Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Thu Apr 22 20:49:06 2004

Hi JJA,

I believe the reason Pete Rose had no power was that his set-up disallowed a great amount of angular displacement.

Yes, he had a circular handpath; yet his bat often only underwent 90 degrees + x degrees of angular momentum, and, even then, he lost batspeed by trying to go to centerfield--and the opposite field--consistently.

On the other hand, some hitters, Babe Ruth, held the bat so the bathead was aligned with the third base line. This meant his bat traveled 180 degrees + 2x degrees, and he ascertained more velocity in his bat at impact.

Finally, Big Mac's bat was initiated from a position pointing towards the pitcher. This meant that the bat head could wrap until it pointed towards first base, and his bat would travel 270 degrees + 3 x degrees, and hit the ball with the greatest authority.

I suspect that is what Jack means by "pre-launch torque," which, if I understand it correctly, is just increasing the partial circumference of the swing to add to the circular momentum.

Nevertheless, some individuals complain that doing so will lead to coordination problems, and choose the shortest rotary traversion.

Given short notice to your intriguing post, all I can say is that is the best I can do to explain it for now.

BHL