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Informative Articles

Home Run Statistics – Going Going Gone.
This was written prior to the 2005 season The home run. One of sports grandest sights. Whether it is a line drive that barely clears the wall or a pop up that glances off the foul pole. Or if it’s a shot that goes 40 rows back. It is still a home...

How To Choose a Baseball Pitching Machine
Before we start, let me just add one thought on how I believe ballplayers are made. FIRST… you must learn the proper mechanics! SECOND… you do it over and over and over again! The player that has the privilege of being able to hit just by walking...

My golf buddies belly laugh watching my stiff and choppy golf swing. How can I fix it?
We would all like to have a fluid, beautiful swing like Adam Scott, power off the tee like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, and the ability to repeat that swing round after round, day after day. But what is holding back most amateurs from that silky...

My Top Ten Favorite Baseball Movies
My Top Ten Favorite Baseball Movies  My top ten baseball movies consist of five movies on the list. There have been many movies with a baseball theme that I have liked, but there are only five I have loved. I will get to them soon. Some of the...

Take a Number: Five Ways to Look at Age
One for the Ages Satchel Paige was a great baseball pitcher, one of the greatest of all time. He was an African-American and, due to the racial discrimination of the time, most of his outstanding career was not spent in the (white) major...

 
Crack of the Bat

What is that sound that batters love to hear? That bang, that square hit, that crack of the bat. You know, as a batter, that you have just launched one. You know that the ball is taking off. You know you got your monies worth on that at bat.

Pitchers hate it. After a batter wacks that ball, the pitchers will look down at the ground, maybe curse (usually at themselves) or look to where the ball has been hit with an anguished look on their face. If you as a pitcher were giving up a lot of these solid hits, you knew your playing time was about to be over.

The other day, as I watched my daughter take batting practice from her new batting coach, my eyes shifted to another batter that was also being coached. Her swings were slow, the ball was glancing off her bat and trickling into the batting screen. Her hips were not rotating and there was no power being generated from her swings.

The coach then took some time with her to show her some techniques that would help her in her quest to hit better. They spoke for about 10 minutes. Or should I say the coach spoke for 10 minutes and the girl listened. She then jumped back into the batters box to practice taking some more swings at the ball.

As I gazed back and forth between my daughter and this other girl I realized that after about 20 more minutes of hitting and talking with her coach this girl was smacking the ball. Projectiles were streaming off bat. That loud crack from the bat was reverberating in the facility. That famous crack was heard on eight out of ten hits.

Then it dawned on me. That this is why I love


this game so much. I loved that crack of the bat. I loved hitting the ball so right. I loved it when the ball went whistling in the air. Oh yeah, I enjoyed the other aspects of the game like base running, fielding, and throwing, but I was deeply passionate about hitting. The supreme challenge was why I started playing this game and why I continue to enjoy watching it today.

As I continued to watch my daughter, and this other girl hit better and better I could not help but feel an enormous amount pleasure. They were transforming in front of me. Whatever those coaches told them and whatever those two girls absorbed from their coaches was generating solid hit after solid hit.

I could not believe how happy I was for my daughter and this other girl. I found something wonderful about the sharing of knowledge and technique from generation to generation going on right in front of me. Both girls’ intensity and willingness to learn made me realize that I was not the only one who loved the crack of the bat.

About The Author

I have loved baseball for over 40 years. Writing articles and stories about the game I love is a dream come true. The stories are inspiring, moving and motivational. They will hit a home run to your heart.

Founder and President of Baseball's Pride and Joy

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aron@baseballsprideandjoy.com