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Jim Dey | Baseball's physics guru provides 'seamless' analysis

Incoming calls have slowed to a trickle, but last Friday, University of Illinois Professor Emeritus Alan Nathan was talking by phone to reporters "virtually all day."

He said he's "not complaining." Indeed, Nathan accepts it as part of the responsibility that comes with being the "Unofficial Physicist of Major League Baseball."

"I kind of like that title," said Nathan, who received his doctorate in physics from Princeton.

The monicker, of course, is officially unofficial. But the fact is, when Major League Baseball has a question that can be answered through scientific inquiry, Nathan usually gets a call.