SUSPICIOUS baseball fans have finally been vindicated: gradual alterations to
the official balls used in today’s game are making it easier to score home runs.
The balls now fly about 10 per cent further, says Dennis Hilliard, a forensic
scientist at the University of Rhode Island.
Although baseball officials and official ball-maker Rawlings Sporting Goods
have said specifications have changed little since 1931, fans have grown
increasingly suspicious since the Major League record of 61 home runs in a
season—which had stood for 37 years—was shattered twice in 1998.
Sammy Sosa hit 66 and Mark McGwire hit 70.…
