Posted by: BHL (Knight1285@aol.com) on Tue Jun 12 23:57:36 2007

> > Hi. It is my opinion that the back leg doesn't drive at all. Why would it? If the batter decides to swing, the hips simply open up as a result of the heel landing. Thats's it. I've never heard of back leg drive.
>
> ..Actually the heel simply lands as a result of the hips opening,the big muscles are the cause not the effect.

Hi RQL,

As you might realize from the past, I am a BIG proponent of the batter having the back leg in an "L" position at contact. This is particularly useful for hitting the low pitches, chiefly for three reasons: 1) the back leg's reactive movement accounts for half the hip rotation in a 90 degree swing; 2) doing so keeps the hitter's weight back, where he he or she is less likely to lunge; 3) it helps the hitter match the plane of the ball to the plane of the pitch. (Number one is my reason; number two and three are Mike Epstein's.)

Perhaps pre-BALCO? Bonds showed the greatest propensity to use this sort of swing. At impact, his leg was bent at a 90 degree angle, with his calf angling towards the pitcher, or /, and his thigh angling towards the catcher, or . Together, they looked like this: >.

However, it should be duly noted that I converted Bonds into a rightly intentionally, chiefly because the L is difficult to convey with a computer that uses nearly all right-handed symbols. Also note that the back leg is not as titled as the aformentioned symbol, nor is it scrunched 60 degrees. My apologies to all, but I can only do so much with a keyboard.

In actuality, Bond's L at contact would look something like this: <. Again, please take into account what I stated above--this is a very rough illustration.

When McGwire hit his 19 home run en route to 70 in 1998, he had a pronounced "L" in his leg at contact, as he did on home run 45, although his thigh was more perpendicular to the ground, and his calf was more parallel to the ground. The latter 90 degree L can be seen in the following swings: Mantle (i.e., sometimes), Mays, Killebrew (i.e., sometimes), Edguardo Alfonzo, Kiner, Frank Howard, Cecil Fielder (i.e., sometimes), and others that occasion this singular important movement this day and age. On www.swingtraing.net, just look for the article on Marcus Giles 2, and notice his L.

Now it is true that others, such as Griffey Jr., evidence a less pronounnced bend in the "L." Yet, just look at Griffey's first home run during 1998, and you will notice the following: the calf angles towards the pitcher, while the thigh angles towards the catcher slightly. This seems to be the case also for Andres Galarraga, who, on the "Racing for the Record" tape, makes a noticable "L" (80-85 degrees) in this fashion.

Even on Jack's "Truisms & Fallacies: Get Your Arms Extended," the subject of Junior Griffey's "L" is discussed.

Feedback will be very much appreciated. Thank you all for your time.

Best,
BHL, Erudition of Literature and Black Holes
Knight1285@aol.com