Comparing the Twilight Baseball Scene to MLB Players

Baseball is finally back! We’re already a few days in to the first full week of spring training as the regular season start steadily approaches. So, we’re bringing baseball back to She Writes Sports. However, we’re doing it a little differently this time.

For anyone who follows my Twitter, (shameless promo), you would know I have a very strange infatuation with the Twilight franchise. If you’ve never seen any of these movies, let me bring you up to speed. In the first film of this series, we meet the main character, Bella Swan. Bella has just moved back in with her dad to Forks, Washington. Bella becomes curious of the strange and mysterious Cullen family, particularly Edward. As their complex relationship builds, Edward reveals to Bella that he is a vampire, and he lives in a house with six other vampires. However, none of them drink human blood, only animal blood. Bringing Bella over to visit causes complications within the Cullen household, since their choice of animal blood is strictly voluntary and they must fight their urges for human blood. To help build a better relationship, Bella joins the Cullens for a game of baseball. Because of their super vampire strength, they can only play in thunderstorms. Now that you’re all caught up, let’s get into it.

Alice Cullen and Kyle Hendricks

For pitching, we have Alice Cullen. As you can see from the video, she has an extensive windup, but she’s not blowing anyone away on radar guns. So I browsed through some 2019 stats (full season) to make a comparison. In 2019, Kyle Hendricks averaged an 87.3 mpg velocity on his 4-seam fastball. Now Alice isn’t a professional player like Kyle, but factoring in her added vampire strength, she could probably clock in close if not higher numbers.

Rosalie Hale and Mike Trout

For someone who was called out at home plate, this may seem like too high of an honor. However, this comparison is based purely on distance. Rosalie put all her power behind this swing and nearly sent that pitch into another dimension. Extensive and definitely accurate research shows that Edward Cullen runs 100 mph, and it took him approximately 20 seconds to retrieve the baseball. Math tells us that he will travel 147 feet per second, making the distance of that ball approximately 2,940 feet. In 2019, Mike Trout had the longest home run average at 419ft, (7 times less than Rosalie’s), so I think these two together are a good fit.

Edward Cullen and Tim Locastro

So we’ve already established that Edward is fast, and this skill of his is a consistent theme throughout the series. In 2019, Tim Locastro posted a sprint speed 30.8 feet per second. Edward would beat him in a race any day, since his feet per second estimate is almost five times faster. Locastro plays left field, but it’s unclear where Edward stands in the outfield. Regardless, Locastro just simply doesn’t stand a chance.

Carlisle Cullen and Nelson Cruz

This comparison was based purely on exit velocity. Carlisle clearly has some power behind his swing, considering how fast the ball left his bat and how high he sent it. So, in 2019 Nelson Cruz had the highest average exit velocity speed at 93.7 miles per hour. It’s hard to calculate what Carlisle’s exit velocity actually was, but it’s safe to assume he could easily hit and exceed Cruz’s numbers.

Jasper Hale and Bryce Harper

No numbers involved in this one. Throughout this entire scene, we see Jasper subtly showing off his different bat flipping and twirling skills. While there’s no epic home run bat flip moment here, the different flips and twirls he does with his bat are still impressive. So I went and looked at the best bat flips of 2019. I wanted one that ranked high and had plenty of twirl, so I picked Bryce Harper’s home run against the Nationals on April 2, 2019.

Emmett Cullen and Jackie Bradley Jr

Twice in this scene, we see Emmett get up in the air in the outfield. He was unsuccessful the first time after colliding with Edward in the air. However, he does succeed on his second try. Emmett is able to successfully rob Jasper of a run by quickly jumping up into the tree to grab the ball. So in comparison, I had to go with Jackie Bradley Jr’s home run robbery on May 8, 2019. Emmett’s is nowhere near as spectacular and heartbreaking, but the quickness and alertness of both of them are where I make the comparisons.