every few seconds. So, we gauge the air using the "Neeley Scale." See Neeley Scale under the menu "Science" on this site.
Everyone who plays baseball knows that the most difficult pitch to hit consistently is the four-seam fastball. What no one knows is "why" the hitter misses the four-seam fastball, because at times it appears easy and feels easy to the hitter. Most coaches and therefore players, think it is varying muscle memory causing poor mechanics in the swing, so they constantly work on that. Yet, at home, in the dark of the night, they all can find a door knob so easily they never think about muscle memory. Nor do people think about muscle memory when they are typing accurately.
So at baseballlvmi we focus on the ever-changing air because Clifton Neeley has been focused on the air since the age of 13 in the 1960's having played both the more difficult "fast-pitch men's softball" and "high school and college" baseball--even simultaneously and at substantially different altitudes.
If the air changes, so will the bend, hop, dive, dart and lift or rise in the pitch, baseball throw, football pass, basketball three-point shot, soccer corner kick. BaseballVMI is set up to use weather forecasts and formulas provided by a Colorado State University mechanical engineering professor emeritus Dr. Douglas Hittle to anticipate the air density ahead of game-time for each game in both MLB and NBA. These are actual conditions that no player has any control over, but affect the contest.
Players that are used to similar conditions from recent games are more productive by far, than those who must perform in extremely different conditions from their own recent games. Those statistics will be accurate year in and year out for all the participants regardless of their name, because the human race is all essentially built in the same mode by the same creator.
The four-seam fastball is the most difficult to hit because it lifts, as opposed to either diving or darting, and will lift higher than anticipated by as much as three inches because of altitude extremes and two inches more due to temperature extremes betwen MLB stadium locations. So, data gets muddled being spread among over 1200 major league hitters, pitched by over 1200 pitchers throwing between three and nine pitch-types each. It gets muddled between slower pitches vs the fastest pitches as well, but the slower the pitch, the more time the hitter has to make the adjustment, so can win games off pitcher/catcher decision choices.
Since 2001, Clifton Neeley has educated both MLB and the public about the actual differences in the invisible air, and has promoted a recommended pressurized batting cage for leveling the playing field. Since 2011, he has worked with the late, but beloved Gene Vosteen at Foxstone Industries, Inc. developing and revealing these statistics attached to the air density the game was played within.
Altitude, Temperature and Humidity
The Neeley Scale uses the air density to gauge each game in MLB and the NBA, as well as D-1 University Mens and Women's Basketball games with a number between 40 and 80 to identify the thin air vs medium and heavy air. In baseball, using the air density gauge, it is easy to see that the Central Division in MLB is competitive mainly with each other and in those stadium locations with thinner air. The Eastern Division and Western Division teams located within 100 feet of sea level are competitive with each other and superior to all other teams in the entire league--always have been--always will be.
Teams like the Dodgers, Braves, Diamondbacks, Rangers, and Angels are much like the Central Division teams who periodically can take a team all the way to the World Series, but cannot maintain the consistency of the sea level teams, all because of the altitude of their stadiums. Altitudes of stadiums between 200 feet and 1200 feet cause the air to be too light to get the best movement on pitches, therefore the hitters whose home stadium is in this range, do not get to see the best movement on pitches each and every day. No one should want to change that, as it creates intrigue in competitiveness, but leaves the league without a level playing field and harms the teams, players and coaches' careers.
The Colorado Rockies are in a league of their own at 5,200 feet, soon to be joined by the 2,100 foot stadium at Las Vegas. The team just completed their worst record ever for a season, almost setting an all time record in the process. It's not hard to figure out. It's only hard for owners, managers, coaches, players and know-it-alls, to set aside their egos for a few minutes and realize the answer is simple and should be implemented. Quit saying there is not enough oxygen in Denver for good transitions, as there are quintillions (literally) of oxygen molecules in each breath at both Denver and at sea level. It's not the availability of oxygen, it is the lesser air pressure that causes a lack of the best movement i.e. late movement on pitches to maintain quality production in transitions from Denver or Las Vegas to sea level or even to 1000 feet above.
Pressurize your batting cages!!
Clifton
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