The Fastball Gets Its Scientific Due in a New Documentary
新纪录片披露快球的科学依据

The new movie Fastball dissects the pitch from the perspective of pitchers, hitters, umpires—and scientists, who talk about everything from the physics governing the trajectory of the ball to the neuroscience of the batter’s perception and reaction—including how the ball can appear to vanish. 
新电影《快球时刻》从投手、击球手、裁判以及科学家的角度仔细剖析了投球的奥秘。这些科学家研究了投球的方方面面，从投球的抛射轨迹背后的物理学原理，到击球手的感知与反应背后的神经科学——当然也包括为什么击球手会觉得球在飞行的途中消失的原因。

播音/撰文 史蒂夫·米尔斯基 (Steve Mirsky)
翻译 Meatle
审校 丁可含

The baseball season is almost here. To get you up to speed, the excellent new documentary Fastball opens today in select theaters.
Fastball is all about, you guessed it, the heater, the cheese, the hummer, the hard stuff, from the perspective of pitchers, hitters, umpires—and scientists, who talk about everything from the physics governing the trajectory of the ball to the physiologyof the strain on the pitcher’s arm to the psychology of hurling a potentially deadly projectile at another human being to the neuroscience of the batter’s perception and reaction.
棒球赛季近在眼前。为了跟上潮流，一部精彩的纪录电影《Fastball》即日在部分院线上映。《Fastball》涉及到你能猜到的一切，从投手、击球手、裁判以及科学家的角度仔细剖析了各种快球的奥秘。这些科学家研究了投球的方方面面，从投球的抛射轨迹背后的物理学原理，到投手投球时手臂所受的张力所涉及的生理学，还有向另一个人投掷可能致死的快球所涉及的心理学，以及击球手的感知与反应背后的神经科学。

At high speeds, the ball may appear to the hitter to rise. Of course, the ball is actually still going down due to gravity as it approaches the plate from any pitcher throwing overhand, no matter how fast. It’s just not falling as much as the batter’s brain is accustomed to from watching slower pitches. But I did not know til I saw the movie that, for some hitters facing the very hardest throwers, the ball can completely disappear.
球在高速运动时，它在击球手的眼中像是往上运动一般。当然，从投手投出球到球接触到垒板的时间内，无论棒球的飞行速度多快，它确实是在重力的作用下缓慢下降。在击球手的眼中，只是球下降幅度并没有投球慢的投手所投出的球的幅度多。然而，在看这部电影之前，我并不知道最厉害的投手能投出的球能完全消失在击球手的视野内。

“The idea of the ball disappearing was really fascinating to me. Because all these hall of famers were talking, they all were saying the same thing, that these few really special guys, the Koufaxes and the Fellers, that the ball would disappear.”
“棒球完全消失的说法确实使我着迷。因为这些名人堂的成员都在谈论这件事，他们都有着一样的说法，就是像科法克斯(Koufax)和费勒(Feller)那样特别的球员，能够使投出的球完全消失。”

Fastball director Jonathan Hock, after a preview of the film March 22nd at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center on the campus of Montclair State University in New Jersey.
《Fastball》的导演，乔纳森·霍克(Jonathan Hock)在3月22日于新泽西州蒙特克莱尔州立大学(Montclair State University)校园内的约吉贝拉博物馆&学习中心(Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center)举行的试映礼上说。

 “And so I mentioned that to these professors of perception and cognition and all that, and they immediately understood. Because they explained that when the eye tracks an object in motion, you’re not actually on the ball the whole way. You’re actually racing your eyes ahead to where you think the ball’s going to go. And most of us can go about a tenth of a second ahead. And the people with the greatest vision in the world can go two-tenths of a second ahead. Which is exactly the distance, the amount of time that it basically takes to swing, like 0.17 [seconds] for the swing. So if you’re going two-tenths of a second ahead of where the ball is, and that’s when you’re triggering your swing, and then the ball isn’t there, it has literally disappeared in the part of your brain that registers vision. So they’re absolutely telling the truth when they say the ball disappeared.”
“我也向知觉与认知科学的教授提及这些现象，他们马上明白了其中的奥妙。他们解释道，当我们的眼睛跟踪移动的物体时，比如棒球，我们的目光并不是一直停留在棒球之上。事实上，我们的目光是在跟棒球在赛跑，移动到棒球将要出现的位置之前。我们大部分人的目光能比球快大概0.1秒，而那些目光极其锐利的人能够做到快0.2秒。这刚好就是挥棒所需提前的距离，因为挥棒开始到球棒达到击打点的时间，刚好就是0.17秒。因此当你以提前0.2秒的目光捕捉到棒球，并同时进行挥棒，而并没有击中棒球，对你的认知系统来说棒球消失了，真的消失了。因此那些球手说棒球消失了的时候，他们只是在如实表述。”

In addition to opening at theaters, the movie Fastball is also available on various streaming platforms, including iTunes. Catch it!
除了在院线上映以外，电影《Fastball》还在iTunes等线上流媒体上架。（文明）看球！