What Is Harder To Hit - Baseball or Softball?

Ya, I was going to say the same thing omureadhaigh. You can’t take a baseball player and first three pitches from a softbal player to determine which is harder. The batter never said it was harder, he just said the angle was odd.
I think they should re-do that episode.

The test is flawed in a few areas.

First flaw, the softball hitting harder has no relevance of it being harder to hit.

Imagine this scenario with me. Say if you are trying to shoot a baseball that is thrown at you at 80mph with a hand gun versus trying to shoot an 18 wheeler truck coming at you at 30mph. I guarantee you that it is easier to shoot the 18 wheeler and I guarantee you that the force of the 18 wheeler will hit you harder than a baseball. Hitting harder has no relevance on easier or harder to hit.

Second flaw, the batter reaction time. What is shown is an accurate depiction of what happens if the ball travels at 95mph v 70 mph. The ratio of the distance of 60ft to 43ft is roughly 1.4, with the softball pitched at 70mpg it will arrive at the home plate the same time as a 98mph baseball. So I have to wonder, was this pitcher selected just to show ’softball’ is harder? If the pitcher pitches at 98+ mph, there is less reaction time than the 70mph softball.

Third flaw, As omureadhaigh and ‘Me’ stated, it isn’t what the baseball batter is used to. A fair test would be set a pitching machine to pitch both balls at a specified speed going to the same path and have both a baseball batter and a softball batter tested on that. Rising versus the descending pitches are just technique of the pitch, it doesn’t pertain to the is it harder to hit a baseball or softball.