GaryMrMets
11-12-2003, 10:52 PM
http://www.yesnetwork.com/announcers/index.cfm?cont_id=213418&page_type=wide
Pep Talk: Let's see if Mattingly can teach
http://www.yesnetwork.com/photos/pepes_small.jpgBy Phil Pepe
Special to YES Network Online
November 10, 2003
"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." -- George Bernard Shaw
Donnie Baseball is coming home to teach, to a position for which he has no previous experience. We know Don Mattingly can. He proved that with a batting title in 1984, 2,153 hits and a career average of .307 for 14 seasons, and a Yankees single-season record of 238 hits and 53 doubles in 1986.
We will find out now if he can teach.
It's worth taking the chance to find out, just to have Donnie Baseball around with his grace, his persona, his pleasant nature, his good fellowship, and his resume. But just because he could hit, it's no slam-dunk that he can teach hitting. The history of baseball is awash with examples of great players who could hit but couldn't teach others to do what they could do.
Bob Gibson tells this story about Stan Musial, who won seven batting titles, had a lifetime average of .331 for 22 seasons, and must be ranked among the 10 greatest pure hitters in baseball history. One day in spring training late in his career, Musial was standing outside the batting cage when he was approached by a young Cardinal whose name has long since faded into oblivion.
"Stan," said the young man, "how do you hit a slider?"
"Like this," replied Musial, who jumped into the cage, instructed the batting practice pitcher to throw him sliders, and then proceeded to hang out an unending series of line-drive ropes.
Gibson's point was that Musial could hit a slider -- any slider from any pitcher -- any time. But he had difficulty teaching others to do what he could do so naturally and effortlessly.
By all accounts, Ted Williams was the greatest hitter the game has known, and the greatest student of the art of hitting. He could, and would, talk hitting for hours. And yet the four teams he managed, the Washington Senators in 1969-70-71, the Texas Rangers in 1972, had team batting averages of .251, .238, .230 and .217.
Rogers Hornsby is acknowledged as the greatest right-handed hitter in baseball history. He won seven batting titles, batted over .400 three times, including a record .424 in 1924, and had a lifetime average for 23 seasons of .358, second highest in history. But as hitting instructor for the first Mets team in 1962, Hornsby tutored a group that had a collective batting average of .240.
When Wally Moses was the Yankees batting instructor in the early 1960s, he would often be seen huddling with Mickey Mantle, Elston Howard and Tony Kubek, which prompted Whitey Ford to ask, "Have you ever seen Wally talking to a .250 hitter?"
The implication was that Moses wanted to associate himself with his star pupils, and made a concerted effort to do so, but he distanced himself from those who were failures.
Hitting coaches are a strange and proud breed. They usually are excellent students of their subject, but it's the ability to impart that knowledge that separates the good ones from the bad.
What are the requisites for a good hitting coach?
For the most part, a good hitting coach is like chicken soup: He may not help, but he certainly can't hurt. A good hitting coach must be part psychologist, part surrogate father, part cheerleader, part Father Confessor, and part confidence-builder. It doesn't hurt if he comes with a pedigree as a hitter, but that's no assurance of success, either.
Among those who have been regarded as hitting gurus -- hitting instructors of great repute -- are Charlie Lau, Walt Hriniak and the California Angels' current hitting coach, Mickey Hatcher, all of whom underachieved as hitters.
Hatcher was a lifetime .280 hitter for 12 seasons who had more than 100 hits in a season just three times. Hriniak played in only 47 games in the major leagues and collected only 25 hits in his career. Lau was a .255 hitter for 11 big league seasons with never more than 73 hits in any one season.
I traveled with the Yankees as beat writer when Lau was their hitting coach. There was a trip to Boston and I was in the lobby of the hotel one day when Lau walked by. As he did, one brash Yankees fan turned to his companion and said, "There goes Charlie Lau. He batted .250, and wrote a book on how to hit .300."
Obviously, what Lau, Hriniak, and Hatcher couldn't do, they could teach.
Now we are about to find out if Don Mattingly can teach what he could do.
It's an experiment well worth the risk, and even if it proves to be a mistake, it's going to be nice having Donnie Baseball around again.
Acclaimed author and former Yankees beat writer Phil Pepe is a regular contributor to YES Network Online. His latest work is entitled "The Yankees: An Authorized History of the New York Yankees Centennial Edition," is in bookstores now.
http://www.yesnetwork.com/photos/mattingly_jeter_1110.jpg
The former Yankee captain takes on the current Yankee captain as a pupil.
