Hey y’all, I’m Mario Signore, a quality assurance guy at Think Through Math. This has been my first job in the technology field since graduating college, and I couldn’t imagine a better place to start. It is such a privilege to work with people who are passionate about education!

When not working I am usually playing baseball. Growing up, everyone would make fun of baseball for being an ‘easy sport’. Football players would say that it wasn’t physical enough. Basketball and Soccer players would say that they ran more in one practice than baseball players do all year. Determined to prove to everyone that baseball was the hardest sport, I turned to math.

The pitcher stands 60.5 feet away from the batter. Lets say the average Major League pitcher pitches around 90 miles per hour.

1 mile = 5280 feet and 90 miles = 475,200 feet, so the pitcher pitches 475,200 feet per hour.

1 hour = 3600 seconds, so the pitcher pitches 475,200 feet per 3600 seconds.

475,200 divided by 3600 = 132 feet per second.

So at this point, the ball is coming at the batter at a rate of 132 feet per second. However, the pitcher is only 60.5 feet away. 60.5 feet / 132 feet per second = 0.46 seconds. That means that the batter has ~0.46 seconds to hit the baseball, which is pretty fast. That’s why baseball players whose batting averages are .350 (35%) get paid millions of dollars to fail 65% of the time!