Yastrzemski and Ripken were not afraid to change things up to get out of a slump. The weirdness in batting stances has exploded since the age of Wockenfuss and other random oddballs. It's Famous Movie Stances Volume 1! The left-handed batsman managed to score a century in a four-day match against New Zealand-A side recently and he did all this with the most unusual of batting stances. The righthanded hitter crouched so low and so dramatically that his backside looked as if he was sitting in a kitchen chair. He won his first batting title the following year. A square stance is where both feet are in line with the pitcher and parallel with the edge the batter’s box. “Wherever He Went, Interesting Things Happened”: Ichiro and the … See more ideas about Baseball players, Stance, Baseball. I guess we should call it a “Parenthesis” stance, since the result is a left parenthesis when Pete was batting left handed and right parenthesis the other way. Required fields are marked *. The southpaw pitched brilliantly for Boston down the stretch and the Sox edged Toronto for the division crown. It’s worth mentioning another player who was known for a dramatic leg kick: Darryl Strawberry, who hit more than 300 home runs. Realizing the importance of these tactics, and aware that he was not physically gifted enough to do them strictly through athletic prowess, in 1962 Lau started using a batting stance that was designed to help him get the bat into the hitting zone quicker. His body looked like a question mark retreating from the mound, coiled and ready to explode into the pitch. Born and raised Montrealer, I grew up with dreams of donning the Montreal Canadiens uniform, scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal and becoming a Quebec hero. From Roy Hobbs to Jake Taylor BSG's got ya covered for all the fictional batting stances you never knew you knew. Wockenfuss also held the bat out in front of his chest with his fingers extended and wiggling, as if playing a flute. Mostly though, players did not have the talent to emulate Babe’s power hitting, and after some of them tried and were unable to see great returns, they quickly abandoned it. In 1990 the Red Sox were trying to win the division title and needed bullpen help. Mike Schmidt used to wiggled his front hip in the batters’ box in what he called “his dance with the pitcher.” Eric Davis wagged his fingers and rotated the bat as he waited for the pitch. His exploits are legendary. When it comes to unorthodox batting styles Pakistan”s Fawad Alam is up there. This made Alou look quite strange at the plate, but no one was laughing once he made contact with the baseball. “Bags” fooled his detractors, winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 1991, and an MVP award three years later. His batting stance, which helped him win three MVP awards and seven batting titles, was definitely one of the strange ones - there were batters who hit "closed" (front foot ahead of back foot), and then there was Musial, who closed his stance so much it's a wonder how he managed to see the pitcher over his right shoulder. They include “The DeCinces”, “The ’90s Hand Flutter”, “The 1991 MVP”, “The Dojo”, and my personal favorite, “The Violin.” Ripken also notably mimicked other stances, including those of teammate Mickey Tettleton and the bizarre John Wockenfuss contortion stance. It worked though, as he won seven batting titles using that batting stance. Bagwell’s stance has been described as a man sitting in a chair waiting for his dinner. As a result of rules that favored the batter, hitters didn’t worry about having to make contact. In between, “Master Melvin” hit 511 home runs, winning the National League home run crown six times. Also, let’s clarify something: Cobb did not swing the bat with the split-grip. Power Ranking The Steroid Era Batting Stances | Barstool Sports No superstar changed his batting stance as much or as dramatically as Cal Ripken Jr. It was so unusual that nearly every time he went to the plate the announcer mentioned it. What was different about Henderson’s stance? Only one of those things was unusual. I've contributed to several Concordia publications and media outlets (print, radio and broadcast), as well as better-known outlets such as Cult MTL, VersusFootball and The Hockey News. Smith will work at the Major League Baseball club's player development facility in Fort Myers, Florida, mainly on This article is about the history of batting stances and the players who had famous stances. Does it give him an mental or physical advantage over the pitcher he's facing? There were guys hitting over .400 nearly every year before 1900. News on all your favorite celebs, reality TV, and movies. It was copied by many other big leaguers, even hitters who were known for their power. As the pitcher started his delivery, the left-handed batter would lift his left lead leg off the ground (about eight to twelve inches), then as he swung through the ball his front foot would come back to earth. From this setup you should be in an optimal position to hit any pitch. When he retired he ranked first in NL history in homers and third only to Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx all-time. 50 Most Bizarre Pitching Motions and Batting Stances in Major … A video from the 1932 World Series shows Ruth moving his hands so that the bat seems to be turning, as if he was churning butter. It was also pretty cool, as strange as it was. Shorter ballplayers naturally have a smaller strike zone. He hunched himself down into a “C” in the batters’ box from the left side, with his head peering over his front shoulder, almost Musial-like. But his batting stance helped him become one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Take Julio Franco, for example - he won five Silver Slugger awards holding the bat above his head pointing towards the outfield, a stance that no doubt was not the most effective for most batters, but one that worked just fine for Franco. Both approaches worked for getting to the Hall of Fame. He tinkered and tinkered, and finally by 1962 he had developed a philosophy that he would hone for the next two decades until his untimely death from cancer in 1984. Craig Counsell may hold the record for the most ugly batting stance in baseball history. Sadaharu Oh was a physical match for Ott, built almost identical, and also a left-handed hitter. He stood with his feet far apart and the bat off his back shoulder almost flat and perpendicular to the ground. Cobb’s stance allowed him to do the things he felt were most important. Baseball Almanac is pleased to present a comprehensive chart of ballplayer batting stances. Considered one of the "laziest" stances in the league, Rios would hold his bat around his belt buckle and keep it straight up. Noted batting stance imitator Gar Ryness (dubbed “The Batting Stance Guy”) has cataloged Ripken’s stances, even giving them names. This was the stance Yaz used in 1967 when he won the Triple