Nori Aoki’s swing peels the cover off the baseball (Video)
By Dan Zinski
The term “knocking the cover off the ball” evokes images of a big huge power hitter striking the baseball so hard that he causes the seams to break and the leather covering to be removed from the spheroid.
More from Kansas City Royals
- MLB standings ordered by hard hit rate: Struggling Cardinals still cracking bats
- MLB Rumors: Cardinals surprise trade, Braves-Ohtani package, Yankees-Royals trade
- Tigers young star takes vicious shot at Royals pitcher over sticky stuff allegations
- Immaculate Grid baseball: Answers, connections, hints for Grid 104 (July 15)
- Rays-Royals rain delay: Weather updates for Royals game today, July 14
A famous (albeit fictional) example of such a cover-destroying strike can be seen in the maudlin, silly, overrated movie The Natural starring Robert Redford. Occasionally it happens in real life too.
Like I said, when you talk about covers being knocked off balls, you think of power hitters pummeling balls into oblivion. You don’t think of little Nori Aoki hitting the ball and causing the cover to be peeled off like the skin of an orange.
But that’s exactly what happened Thursday. It was more of a fluke than a display of power from Aoki when he hit the ball just off the end of the bat and apparently cut the covering with the wood.
How does this happen? If you’ll notice, batters like to hollow out the ends of their bats to get more bat speed. This leaves a somewhat sharp edge around the end of the bat. In this case, the sharp edge caught the ball just right and peeled the cover.
So remember this the next time you’re at a game and a bat comes pinwheeling toward you. The end of that thing is sharp enough to cut open a baseball. Enjoy the game!
Like FanSided on Facebook.
Follow Dan Zinski on Twitter
Subscribe to the Fansided Daily Newsletter. Sports news all up in your inbox.