Swing Science: The Fine Points (Published 2008) (2024)

THE MOST DIFFICULT FEAT IN SPORTS, DEMYSTIFIED. HALL OF FAMER AND THREE-TIME BATTING CHAMPION GEORGE BRETT DISCUSSES THE CRAFT OF HITTING: HOW TO IDENTIFY A PITCH THAT IS TRAVELING AT MORE THAN 90 MILES AN HOUR AND THEN MAKE CONTACT WITH IT—ALL IN LESS THAN A SECOND.

COUNTS: 2-0 VS. 0-2

ADJUSTING TO THE COUNT

A two-ball, no-strike count favors the hitter, who knows the pitcher has to throw a strike. Despite having this advantage, Brett says, hitters should swing at a 2-0 pitch only if it is right down the middle. When Brett got ahead in the count, he says, he reduced his strike zone to a rectangle slightly bigger than a manila folder and would not swing at any pitch he determined would end up outside of it, even if it might be a strike.

At no balls and two strikes, the pitcher has the advantage, so many hitters prepare for a fastball outside, figuring the pitcher will try to make them chase a bad pitch. This is why battes often take a called third strike on the inside corner. Years ago, hitters might have choked up on the bat (inset) or taken a shorter swing to spoil a third-strike pitch. Few do that now, which drives Brett nuts. “Today’s ballplayer doesn’t mind striking out,” he says. “Nothing made me madder.” Brett says he never changed his grip or stance at 0-2, but he became less choosy. “You’ve got to expand the strike zone an inch or two up or down,” he says. “The umpires are not perfect.”

FIREBALLER VS. FINESSE

FACING DIFFERENT PITCHERS

Most pitchers fall into one of two categories: fireballers like the San Diego Padres’ Jake Peavy or finesse pitchers like the Philadelphia Phillies’ Jamie Moyer, who mixes a modest fastball with breaking pitches and changes in speed to keep batters off balance. Against a hard thrower like Nolan Ryan (above left), Brett says, he always tried to anticipate the pitcher’s best fastball and stayed with his basic stance and swing, figuring he could adjust to the breaking pitch. Some hitters, however, will “cheat” on a fastball, committing to the pitch and starting the swing a fraction of a second earlier than usual. If you see a hitter grimace after swinging over an off-speed pitch, it’s often because he guessed fastball.

Finesse pitchers try to exploit a hitter’s urge to start early. The key is patience, Brett says. Against someone with a great slider or curve, like the former Yankee Ron Guidry (above right), Brett would wait for the pitch to break, then swing late and get the bat handle out front, so the angle of the bat faced left field — the best way to get the sweet spot on the ball.

HOME RUNS

SWINGING FOR THE FENCES

“Chicks dig the long ball” was the famous catchphrase from a 1990s commercial, and nothing has changed. It’s hard to find a hitter these days who grips the bat anyplace but at the end, maximizing the length and heft of the bat. Many hitters tilt their torsos back to produce an uppercut swing and stand close to the plate hoping to pull everything within reach (inset).

Brett laments the trend, arguing that trying to hit homers almost never works; Magglio Ordóñez of Detroit, last season’s American League batting champion, says he rarely sets out to hit a homer — perhaps 20 times a season. “If I hit one, I’m lucky,” he says. Brett didn’t try to hit homers, though he admits he tried to take advantage of inviting right-field fences by moving a little closer to the plate and swinging easily.

One player who breaks the current mold is Albert Pujols of St. Louis (above). Unlike most sluggers, he keeps his torso relatively upright, producing a more level swing (1) — instead of the drastic uppercut (2) — which allows him to drive balls all over the field and still hit plenty of homers.

OPPOSITE FIELD

GOING THE OTHER WAY

“Hitting the other way” is a skill that prevents defenders from shading a batter to one side of the field, and makes it harder for pitchers to get batters out by working the outside of the plate. To hit the other way, most batters counter their instinct to pull the ball by swinging later at a pitch, preferably at one on the far corner. The bat meets the ball at an angle (inset) that sends it toward that side of the field. Some batters close their stance slightly, meaning they move their front foot a few inches closer to the plate than their back foot; this keeps their hips and shoulders from “flying open” and positions them to drive the ball the other way. Brett didn’t close his stance. He would let the ball “travel,” or just about reach home plate, before starting his swing.