Crown while leading the Red Sox to the pennant. ... but Tettleton was the player who made lazy bat handling famous. Alou would hold the bat in a relatively normal fashion, but instead of planting his feet "normally," he would plant them and then invert his knees to the point where they would be grazing each other. In the 1970s, Oscar Gamble stuck his backside out and leaned across the plate, and Mickey Rivers did something similar, tightening his body into a ball, sort of like Pete Rose, with an added bat wag. Since he never truly panned out, however, he's remembered for less impressive reasons - one of those reasons being his batting stance. But eventually, a few smart folks inside the game noticed that some players got more walks than others. Some of us who played baseball had our own stance, possibly fashioned after our baseball heroes. Counsell's unusual batting stance mainly focuses on his arms. Pitches shine with bla. Yaz tucked his jaw into his lead right shoulder, something he did his entire career no matter what stance he used. Does being right-handed or left-handed determine your skate stance? Downing had one of the most open batting stances in modern baseball, and it was largely effective, especially for the Angels in the 1980s. If there’s a baseball bat around it’s hard to resist picking it up and taking a stance. Pete Rose came into baseball when it was still shaking off the 1950s, an era dominated by the three New York teams. Stan Musial was one of the greatest ball players in the history of the game, and for the most part, the lists he usually ends up on are regarding his hitting prowess and where he ranks among other legends. A few hitters had unusual stances. The Baseball Egg weekly email newsletter contains news, factoids, trivia, photos, and links to articles you can’t find anywhere else. Musial tucked his neck and head behind the lead shoulder, and as a result it appeared as if he was playing “peek a boo” with the pitcher. He won 12 batting titles with it, and he didn’t change it much at all in the 24 years he spent in the major leagues on his way to a .367 career batting average. He promtly watched four high pitches go by for a walk, retiring with a perfect 1.000 on-base percentage. When asked about his propensity for experimentation during an interview, Ripken responded that a batting stance, "was only a starting point." Lau was a catcher in the Detroit organization in the 1950s when he realized his approach to hitting wasn’t working. And the center field TV camera angle of batter vs pitcher we’re so used to know didn’t exist. (Ichiro Suzuki later used the same approach with his feet in the batters’ box.) Dick McAuliffe held the bat very high out in front of and over his head while pointing his lead foot out to the mound. He looked extremely uncomfortable. In many ways it was a knee-jerk reaction by a front office trying to win a World Series. Here is the famous Batting Stance Guy imitating each player from the 2009 Yankees lineup. Some have called the stance "Gary Sheffield Lite," but Weeks did have his own personal touch to it. (How refreshing). Now let us see some of the weirdest batting stances in Cricket. It was rare for photographers of that era to take photos of players in their normal stances. Cobb held his hands low so he could easily get them into position to bunt or slap the ball in any direction. I started writing when I was 10 or 11, writing crazy stories based loosely off weird dreams and fantastical novels (A.K.A the Harry Potter series). Yet somehow he maintained balance. He still held the bat high and away from his body and tucked that jaw into his lead shoulder. Either way, it was probably still a pain for pitchers to deal with. On August 30, the Sox acquired veteran lefthander Larry Andersen from the Astros. Counsell was a middle infielder for 16 years in the National League and he was named MVP of the 2001 NLCS while with the Diamondbacks. 34 of the best batting stances in baseball history | Sporting News In fact, photos exist of Ty Cobb at the plate with his front foot a few inches off the ground. The batter deserved no credit for it. Clearly, the unorthodox methods used by Ott, Oh, and Ichiro, all left-handed hitters, didn’t halt their assault on the record books. Whatever the point of it is, it works. Mar 30, 2012 - Explore Patrick Abdalla's board "Batting stances", followed by 119 people on Pinterest. He had a slightly closed stance, but not much. There were players who liked to shake the bat a lot, like Gary Sheffield and Vlad Guerrero. Fletcher, Galan, Cullenbine, and Bishop all employed very low, crouching batting stances. These five batting stances are as fun to look at as they are to … There are several reasons handy: at the time he was a third baseman and Boston had Wade Boggs; they also had a good first baseman in Carlos Quintana, blocking a move of Bagwell to his other position. He remains one of the greatest right fielders to ever play the game. Apr 5, 2012 - Explore Jeanine Budd's board "Ridiculous Batting Stances", followed by 208 people on Pinterest. When he whiffed, he looked like a fool, but overall it was definitely worth it. 3) He kept his feet pretty close together, less than a foot apart. When he swung he uncoiled and propelled himself toward the baseline. Prior to 1887, a batter could call for a pitch to be either “high” or “low.” The pitcher was required to deliver a pitch somewhere above or below the batters’ waist. It was a batting practice fastball league. So why didn’t more players try it? For a while no one kept track of them. Upon witnessing Rose run to first base after a walk, Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford called Pete “Charlie Hustle.”. Ichiro, who already is not a big individual, makes himself even more compact in the box, scrunching himself up into the far corner of the box, knees buckled in and all. The graceful, conservative Hollywood style of Joe DiMaggio was going by the wayside. Strawberry was known for having one of the prettiest swings in the game, and his leg kick helped him generate his signature power. Wockenfuss hit 86 home runs as a part-time player in his 12-year career, finding exceptional success against lefties. His front hip was pulled in, and his front shoulder was closed to the pitcher as much as anyone had ever seen. 10 Funniest Batting Stances In Cricket - The Cricket Lounge The left-handed batsman managed to score a century in a four-day match against New Zealand-A side recently and he did all this with the most unusual of batting stances. Some argue that Tony Batista's stance was one of the strangest in the history of the league. The Boston Red Sox have hired Bianca Smith as a minor league coach, making her the first black woman to serve as a coach in professional baseball. Most batters come up to the plate looking tensed up and ready to spring onto a good pitch. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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