Posted by: grc () on Wed May 15 08:51:19 2002

tom...you had previously mentioned that the tip of the bat does not start coming back in towards the body until contact.....after reviewing your post, i think i understand what you are saying....

what you are saying is that at contact, the bat is parrallel with the front edge of home plate, correct?

but if this is what you are saying, while it may be yours & epstein's ideal bat position at contact in order to keep the ball fair, this is not reality on inside pitches...most major leaguers contact the inside pitch with the bat angle about +30 degrees (i'll call the bat being parrallel to the front edge of home plate as "0 degrees", and for another discussion for another day i'll call contacting the outside pitch on the inside part of the ball as "-15 degrees")....if the bat is +30 degrees (sometimes it's as much as 45 degrees), clearly the tip of the bat has started back toward the body....

also....it seems like you and epstein like an evr-so-slight "inside-out" swing to keep the ball fair, even to the extent of advocating that dreaded fence drill.....couldn't the same thing (keeping the ball fair) be accomplished by having a closed stance? (or more importantly, FINISHING THE STRIDE CLOSED)....


respectfully, grc....