Posted by: Joe A. () on Fri Dec 1 17:31:59 2000

Jack,

I have tried to make a point that I don't think that we should be using pros baseball players as models. I would like note something about some the specific models expand on this thought.

It seems to me that the examples used are all homerun hitter. Mark M, Sammy S, etc, etc,etc. In a recent post you refered to Jose Canseco as a great athelete.

This leads to me to ask, what are we trying to teach, "methods to hit the ball hard as often as possible" or "to hit the ball exceptionally hard once in a while?"

It seems to be that we are concentrating on people who hit the ball hard once in a while. I never read about the swing of G. Brett, Pete Rose, etc, etc, or that guy for Minasoata who won all those batting crowns but I can't think of his name right now. Well, he got a lot of hits on bunts so maybe he dosen't count.

Any way, there are many great hitters who make hard contact way more times then Jose Canseco or S. Sosa and M. McGuire even Hank Aron. Did you know that Babe Ruth had the same number of strikeouts as at-bats in five years.

But the solid contact hitters don't seem to be the focus of the discussions for most posts.

So, besides pros being poor models, I think people are using the worst pros as models, most of the time.

Joe A.