Favorite batting stance...

[rockchalk]

Hey, if any one of you guys could pull off the Bagwell without falling down, I'm pretty much bowing to you. It goes against everything anyone has ever been taught about hitting a baseball, mainly in that you stride in instead of out.

As for myself, well, I went out and tried to copy the stance of the greatest ballplayer ever to live....George Brett

I could hardly ever pull it off, because I had too many problems trying to convert that into a righty's stance. I remember one year NBC had the World Series and Costas V/O'd a clip of Morgan in the World Series in '76, then asked why he did what he did (as most of you know it was a timing thing and a reminder to himself to keep his elbow out). I thought that was cool and put it to use in Little League. My personal stance was actually a freakish blend of Pete Rose, Julio Franco, and either some Morgan or Gary Sheffield thrown in for good measure.

As an aside, I remembered an article on Page 2 a couple years ago on this topic...Here it is (yes, it's insider, sorry)

[CS85]

My faves were always bagwells and gary sheffield's wavy bat.

[Bleujayone]

Garciaparra... They're all fun

Do you fiddle around with your batting gloves after every pitch?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Hokey Pokey

Lemmie see...

Step out of batter's box...Left wrist, Right wrist,....Left elbow, Right elbow,....belt buckle tap Left, belt buckle tap Right,..Left knee, Right knee....Left shoulder, Right shoulder.....cap brim,...spit,...step back into box,...crouch

Repeat after every pitch or until the coach slips you a Zoloft in your Gatorade.

[leopard88]

Tony Batista (BOTH feet on back line of batter's box before the windup, then turn in before the pitch -- purely for kicks, because it is damn near impossible to hit in his stance).

Eddie Murray (crouched, leaning toward the back of the batter's box, with the bat swirling around).

Carl Yastremski, when I would bat lefthanded (leaning in toward the front of the plate, with the shoulder closed)

[zoneranger]

Here's some late 60's/early 70's Pittsburgh Pirate stances I used to emulate.....

Roberto Clemente-Clemente constantly rolled his head around in the on deck circle and in the batter's box ...left, right,left, right...like he had a crick in his neck and couldn't work it out.

Willie Stargell...swung his bat around like a windmill before every pitch

Vic Davallio...had a great leg kick when batting.

Richie Hebner...was always tugging at the back of his collar, pulling and tugging.

Manny Sanguillen...was always landscaping the batters box with his cleats, he'd kick up some dirt, then smooth it back out, then he's draw a line in the dirt with his bat.

[DGivens87]

GREAT TOPIC!

In recent years, I've tried the Gary Sheffield "flicking the bat" stance - with mixed success. From time to time, I'll try that one or Johnny Damon's (where he has his front foot almost completely outside the batter's box).

Now when I was a kid, I used to switch up the stance every year. In 90, it was Wade Boggs, 91 Steve Lyons (don't ask lol), 92 Phil Plantier (crouch down real low - any die-hard Sox fan from that time knows) and 93 Mike Greenwell (again, Sox diehards know what I'm talking about). Memories.

Now someone had mention pitching windups - I've tried D-Train's in wiffleball (works well) and Ben Weber's. However, my favorite has to be Keith Foulke's, who pitches like he's throwing a dart.

[CS85]

I pitch the submarine and have more beans in one game than in a can of van camp's.

Sosa's batting style is also fun, but I liked to do the Jack Parkman "shimmy" as a kid (rent major league II for reference).

[epper]

my alltime favourite has to be Tony Batista. most whacked out stance ever.

honourable mention: Bagwell, Franco, Tettleton, McGwire

[CFSize24]

I tried this once or twice just to get at the pitcher

Mike Hargrove

When he was a player, the Seattle Mariners manager rivalled Boggs as a slave to his superstitions.

Hargrove would walk up the first-base line and take three practice swings before stepping into the batter's box.

It got worse at the plate, where he would perform a series adjustments ? fiddling with his batting gloves, pants, sleeves, wiping perspiration off his lips and pushing down on the top of his batting helmet before he was ready to step in.

After each pitch, he would repeat the routine.

It earned him the nickname, "The Human Rain Delay."

I would try Julio Franco with little success.

