Meant It

The beauty of baseball is that be considered a good hitter you need only succeed three out of every ten tries.

It has been well documented that one of the hardest things in sports to do is to hit a baseball.  This is a sentiment with which I can whole-heartedly agree.

Being a young adult male in the 1980’s I admired great hitters like Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, Don Mattingly and Cal Ripken, Jr.  They made it look easy.  Unfortunately, as an aspiring amateur fast pitch softball player in a men’s’ church league, I begged to differ because my swing was less hit and more miss. 

It was about 1987 and I was nineteen. I was new to the fast pitch sport, so I set out on a mission to become a good hitter.  However, I was a terribly inconsistent hitter and an average outfielder, consequently I got little playing time.

For about seven years I was the proverbial tiger chasing the tail, being a back-up or platoon player at best. I even bought books from great hitters like Dave Winfield and Ted Williams and studied their techniques, but without playing time I had uneven results.

But, in hindsight now I can attribute the hitting style I eventually learned to two guys. A guy named Tommy from my church softball league and a major leaguer named Mad Dog who swung a bat like he meant it.

In 1994 I joined a different fast pitch team where I played every day and one guy’s advice named Tommy Fowler changed my hitting fortune.  He was a veteran player, who taught me a practice swing that focused on a level cut.  Muscle memory was the key and I practiced it often. 

Then I had to develop a mindset of aggressive determination, which I believe emulated four time batting champ, Bill Madlock. His nickname was Mad Dog and the best way to describe his violent swing was he hit the ball like he meant it and he hit it hard making full contact.

So, once I got the level swing down, I started swinging like I meant it, similar to what I saw Mad Dog do over the years.  Since we were both right handed his short fierce stroke was what I tried to emulate.  The object was to hit the ball solid, like a hammer drives an unsuspecting nail into a wooden block.

Subsequently, once I got a chance to start every day I finally started hitting.  No longer was I an easy out anymore and even batted second for a while.  Playing like I meant it also inspired me to learn to play seven different defensive positions that year which helped me acquire a deeper understanding of the game.  Finally things were changing and the next year I was even asked to be the founding coach of my church’s softball team.

Anything can be accomplished; it often just takes a personal touch, lots of practice and sheer will power. 

Let it be said of you, whether trying to hit a baseball or trying to get ahead in life that you swung like you meant it.

Swavel