“I am curious, though,” DeJong said Tuesday as he readied for his first All-Star Game. “I feel like the factors involved could be lengthier than we might think. The seams’ height. The materials used. How tightly wound is the core? Temperature changes for sure. There is a lot of stuff that goes into the ball that could affect it.”
What several players at this week’s All-Star festivities described as an “explosion” of home runs in the game has prompted questions, criticism, and even an expletive about how something about the baseball clearly has changed. Its behavior is different.