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Ages and Stages
Youth is wasted on the young, they say. The male body usually reaches full maturity by the age of 20. A typical rookie comes up to the majors a year or two later with a lot of raw talent. After he gets a a few years of experience, he's likely to have his "career year" before he turns 30. After that, his reflexes slow, his weight goes up, he loses a few steps, injuries nag him, and his numbers begin to tail off. His accumulated wisdom helps put off the inevitable for a few years, but it is a rare ballplayer who can still achieve greatness as he approaches his 40th birthday. The chart below shows what some players have accomplished at specific ages.
The Ultimate position player
If we were mad scientists with an obsession to create the perfect baseball player, we would select bits and pieces of various players and combine them into one super athlete -- a baseball-playing monster. The choices here are subjective, of course, but few would argue that together they would make one helluva ballplaying machine.
The physics of Fielding
Catching a baseball may not be quite as difficult as hitting one, but it requires good reaction time, running speed, and most importantly, the somewhat mysterious ability to judge the trajectory of a flying object. Paradoxically, it's harder to catch a ball hit directly at you than it is to catch one that you have to run toward. This is because a ball hit to the fielder's left or right allows him to see the parabolic arc of the trajectory. A ball hit right at him just appears to move up and down. Some players step to the side of a ball coming right at them to see the trajectory better. Others use the old "thunk" method: When they hear the crack of the bat, they run back. If the bat makes more of a thunk sound, they run in.
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