Comments on: Batting Stance Twins

By: Pat from Jersey

Pat from Jersey — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 02:18:18 +0000

Also, @ 15...

VERY early (1995-1996) Derek Jeter did a lot of fidgeting, and had a similar back-and-forth toe tap.

And @ 20, when watching the Guidry game...has anyone in the expansion era choked up nearly as much as Angels SS Dave Chalk?

By: Pat from Jersey

Pat from Jersey — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 02:12:01 +0000

Few days late to the party...just saw this post and was stunned nobody mentioned Game 7 pinch-hitter Hector Lopez and future fellow Yankee Alfonso Soriano's IDENTICAL stances.

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:52:50 +0000

@ 19
4 - The strategy was crazy from the start. Casey had guys up in the pen from the first inning...not sure you'll see that again.
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It was Game 7. Doesn't happen all that often, and in an often high scoring series, you need to have all hands on deck, so to speak.

By: tess6045

tess6045 — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:17:49 +0000

Cleon Jones and Richard Hidalgo looked spookily alike when following thru on their swings

By: Kram Nosredna

Kram Nosredna — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:05:31 +0000

Ichiro and Stan Musial. Each is wound up like a spring, then they launch themselves into the pitch. No one would ever teach their swings, but it works for them, obviously.

Also, Reggie Smith used to hold his bat aloft ala Yaz.

By: Jesse011

Jesse011 — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 22:40:24 +0000

I remember seeing a video of Griffey's swing next to Russell Branyan's when he was first playing in the majors and they were identical. Of course he may have changed it over the years

By: kenh

kenh — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:40:16 +0000

@ 6

That's the Truth!

By: SandyAlomarFan

SandyAlomarFan — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:36:11 +0000

Yeah, but I don't think Ruth choked up like Cobb did. Sometimes he choked 6-8"!

By: Frank Clingenpeel

Frank Clingenpeel — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:50:33 +0000

Surprisingly, two with almost identical stances were Cobb and Ruth. In fact, I believe that they and Honus Wagner all had similiar stances, only Wagner was a right hander.

By: John Autin

John Autin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:07:51 +0000

@9, Detroit Michael --

After reading your comment on Dick McAuliffe taking his stance with the bat held high, I went searching the web for confirmation of my own memory of McAuliffe's stance -- namely, holding his bent front elbow right in front of his face.

Everything out there mentioned his high bat, but I knew I had once read something that jibed with my memory. I finally found it in (naturally) the New Bill James Historical Abstract:

"... he tucked his right wrist under his chin and held his bat over his head, so it looked as if he were dodging the sword of Damocles in mid-descent. He pointed his left knee at the catcher and his right knee at the pitcher and spread the two as far apart as humanly possible, his right foot balanced on the toes, so that to have lowered his heel two inches would have pulled his knee inward by a foot. He whipped the bat in a sort of violent pinwheel...." (emphasis added)

The rest of the passage on McAuliffe, whom James he rated as the #22 second baseman of all time, is also worth reading, too. I'm constantly reminded that, as innovative as his ideas have been, it's just as much his great writing that made James as influential as he has been.

http://books.google.com/books?id=3uSbqUm8hSAC&pg=PA497&lpg=PA497&dq=bill+james+historical+abstract+%2B+dick+mcauliffe&source=bl&ots=1kt3n64Fyf&sig=TW0yMTZElsYdt5xWpnQEFOr1uLc&hl=en&ei=Lr8LTc3LCoT58Aanz-iuDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false