While most batters are able to go the other way on an outside pitch, the Yankees’ Derek Jeter (above) has made a career out of doing it with inside pitches as well. He pulls his hands close to his body and keeps them stiff as he swings, so the head of the bat lags behind the handle, at an angle facing right field.

THE FOCUS FACTOR

IDENTIFYING THE PITCH

Picking up the rotation of the ball is crucial if a hitter is to know where it’s going. A delay of a few hundredths of a second — three to five feet of distance — can be the difference between hitting a pitch squarely and missing it entirely. At the beginning of the windup, Brett, like many hitters, focused on the emblem on the pitcher’s hat, so his eyes could concentrate on something tangible at the appropriate distance. When the pitcher brought the ball forward, Brett shifted his focus left or right, to the area where the ball was being released.

A pitch spins up to 30 revolutions per second; to pick up rotation, hitters look for telltale signs. On a curve, the red stitches on the ball tumble forward. For a slider, which darts down and to the side, the stitches spin in such a way that a red dot appears on the ball. If the hitter sees the stitches rotate with backspin, it’s a fastball. A common change-up, the “circle change,” is thrown with two fingers in a circle and a mostly open hand; more of the ball is visible, which makes it easier to recognize (though not necessarily to hit).

THE BASIC SWING

KEEPING THE WEIGHT BACK

There are many ways of hitting a baseball, and few did it better than George Brett (above), a 13-time All-Star who played from 1973 to 1993, and in 1980 batted .390. A left-handed batter, Brett stood about 26 inches from the plate, with his front foot even with the back corner (inset) — so he could wait on the ball — and his feet shoulder-width apart. This way, Brett could extend his arms. When ready to hit, he brought his hands up and angled the bat slightly over his back shoulder.

Whatever the style, Brett says, all good hitters have one thing in common: they keep their weight back as long as possible. In his case, that meant sliding his front foot forward slightly as he swung. (Detroit’s Gary Sheffield is more extreme, lifting his front foot completely off the ground.) When the pitch was released, Brett also moved his hands back a few inches. Minnesota’s Justin Morneau, the 2006 American League M.V.P., says this hand placement is crucial: no matter how they waggle or hold the bat, good hitters will bring their hands to the same place Brett did, just off the back shoulder.

A LOT OF BACK AND FORTH

WHY DO HITTERS WAVE THE BAT AROUND SO MUCH?

IT’S NOTHING. And it’s everything. It’s the waggle, the back-and-forth movement of the bat before the pitch. Players use it to eliminate tension in their hands and arms, and to establish a rhythm that helps their timing. The waggle takes many forms. Jim Thorne waggles low, pausing in the middle to point the bat toward right field.

Ichiro Suzuki (right) pauses in mid-waggle, holding the bat like a torch as he tugs at his right shoulder with his free hand before circling the bat back around.

Justin Morneau takes three half-swings over the plate, then waggles one to five times in the same motion. “I do it to get my hands in the position I want them to go,” Morneau says. “I don’t usually think about it. Mainly, I do it to relax.”

Brett waggled low, a pendulum movement later copied by Mark McGwire (left), albeit from the opposite side of the plate. Former Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie Stargell had the most intimidating waggle of all, rapidly windmilling the bat like a sapling. Gary Sheffield’s upright, back-and-forth waggle is equally distinctive and stunning; few batters possess the hand speed to waggle so much and still violently pull the ball. (Sheffield says he started doing it in the minors to keep from lunging at forkballs and sliders, pitches he had never seen in high school.)

Brett says some sluggers grip the bat so tightly that the tension impedes a proper weight shift. Adopting a waggle helps them produce a balanced follow-through: “No tension in the hands, no tension in the legs, no tension anywhere,” he says.