Quote:
Originally Posted by bnorth
Great post Steve. I remember a interview with Barry Bonds with him saying how Ted Williams said the exact thing I made bold in Steves post. Barry said Ted told him to hit the ball with a slight downward swing to give the ball that backwards spin. I am sure that explains all of the monster HRs Barry hit.  |
My favorite Ted story was from a guy who spoke at the club, and had played for him in Washington.
The first year he was on them about waiting for a more hittable pitch and made a big difference in team batting average.
The next year they had Nolan Ryan coming in for a game and asked him how they could hit his pitching. He said that early on he'd try to hit the top of the ball to drive it somewhere, but that late in the game he'd try to hit under the ball to get more distance, maybe a homer or sac fly.
And that that comment made most of the guys stop listening since they were asking how to hit a ball they couldn't really see vs his advice of trying to hit it a certain way.
It's sad that Bonds had to take stuff, he probably would have been fairly close to the record without it. Maybe Teds advice helped early and chemistry helped more later?