Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Apr 19 11:37:37 2001

>>> What Ted Williams said was that a slight uppercut matches the slight downward plane of the ball. If you are on time you will drive the ball in the air. By matching the swing plane with the pitch plane, you will have a longer area (and time) in which you can hit the ball flush, a foot or two of swing range matching the ball's flight. If your swing plane does not match the pitch plane (swinging down at the dropping ball, or swinging up severely through the flight of the ball) you will have one intersection point matching the ball's flight - a much smaller range of success.
What Williams also said was that with the slight uppercut, if you are a bit early you will hit the top of the ball and hit a hard topspin grounder that is difficult to field and moves hard through the infield. If you are a bit late, you will hit a backspin line drive that will carry very well. So matching the swing plane to the pitch plane (the slight uppercut) gives greater margin for error to the bater in every way. <<<

Hi Major Dan

If the “slight uppercut matches the slight downward plane of the ball,” then the ball’s flight and batter’s swing plane would be “inline” or on the same plane. Therefore, the batter would still hit the center of the ball if the swing were early or late. So I am sure what Ted meant was, that if the batter’s uppercut was greater than the “slight uppercut”, the planes would not be inline and timing would be of greater importance. --- But many hitters with greater uppercuts are still able pull a good number of fly balls.

Jack Mankin