Posted by: Joe Hernandez (kokoa@cheerful.com) on Sat Jun 23 00:15:59 2001

I was watching a college baseball home run derby and one of the participants said that he tucks hisleft hnd pinky finger (he is a righty batter) under the knob of the bat. he said it increases bat speed and whip. i was wondering if this is true. any help appreciated.
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> > There are some ballplayers that use this type of grip. I believe it's called the overlapping finger grip. Some ballplayers find the knob at the end of the bat a hindrance to the swing. I remember guys sawing the knob of. What ballplayers do is wrap the pinky of the bottom hand around the knob. They feel this gives them more wrist freedom allowing them to swing with a smooth path directly to the ball and give them maximum power. The fellow you describe just does a variation of this grip but I suspect with the same results...at least to him. I hope this helps.
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> I choke up on my bat about an inch. This won't take away nay power will it? I mean, we all have different types of grips. Ted Williams choked up a little, McGwire holds the end of the knob.

...Generally, if you choke-up about 1/2 inch that should be the max. If you need to choke-up more then why not go the next bat size down? That's my personal philosophy. But if you are comfortable and it works for you, whose to say you are wrong.

Joe Hernandez