Article 2 - Visual Memory, Kansas City Royals and George Brett

This is the second in a series of articles on the Visual Memory Index©. The introductory article appeared on April 24 (scroll down to read it).

The Kansas City Royals enjoyed the career of George Brett, who was one of the finest hitters in all of baseball. Some years ago, I tracked each game of his 1978 season for changes in air resistance, which you know (if you read my first article appearing below on April 25), or the book by Dr. Robert Adair: The Physics of Baseball) changes the amount of movement the pitcher has available to him.

Of course 1978 was before the personal computer became popular and before Sabremetrics revolutionized baseball, and before NASA analyzed the baseball flying through air. It was when coaches simply told their players, “Don’t give me any excuses, just go out there and hit the baseball.” George Brett did just that.

In order to track the air resistance, I had to create a gauge which would differentiate one baseball stadium from another. I enlisted the help of the mechanical engineering department at Colorado State University, where Dr. Douglas Hittle was the head. Before he retired, Dr. Hittle helped me to create a gauge of the air where baseball and other sports are played. We called it the “Neeley Scale” which gauges only that segment of the atmosphere that reaches from the mountaintops to sea level, and we placed it on a 100 scale. Armed with the gauge, I could see differences between Major League Baseball stadiums, including the temperatures and humidity levels that are prevalent throughout the season.

Neeley Scale - Maximum Lift and Tail Off from straight line on ¾ arm slot on 95 mph four-seam fastball

Air Density	Heavyweights	Welterweights	Lightweights	Featherweights	Bantamweights
Neeley Scale	70’s	60’s	50’s	40’s	30’s
Max Lift	7 inches Lift	6 Inches Lift	5 Inches Lift	4 Inches Lift	3 Inches Lift
Max Tail Off	9 Inches Tail Off	8 Inches Tail Off	7 Inches Tail Off	5 Inches Tail Off	4 Inches Tail Off
Venues	California teams, Seattle, Philly, Boston, Wash., New York & Balt.	the Midwest up to 1,000 feet and warmer temps	Atlanta, Arizona, Texas, Kansas City	Denver Coors Field	Denver Coors Field

In 1978, George Brett, playing for Kansas City, traveled in and out of “Heavyweight” air, “Welterweight” air and back to “Lightweight” air in Kansas City. One of the best hitters ever took several days to adjust to additional movement available at sea level locations. I’ve included the graph of his 1978 season. His overall average in Kansas City was .299 and stayed very stable throughout home stands. When leaving Kansas City for Welterweight 60’s air typical in the Midwest, adjustments were not very notable. However, when leaving Kansas City for “Heavyweight” air found mostly at sea level and on the coldest days in the Midwest, the adjustments are pronounced. Not surprisingly, his average was .190 where pitchers had the advantage of additional movement.

Visual Memory by Clifton Neeley, creator of the Visual Memory Index© and the web-site www.baseballvmi.com. Clifton pitched and played baseball and fast-pitch softball in the mountainous southwest Colorado area (from 4,000 feet in Grand Junction to 6,000 feet in Durango to 9,000 feet in Telluride) prior to his college experience in baseball.