A gaggle of elementary school kids crowded the opposing bullpen nook at Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday morning for a lesson in baseball science put on by the A’s, centered upon one of the game’s hottest psychics commodities: Launch angle.
Nick Martini got the honors of launching baseballs with a catapult into O.Co’s right field corner to demonstrate how much the likelihood of a ball dropping for a hit is altered by the angle at which it’s struck.
Just in case Martini’s pregame lesson didn’t stick, a couple of A’s decided to put on a real-life launch angle clinic for them a few hours later en route to a walk-off 6-5 victory that gave the A’s a sweep of the Rangers.