Batting Stances: Analysing three greats at the plate

Christy Mathewson regularly threw upwards of 90

Next time you watch a ball game, notice where the batters stand in the batters box. I think you’ll find that most if not all of them stand as far back as they can and close to the inside line.

Then keep track of how many swinging strikeouts occur when the pitch is in the dirt when the batter swings.

Current thinking is that pitchers throw so much harder today, batters stand as far back as they can to get an extra fraction of a second to swing.

But not every pitcher throws in the 90s. In the days of knuckleball pitchers, batters often moved up in the box to hit the pitch before it had a chance to dance in the air.

Today batters don’t seem to vary their stances by sacrificing that extra fraction of a second and moving up in the box to swing before a pitch breaks, giving pitchers who throw curves and sliders or effective change-ups a huge advantage, adding to the rolls of strikeouts and .220 batting averages.

There have always been pitchers who threw upwards of 90. From Cy Young and Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson through Lefty Grove and Van Mungo and Bob Feller to Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan, there was either no way to measure speeds or early measuring methods were applied when the ball crossed home plate instead of halfway to the plate, as is done today. That makes a difference of about 5 mph.

Pitchers who vary their pitches have an advantage over batters who don’t vary their swings or stances.

Here are three examples of hitters who rode their varying stances into the elite tier of the Hall of Fame - By Norman L. Macht

Rogers Hornsby

Right-hand hitter Rogers Hornsby hit almost .400 over a six-year span.  He hit .370 or better seven times and led the NL 6 years in a row. He faced fastball pitchers who threw as hard as today, curveballs, knuckleballs, spitballs.

He stood deep in the batters box in the farthest corner from the plate. and moved according to the pitch. Sometimes it would take him two steps to make the adjustment. Let him tell you how he did it.

Rogers Hornsby had a distinctive batting stance

My style enables me to meet all the different pitches. The toughest pitch for any batter is the tight pitch – high or low and inside.

My position takes the dynamite out of the tight pitch, and to hit the low pitch on the outside, curve or fastball, you take a full stride in the direction of the plate as the pitch is started, which brings you pretty much on a line with the plate and enables you to either push the ball to right field (he was a RHB) or drive it for distancedepending on the power you put behind the effort.

It creates a hazard for a smart pitcher by practically eliminating his chance to pitch to your stance and make you hit the ball that he wants you to hit.

Al Simmons

They called him “Bucketfoot” because he had an unorthodox batting stance: similar but not identical to the “foot in the bucket” stance of a timid rookie ready to bail out at the approach of an inside pitch. But that taunting didn’t last long.

Al Simmons rode that stance to a 16-year .334 batting average, 1,581 RBIs and .535 slugging average. Most of his career was as a fast ground-covering outfielder with the Philadelphia Athletics.

Simmons stood deep in the far corner of the right-hand batters box with his front foot pointed toward third base, To pitchers, it looked as if he could never reach an outside fastball, but they soon learned that was his favorite pitch.

Al Simmons: “Although my left foot would stab out toward third base, the rest of me, from the belt up, especially my wrists, arms and shoulders, was swinging in a proper line over the plate.”

He used a 36-inch bat, two inches longer than anyone else. His stride toward the pitch was so fast, he startled many a pitcher by blasting those pitches for extra-base hits to right field.

On an inside pitch he might take a small step to the left. Sometimes he would take that small step to the left and still hit it over the right field fence. 

Simmons once described his technique:

Although my left foot would stab out toward third base, the rest of me, from the belt up, especially my wrists, arms and shoulders, was swinging in a proper line over the plate.

Stan Musial

It was said of Stan “The Man” Musial that he could go to sleep in the fall, roll out of bed in the spring and immediately go 2-for-4.

The left-hand-hitting Musial batted .331 over 22 years with the St. Louis Cardinals. He had 3,630 hits – half at home and half on the road. He hit .317 in 24 All-Star Games.

Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Rex Barney described the challenge of pitching to Musial in the 1940s:

Musial was lean, fast as a greyhound, a left-hand batter. He stood in the farthest, deepest corner away from the plate, bent over, peering over his shoulder like a man looking around the corner of a building.

Pitchers never figured out how to pitch to him. Pitch him outside and he’d step toward the plate and hit a line drive. If they threw it in on his hands, his stride would be the same but not as far and he’d get around on the pitch and pull it before it got in on him.

If pitchers tried to stall him, make him step out to relax, he never moved. Never backed out. Catchers tried to distract him with small talk. He never responded. Total concentration.

Maybe there’s some young .200 hitter out there who’s willing to try something different.