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February 22, 2008

Strange But True!

Q. From how high up might a dropped baseball be caught by someone down below?

A. In 1908 a couple of major league catchers nabbed baseballs tossed from atop the 555-foot Washington Monument, says Jearl Walker in “The Flying Circus of Physics.” Thirty years later, Cleveland Indians catchers Frankie Pytlak and Hank Helf waited beneath Cleveland's Terminal Tower as balls were dropped from 700 feet up. They wore steel helmets for protection as the balls reached an estimated 140 mph. Helf caught the first ball, claiming there was nothing to it, but the next five for Pytlak went astray. One bounded up to the 13th floor and was fielded by a police sergeant after its third bounce. “On the sixth try, Pytlak made his catch and shared the record.”


 
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