Swingers

Monday, September 05 2011 @ 02:10 PM EDT

Contributed by: Magpie

Something I've been wondering about....

There's a group of hitters who are always described as having a "sweet swing." Most of you probably thought of Ken Griffey, didn't you? Or maybe you remembered Will Clark. Around these parts, the words were frequently applied to John Olerud, and Colby Rasmus has the same type of stroke.

These guys are all left-handed batters, and that's the thing. Guys described as having sweet swings are always left-handed batters. Always. It's as if they're the only ones capable of having a sweet swing. Why is that? Really, it doesn't make any sense. Surely there have been right-handed batters whose swings were essentially a mirror image of that same sweet swing. Did we simply not notice? Is it something we simply can't see? Why? Why, I ask you!

It makes no sense...

Are most of us right-handed, and a smooth right-handed stroke just looks... normal? Nothing to see here? And so we see most clearly what is unusual or distinctive in a right-handed batter - the bizarre stances in the box employed by Jeff Bagwell, Tony Batista, Albert Belle... Paul Molitor waiting and waiting, and lashing out with that short, short stroke... Jose Bautista holding the bat over his head like a sledgehammer... whatever the hell Youkilis is doing....

Incidentally, Manny Ramirez had an absolutely gorgeous right-handed swing. Try to find video of him when he was young and slender, before he took to wearing the baggy uniform. There was a sweet stroke. Even so, I had to work just to be able to see it.

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https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20110905141058166