Juice or Pulp? : Why Are There More Home Runs This Season? Lively Balls? Gravity? Or Simply Bad Pitching?

We’ve often been told that baseball is a funny game, and now, as it turns out, so is the baseball itself. It seems that yesterday’s bland prop actually has star potential, which can mean only that the once-lowly baseball was only fooling us before.

What the baseball is saying this season in the major leagues is this: Do not think of us merely as colorless round objects in borrowed cow clothes.

Inside that white, hand-stitched, full-grain leather jacket beats the rubber-covered cork heart of an extrovert, even if it is clothed in three separate windings of 85% wool and a fourth winding of that winning combination of pleasing polyester and cool cotton.

It’s the year of the baseball, all right. After all, they made a film called “Mr. Baseball,” right? Does anyone remember a movie called “Mr. Bat” or “Mr. First Base” or “Mr. Infield Fly Rule?”

The superstar that has emerged this season is none other than the baseball, mainly because it has been flying out of the ballparks as if it had wings.

“They’re getting hit so hard, you could hang clothes on them,” said former pitcher Bill (Spaceman) Lee.

Lee is right, too. The last time there were this many home runs this early in the season was never.

What could be the reason for this? Poor pitchers? Heavy hitters? Expansion? Acid rain?

Lee, naturally, has a theory. He said somebody is tampering with gravity. It’s a serious charge, he acknowledges.

“But it’s pretty clear there are more homers because of the lower pressure of the earth,” he said. “It’s like Kurt Vonnegut said, we’re losing our gravity.”

Clearly, the gravity of the situation cannot be underestimated. But setting Lee’s theory aside for the time being, could it possibly be the baseballs? Has somebody given them something to help them travel? Something other than an airline ticket?

Some--many, in fact--say the baseball is juiced, which is slightly different from the rabbit ball but clearly related as long as carrot juice is used.

Joe Garagiola disagrees with the prevalent theory. He says history is merely repeating itself.

“Is the ball juiced?” he said. “No, but I think the pitchers are.”

What is happening now reminds Garagiola of the 1948 season, when he was catching for the St. Louis Cardinals. That year, too, baseballs were flying without their pilots’ licenses.

One of Garagiola’s friends was a Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher named Ernie (Tiny) Bonham, who had some novel ideas about the lively baseballs. “One time he said, ‘I don’t know if there is any rabbit in these balls, but I saw four of them in the equipment bag and 20 minutes later there were 27,’ ” Garagiola said.

“Another time, he said, ‘I don’t know if the ball is juiced, but I was standing in the outfield and I saw one of them eating grass.’ ”

And 46 years later, Garagiola is seeing the same thing. Maybe not a baseball eating grass, but you get the idea. He simply doesn’t know why he is seeing it again.

“What’s going on now, I can’t explain it,” he said.

And who can? A spokesman for Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. said the balls are no different from last year’s, or any other year’s.

Rawlings holds a contract with the major leagues to provide baseballs. Since 1977, Rawlings has produced about 600,000 balls each year for the American and National Leagues. The ball is being made for Rawlings in Costa Rica after a move from Haiti.

The composition of the ball hasn’t changed since 1931, when the cork center was replaced by a cork center cushioned with layers of black rubber and red rubber.

The ball cannot weigh less than five ounces or more than 5 1/4 ounces and must be no less than nine inches or more than 9 1/4 inches in circumference.

Those are the rules. But what if there weren’t any? For instance, if someone wanted to juice a baseball, how would that someone do it?

Jeff Di Tullio of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an instructor in the department of aerodynamics. Di Tullio is an inventor on the side. He has designed a dimpled bat that he says makes the ball go farther.

Di Tullio said it wouldn’t be hard to make the ball livelier, but it wouldn’t be very sporting. “All you have to do is change the materials,” he said. “Get a different core. And wind it with something besides wool, maybe with plastic or rubber. But you just can’t go tampering with it. You can’t be obvious.”

The easiest way to alter the ball to make it livelier probably is to wind the wool tighter, although that might affect the weight.

Of course, there is another way. Want to juice a baseball? Simple. Cast a spell. And for casting spells, there is no one better than a witch.

Barbara McGraw is a witch, or a Wiccan, a practitioner of the religion of earth magic. McGraw, a doctoral student in the religion department at USC, said the idea would be to concentrate on calling on the energy of the elements to aid the batter.

Here is a sample, in case there is a spelling test: “I call all the elements of the world to be with me as the swing of my bat impacts the ball.”

If the casting of spells gets popular, though, there is a chance this could get out of hand and baseballs would be so totally airborne they would establish their own flight patterns, especially if somebody else is turning down the gravity spigot.

If that happens, then there will be even more pressure to sober up that baseball again. Garagiola suggested one way.

“Why not make them flat on one side?” he said.

Indeed. Some say the earth is flat, why not a baseball?

Nah, that’ll never fly. Better get the witch on the phone again.

Home Run Derby

The figures being posted this season are truly in a league of their own. A look at what the end results could be. Statistics through May 9:

HR G Projected Total National League 441 413 2,422 American League 478 409 2,650 Total* 919 822 5,072 Rockies** 48 29 268 Matt Williams*** 14 31 73 Gary Sheffield 12 31 63 Dante Bichette 11 28 64 Ken Griffey 11 29 61 Ellis Burks 10 28 58 Joe Carter 10 28 58 Cecil Fielder 10 28 58 Andres Galarraga 10 28 58 Rafael Palmeiro 10 28 58

* All-Time Record: 4,458 in 1987

** NL Record: Chicago (1987), 209

*** Record: Roger Maris (1961), 61

Core of the Matter

If the baseball that is producing a record pace for home runs this year is any different, it isn’t by design. The composition of the ball hasn’t changed since 1931, when the cork center was replaced by a cork center cushioned with a layer of black rubber and a layer of red rubber.

Weight: 5 to 5.25 ounces

Circumference: 9 to 9.25 inches

Cowhide

3-ply gray woolen yarn

3-ply white woolen yarn

4-ply gray woolen yarn

Cork

Black rubber

Red rubber