Posted by: DKN (d_nittta@sbcglobal.net) on Thu Apr 24 22:58:40 2008

As a 12 year old, Junior used a 32 -10 for little league and a 32 -8 for travel ball. He did not notice weight so much as balance. He did not like end loaded bats. He was 85 pounds when he hit his first home run on a field with a 205 ft fence and had the top or one of the top batting averages in the league. After his first home run he was the hero of the smaller players who told him that if he could hit it out, they could also. During each practice session at the end of the season the all-star players would have a home run hitting contest. Generally the biggest strongest player would win. Junior did win a couple of the sessions and at one session he put 7 in a row over the fence. Early in Junior's baseball training a coach had told him length was more important than weight and that he should swing the longest bat he felt comfortable with to increase plate coverage. He is currently 126 pounds and leads his JV team in hitting average and slugging, using a 33 -3.