Posted by: Melvin () on Tue Dec 30 17:58:48 2003

In talking with Lamber, I was reminded of some great clips I have of Ruth playing pepper. Even in those pepper drills one can see the differences with the modern day amateur pepper player and Ruth. I have no knowledge of it, but my assumption is that pepper was rampid back in those days. Is there anyone else that buys the notion that great hitting mechanics can be seen even in a game of pepper?
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> I've got some other clips of great hitters just taking soft swings (Bonds, Palmeiro, etc.) Their mechanics are very detectable to me in those soft swings.
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> Jack,
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> Do your theories hold up in a nice game of pepper. Would Griffey's mechnics be evident in a pepper game? Pepper anyone?
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> Pass the salt!
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> Coach C

Hi Folks

This is a great topic.

Ted Williams was a great fan of pepper. A baseball man and author named Steve Ferroli who wrote a hitting book in collaboration with Williams has said many times that Ted insisted on pepper for hitters because the half swing emphasised unbroken wrists at contact.

Ferroli, who I know some people here have criticized, invented an extension of regular pepper called hitter's pepper. It's fully described in his second book.

Pepper is as old as ball and bat sports, into antiquity. It's a miniature form of the central skills of baseball that can be enjoyed in limited space. It survived into the 20th Century as a warm-up and a kid's backyard game with limited equipment and room. Big leaguers who grew up before 1970 never stopped playing their backyard game even when they got to MLB ballparks. Players younger than that might not know what pepper is anymore.

Kids now don't play unsupervised baseball. Some have backyard batting cages. Most all have video games. Pepper is almost dead.

Does pepper develop hitters? Probably not. If you are a good hitter, you will be good at pepper. But the reverse isn't always true.

Really, it's gone now, about as widespread as pitchers who throw complete games.

Melvin