Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Sun Apr 17 22:08:35 2005

Hi Jack:

In 1998, during a three-home run "strike" at Veterans stadium, Big Mac hit a ball of the upper deck facade in left center field (his 19th home run that season). I have ample tapes showing a side view of that swing. I'm just curious if you took any time to study a side view of that particular stroke.

Since the original thread was geared towards Pujols, I thought I could make some qualitative comparisons:

1) Whereas Big Mac begins with a wide stance, Pujols strides to get into that position.

2) Whereas Big Mac leans back when he drops the front heel to initial hip movement, Pujols leans towards the pitcher when he does so.

3) Whereas Big Mac maintains an axis slanted away from the pitcher--shown by his tendency to rotate on the ball of his back foot--Pujols maintains an axis slanted towards the pitcher, which is implicit inhis back foot lifting (i.e., it comes off the ground).

4) Whereas Big Mac's backward axis is more conducive to hitting lower pitches, Pujol's axis is more conducive to hitting higher pitches.

Now, here are the similarities:

1) Both end up striding about the same length.

2) Both rotate their upper bodies on their axis of rotation.

3) Both maintain their axis of rotation.

4) Both look for pitches that their tilt will make easier to hit.

From watching these two players, I have to favor the wide stride over the narrow-medium stride for two reasons:

1) It eliminates the tendency to spin the front foot, and induces the hitter to gain immediate hip rotation just by dropping the heel straight down (i.e., 50 degrees at toe plant).

2) It forces to hitter to optimize the use of what Jack terms top hand torque.

Perhaps Jack can add his own thoughts.

BHL