SAN DIEGO — In the wake of too many damn home runs defining the 2019 season, Major League Baseball will reveal its findings Wednesday on what exactly went down and propose solutions for 2020.
Two industry sources confirmed a Yahoo Sports report that an announcement will be made to discuss the controversial matter that dominated chatter around the game. As a record 6,776 home runs were hit during the regular season, commissioner Rob Manfred explained that the baseballs had less drag, allowing them to travel farther. Due to the abundance of complaints, Manfred commissioned a study of the balls.
Further complicating matters was the perception in the postseason that the balls held more drag, an argument advanced by the Cardinals. That convinced the baseball powers to include the postseason balls in their study.
Among the solutions baseball could propose is a tightening of the specifications for an acceptable ball’s coefficient of restitution, or its bounciness. Eventually, if problems persist, the industry could change from hand-sewn and -stitched balls to synthetic balls, which would create more uniformity.