Posted by: Sweet Steve (Drwinsthry@aol.com) on Sat Jul 27 11:53:32 2002

Yanno, I realize that it's important to know why certain approaches to hitting work, and why certain others don't...but sometimes the posts on this board get so esoteric that it's hard not to laugh. I have a feeling that if you actually asked Sosa what makes him successful, he'd say something like, "I go up there, wait for a pitch I like, and I hit it." End of story. I'm not sure that everything that accounts for hitting success can always be explained, in much the same way that I'm not sure we can explain why the ball sounds so dramatically different coming off different hitters' bats.


I know you aren't in the habit of explaining yourself--but just for kicks--what did you find silly in these articles?
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> > > > > yea, it is mechanical as well as Tolson said. It is also a mixture of both, the hitter not adjusting to different pitch locations
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> > > > There are many problems with these articles. There are errors, misstatement, contradictions and just some silly statements that make no sense. I am not going to detail all of them but here are some that I think are obvious.
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> > > > 1 In the first article the writer states "Ted Williams, a Hall of Fame hitter, liked to take pitches when he was seeing a pitcher for the first time. When he took pitches he did not have to think about his swing or prepare to react, he simply put all of his focus on seeing the ball."
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> > > > I took this to mean that when Ted was hitting "for real" he thought about his swing and prepared to react. Trough out the rest of the artile the writer states that "good" hitters don't think they just react to what they see. He repeatedly says that hitters should focus only on "seeing" the ball and if their focus should wonder from this they should step out of the box and re-focus. What the writer quoted Ted saying is a major contradiction to the entire point of the article. I have no idea of why its there.
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> > > > 2. This may seem minor to you, but it is an indication of the sloppiness of the writter if not how much he really knows.
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> > > > In the 5th paragraph of the first article the writer talks about picking the ball up late, which he defines as after release. He says late is 50 feet from home plate rather then the 60ft 6 in. Pitchers release the ball in front of the rubber from 4 to 6 feet. In softball there are restictions on how how far the pitcher can be in front of the rubber when they releaste the pitch, 4 1/2 to 5 feet is common. (The restrictions do not state a dististance but they are about maintaining contact with the rubber which has the affect of restricting the distance) So in baseball the ball gets released 56, 55 or even 54 ft from home plate, not 60ft 6 in. I would think that anyone who is knowledgable and wants to bring a scientic approach should know this and use it.
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> > > > 3. Under the section titled TIMING OF CONCENTRATION the wirter states that "Getting to the release point late means that the ball has already been released. The eyes then have to race ahead to pick the ball up, giving the impression that the ball is quicker than it actually is." This is a complete missreprsentation of the vision of the pitch. For the first 30-40 feet of the pitch the ball is traveling toward the batter, not accross the batter's field of vision. There is no way to for the eyes to "race ahead" to pick up the ball" The ball is traveling across the batters field of vision during the last 20-15 feet. Scientist say that the eyes cannot keep up with a ball as it travels accros the field of vision at the speed it is traveling acroos the last 20 feet of the pitch. And remember this is the slowest speed of the pitch.
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> > > > 4.In another section the writer states that "The last 8-10 feet is where the fastball moves the most. This is where breaking balls are moving or angling the most where it goes across the plate."
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> > > > I have no idea what this has to do with seeing or anything the batter does. A 90 mph pitch is traveling at 145.5 ft per sec. It takes a big league batter about .15 secs to decide to swing and complet a swing from the time the hands start moving forward until contact. (.15 secs is very fast even for big leagures)
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> > > > So, .15 secs times 145.5 per sec = 21.8 ft. The Jugs Co estemeates that a ball will slow down 1 mph for ever 7 feet it travels. So adjusting for the pitch being slower as it reaches the area of the plate, the hitter must launch the swing when the ball is no less then about 17 or 18 feet from the contact area. By the time the ball is ten feet from the batter his swing must be at least half way to the contact point or its too late. If the batter is still trying to "see" or react to the ball its way too late.
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> > > > These are some of the obvious points of error and contradiction. The articles are full of them.
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> > > > Joe A.
> > > > Joe, now I know why some of these guys give you a hard time, it's because you make sense!! With this post, even though I know it wasn't your intention, you really showed up the so-called experts who always seem to have an opinion on everything. Keep up the good work, Joe and don't let the slings and arrows deter you, as you are performing a badly needed service.
> > Hey
> > Sammy Sosa begins his swing 17.29 feet from home plate. This is baseed on the assumption that the pitcher is releasing the ball 56 feet from home plate, and it is traveling almost exactly 88 mph, (87.97)it takes the ball .434 to reach home plate, and Sosa has .3 seconds to read the pitch before he starts his swing which takes .134 seconds.
> > The Hitman
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> It's very unlikly that Sosa or anyone else makes a swing in .134 secs.
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