As a pitcher I tried Fernando Valenzuela and Dan Quisenberry.

[buckeyes1]

Im a natural born right hander but when I use to paly wiffle ball with my buddies I would hit left handed and mock Ichiro and Griffey Jr. I got a friend who does the David Ortiz stance and arm motion thingy perfectly.

[KevinMcD]

As most people I try to copy how my favorite player bats meaning Tejada for me

[shadesofblack]

Thome with the bat point

and you gotta have the Griffey stance....tight in...elbow out...bad straigh up and wabbling....the pitch....extentions.....homer!.....victory for older brother

[Nick 1733]

I never messed around with different stances, I always used Gallarraga's open stance from when I started to now. Seriously made everything easier for me, and since I can bat switch I used it on both sides of the plate.

[Shumway]

I pitch the submarine and have more beans in one game than in a can of van camp's.

Sosa's batting style is also fun, but I liked to do the Jack Parkman "shimmy" as a kid (rent major league II for reference).

"Parkman does his shimmy in the batters box...it makes the women here in Cleveland sick." (I know I butchered the line, but you get the point)

As for pitching...y'gotta go with Ben Weber.

[floydnimrod]

I tried Griffey Junior, franco, sheffield, Edagr Martinez, Sean Casey (with the batting glove adjustment after every pitch) A-Rod, and Joe Morgan's. When I was playin with my friends once, I tried Bagwell's. The first time i got hit. The second time I swung on strike three and fell over. The one I use now is somewhere between Junior's, Sheffield,Tejada and Nomah.

But Bags still has the best one.

[BCBoy]

Alfonso Soriano, Sheffield.

And for the record, I get so annoyed (sometimes I actually laugh though) at Craig Councell's batting stance.

[pcgd]

Bagwell's stance isn't all that foolish. Steping back while loading up is an excellent way to "load up" and not get out in front. I wouldn't teach a young kid that method (steping back), but there are plenty of major leaguers these days that use a very similar approach (foot up and down, but never forward) that I would teach a young player. I used that approach myself when I played. Pujols is one that does this.

That's the great thing about baseball. There isn't a "right" way to hit. There are as many different swings as there are players. A good hitting coach can adjust someone's swing without completly changing it. There are alot of coaches in High School that want everyone to swing the same way, and that's just wrong to me.

[VitaminD]

As for pitching...y'gotta go with Ben Weber.

Growing up, I always wanted to copy Rick Sutcliffe and the way he hid the ball down behind his back knee. I wound up with something more like Mark Prior - legs are the source of power on the fastball.

At the plate, I wound up going way open (throw right but bat left, bad for a pitcher) because my left eye is my dominant eye and I wanted to get a better look at the ball. No matter how you get there, as long as you wind up in the "bat loaded" position (see the George Brett picture above for a near-perfect example), it's all fine.

[leopard88]

If you want to throw in pitchers (no pun intended -- I just caught that), put me down for Jim Palmer (with the huge leg kick) and Scott McGregor (I'm righthanded, so I just tried to reverse McGregor's windup).

[rockchalk]

Bagwell's stance isn't all that foolish. Steping back while loading up is an excellent way to "load up" and not get out in front. I wouldn't teach a young kid that method (steping back), but there are plenty of major leaguers these days that use a very similar approach (foot up and down, but never forward) that I would teach a young player. I used that approach myself when I played. Pujols is one that does this.

That's the great thing about baseball. There isn't a "right" way to hit. There are as many different swings as there are players. A good hitting coach can adjust someone's swing without completly changing it. There are alot of coaches in High School that want everyone to swing the same way, and that's just wrong to me.

I didn't say it was foolish, I was just saying it goes against everything that you are ever taught. Good for him for doing so, because like you said, if you actually teach someone to do that from the beginning, it's a lot better for you like you said, because if you stride forward, it's MUCH more likely that your hips will fly open, making you miss terribly. All the way through Little League and HS I had the coaches who honestly didn't either how to hit or how to coach hitting (except for my freshman year) and it always drove me nuts because they were trying to teach everyone the same way, and if you did it another way (ie-your way) they would go nuts and say that's why you missed (unless of course you got a double, then that was they way they taught you )