"Royals manager Trey Hillman was succinct.

When asked by reporters whether there is a time when it's advisable for a player to make a headfirst slide, Hillman answered: "None. Zero. Never."

Hillman made his comments while talking about third baseman Alex Gordon, who broke his thumb Saturday on a headfirst slide.

However, David A. Peters, the McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, might disagree.

Peters first stated in 2008 that the headfirst slide is faster than the feetfirst slide. There are three important mathematical issues at play on a slide.

"There's momentum - mass of the body times how fast the player is moving," he said in a news release. "There's angular momentum (mass movement of inertia times the rotational rate). If it's feetfirst and you're starting to slide, your feet are going out from you and you're rotating clockwise; if it's headfirst, as your hands go down, you're rotating counterclockwise."

"On top of this is Newton's Law," Peters added. "Force is mass times acceleration. Then moment of inertia times your angular acceleration."

So, which sliding technique is faster?"