Difference Between Lefties and Righties

Lefty Curve
To me, being a lefty baseball player has always made me feel like I have a bigger advantage over the players who are right-handed. There are not as many positions that a lefty would recommend playing in the infield, but there are definitely positions that lefties have the upper hand in. As explained by Robert Adair, everyone knows that a right-handed batter has more trouble hitting off of right-handed pitcher, and lefties have more trouble hitting off of left-handed pitchers (71). I find it a lot easier to hit off of right-handed pitchers, and I usually feel uncomfortable seeing a lefty on the mound. I'm not exactly sure why, but seeing a left-handed pitcher forces me to think more than any other situation in baseball.

My left-handed stance

My right-handed stance

Recently, I switch off between swinging on my left and right sides, depending on the situation (right vs. left-handed pitcher). Most of my power comes from my left side because it's my most used/comfortable swing. But, against lefty pitchers, I have a better batting average when I swing in my right-handed stance. I never really understood why, until Adair explained it: "the left-handed and right-handed pitchers throw from different angles" (73). After reading about this, I wondered how I never thought about this before. To any type of batter, a left-handed pitch will move left-to-right and a right-handed pitch will move right-to-left. This clearly creates an advantage because it's a lot easier to see a ball that is coming towards you rather than starting towards you and drifting away.

A small portion of baseball players believe that right-handed and left-handed pitching has the same effect on the batter regardless of the hitter's stance. Do you think that there's an advantage in hitting between right and left-handed players?

Adair, Robert Kemp. The Physics of Baseball. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.

Smart Defenders and Base-running

FIELDING

I've been playing baseball all my life and still haven't perfected the art of catching a fly ball. To me, judging where a fly ball is going to land is the hardest thing to do as a defender on the field. Although my main position is in the outfield, I can tell that an outfielder gets a much larger applaud from their team when they catch a fly ball than infielders do when they simply field a grounder. Adair agrees that a ball hit straight to a player is the most difficult to judge and balls that are hit at different distances can look fairly similar initially (148). If you've ever played on a baseball team for more than a year, you've definitely heard the overused phrase "first step back". This line is said by almost every team to express how you must make stepping back your first instinct the moment the ball is hit because you can cover more ground running forward than you can from behind. "If he waits a couples of seconds to start running, he won't cover the 50 feet he needs to in order to catch the short fly that lands after another 3 seconds" (149). Outfielders have to make judgments, calculate distances, and maintain certain fundamentals in the matter of seconds while under the pressure of catching a ball. Unlike the infield, outfields don't have someone behind them to back them up if they make a mistake.

Basic fielding techniques for ground balls

Infielders have more plays to handle during a baseball game than outfielders do. I personally have not played a lot of infield recently and still struggle with fielding even an easy ground ball. There are many complexities with fielding and throwing a baseball during one single play. "A ball thrown 135 feet by the shortstop or third baseman to the first baseman's glove will take about 1.09 seconds. A player who throws a ball 5 mph slower will allow the runner to travel 2 feet farther" (155). This two foot difference will play a big role in an umpire calling the runner safe or out. To practice strengthening my arm and fielding tactics, I find it effective to throw a tennis ball against any large surface to practice basic fundamentals. The more comfortable I feel when I field a baseball, the greater the chance that I will make a better throw during a game. So, consistently practicing allows me to stay in my comfort zone even during pressure-filled moments.

Outfielders provide a strong line of defense that their entire team depends on during a game. Infielders are consistently pounded with plays that they must routinely make. Which position do you believe has the harder job during a game?

Adair, Robert Kemp. The Physics of Baseball. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.

The Swing

THE SWING

In my mind, hitting a baseball has always been considered the hardest thing to do in any sport. There's no doubt that no one can be triumphant in any other sport where they succeed only one-third of the time. Keeping my hands closer while swinging the bat has always been a great challenge for me, although I feel that is the most effective way to hit a ball. Adair would disagree with that. He believes that keeping your hands closer to your body for a longer duration throughout your swing creates more bat velocity. More arm extension during the swing slows your bat speed and decreases your control over the bat (31). No athlete would argue with an author with a Ph.D. regarding baseball, but I believe that my swing is more effective when I am the most comfortable with it. Maintaining control of my hands during a swing is one challenge, but baseball is a mind game; as a result, baseball comes down to how comfortable you perform, how focused you stay, and how much effort you put in.

The reaction time of a batter during the pitch determines where/whether they hit the ball. Adair explains the reaction time: "he will swing so that the hitting area of the bat strikes the ball squarely-he hopes! All of this takes time and judgement-and good judgment takes more time" (38). My biggest strength, in my opinion, is my hand-eye coordination. I can hit the ball very squarely and prefer executing rather easy hits than powerful ones. During each of my practices however, I try altering my swing little by little until I find the most effective one. Practicing keeping my hands in longer and generating a shorter, quicker swing allows me to feel more confident going up to hit with a newer swing.

The picture on the left shows me in a swinging stance with a soccer ball under my back shoulder. This helps with two things while swinging; forcing your hands close to your body and keeping your back shoulder level. It's very essential to maintain balance-leveled shoulders so that when you swing, you minimize the chance of hitting the ball directly up in the air.

Would an athlete perform better with a proven, technical swing or a comfortable, relaxed swing?

Adair, Robert Kemp. The Physics of Baseball. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.

Pitching Forms and Techniques

This position is known as "The Windup" because
it's motion is a multiple-step procedure of twists
and turns before throwing the ball.

If you ask any baseball player what is the most important job while playing, they will say pitching. Pitching is considered one of the hardest things to do in sports. "The pitcher must not only throw the ball so that it passes through the strike zone, he must throw so that the batter does not hit the ball squarely" (Adair, 48). Constant decisions are being made by the pitcher from when he looks at the batter to as soon as he throws the ball. With the potential of the game being on the line and everybody focusing on you, pitching can build stress when your whole team relies on your decision making.

This single motion pitching position is called "The
Stretch" where the pitcher takes multiple pauses
before deciding when to throw the ball.

The speed of a pitcher is one of the first things that is noticed when anyone looks at the person on the pitching mound. A 95-mph pitch will reach the plate in 0.41 seconds after release, a 93-mph pitch will be around 1.5 feet from the plate after 0.41 seconds, and a 90-mph pitch 3 feet (Adair, 60). A small difference such as a 2-mph slower pitch can cause such a large effect where the batter can be thrown off by a one and a half foot difference. I can't throw a 90 mile per hour pitch just yet, but to utilize what I can do, I make sure to throw fastballs and change-ups frequently.

Typically, a trained pitcher finds that when throwing a fastball, throwing it high and inside the strike zone is the best way to utilize it. If a change-up is thrown, you'd most likely find that pitchers locate it low and away from the batter (71). Although, a pitcher must mix things up while on the mound because he/she doesn't to throw a pitch that the batter is already expecting. When I first started pitching, I was around 11 years old and just threw the ball to get it over the plate. Now that I've practiced consistently and frequently, our coach wants me to focus on hitting certain locations while pitching because he truly believes that it will be my most deadliest pitching trait.

I personally love pitching because I enjoy finding new ways to throw off the batter. I look for patterns in the batter's swings and make sure I don't fall into patterns myself. If I'm facing a team that we've never played against, I usually pitch with the same comfortable patterns that I normally use. But, I wouldn't do the same with a team that I normally face because they can easily pick up routines that I might fall in.

What do you think will throw a batter off his game more effectively, changing the speed of a pitch or changing the location?

Adair, Robert Kemp. The Physics of Baseball. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Print.