Posted by: Rick Lingsch (rlingsch@eApps.com) on Sat Feb 15 12:19:06 2003

O'Really, you have a lot to say.

I'd like to make a couple of objective observations on this particular clip. One point does not make a line, so I draw no conclusions about Mac's hitting before or after this clip.

1) I see Mac's back knee turn in toward the pitcher prior to any hip or torso rotation, as noted by Mr. Ziegler. It also appears to me that the hips are turning pretty much in conjunction with the torso. For my hitters, I would like to see the hips to turn earlier than what we see here in Mac's swing.

2) I see Mac's front toes come off the ground very high at the end of the swing. This looks unusual to me and I would not want to see this in my hitters.

As Epstein says, the perfect swing is the swing you take to hit the pitch you get. I have no idea if McGuire hit like this all the time or if it represents what a superior athlete needed to do to hit a MLB pitcher's pitch in this specific instance. Nevertheless, I doubt very much if this particular swing is optimal from a human kinetics perspective. I also suspect that McGuire has had many swings that were better than this one.

O'Really, can you identify yourself please?