Pep Talk: Let's see if Mattingly can teach
http://www.yesnetwork.com/photos/pepes_small.jpgBy Phil Pepe
Special to YES Network Online
November 10, 2003
"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches." -- George Bernard Shaw
Donnie Baseball is coming home to teach, to a position for which he has no previous experience. We know Don Mattingly can. He proved that with a batting title in 1984, 2,153 hits and a career average of .307 for 14 seasons, and a Yankees single-season record of 238 hits and 53 doubles in 1986.
We will find out now if he can teach.
It's worth taking the chance to find out, just to have Donnie Baseball around with his grace, his persona, his pleasant nature, his good fellowship, and his resume. But just because he could hit, it's no slam-dunk that he can teach hitting. The history of baseball is awash with examples of great players who could hit but couldn't teach others to do what they could do.
Bob Gibson tells this story about Stan Musial, who won seven batting titles, had a lifetime average of .331 for 22 seasons, and must be ranked among the 10 greatest pure hitters in baseball history. One day in spring training late in his career, Musial was standing outside the batting cage when he was approached by a young Cardinal whose name has long since faded into oblivion.
"Stan," said the young man, "how do you hit a slider?"
"Like this," replied Musial, who jumped into the cage, instructed the batting practice pitcher to throw him sliders, and then proceeded to hang out an unending series of line-drive ropes.
Gibson's point was that Musial could hit a slider -- any slider from any pitcher -- any time. But he had difficulty teaching others to do what he could do so naturally and effortlessly.
By all accounts, Ted Williams was the greatest hitter the game has known, and the greatest student of the art of hitting. He could, and would, talk hitting for hours. And yet the four teams he managed, the Washington Senators in 1969-70-71, the Texas Rangers in 1972, had team batting averages of .251, .238, .230 and .217.
Rogers Hornsby is acknowledged as the greatest right-handed hitter in baseball history. He won seven batting titles, batted over .400 three times, including a record .424 in 1924, and had a lifetime average for 23 seasons of .358, second highest in history. But as hitting instructor for the first Mets team in 1962, Hornsby tutored a group that had a collective batting average of .240.
When Wally Moses was the Yankees batting instructor in the early 1960s, he would often be seen huddling with Mickey Mantle, Elston Howard and Tony Kubek, which prompted Whitey Ford to ask, "Have you ever seen Wally talking to a .250 hitter?"
The implication was that Moses wanted to associate himself with his star pupils, and made a concerted effort to do so, but he distanced himself from those who were failures.
Hitting coaches are a strange and proud breed. They usually are excellent students of their subject, but it's the ability to impart that knowledge that separates the good ones from the bad.
What are the requisites for a good hitting coach?
For the most part, a good hitting coach is like chicken soup: He may not help, but he certainly can't hurt. A good hitting coach must be part psychologist, part surrogate father, part cheerleader, part Father Confessor, and part confidence-builder. It doesn't hurt if he comes with a pedigree as a hitter, but that's no assurance of success, either.
Among those who have been regarded as hitting gurus -- hitting instructors of great repute -- are Charlie Lau, Walt Hriniak and the California Angels' current hitting coach, Mickey Hatcher, all of whom underachieved as hitters.
Hatcher was a lifetime .280 hitter for 12 seasons who had more than 100 hits in a season just three times. Hriniak played in only 47 games in the major leagues and collected only 25 hits in his career. Lau was a .255 hitter for 11 big league seasons with never more than 73 hits in any one season.
I traveled with the Yankees as beat writer when Lau was their hitting coach. There was a trip to Boston and I was in the lobby of the hotel one day when Lau walked by. As he did, one brash Yankees fan turned to his companion and said, "There goes Charlie Lau. He batted .250, and wrote a book on how to hit .300."
Obviously, what Lau, Hriniak, and Hatcher couldn't do, they could teach.
Now we are about to find out if Don Mattingly can teach what he could do.
It's an experiment well worth the risk, and even if it proves to be a mistake, it's going to be nice having Donnie Baseball around again.
Acclaimed author and former Yankees beat writer Phil Pepe is a regular contributor to YES Network Online. His latest work is entitled "The Yankees: An Authorized History of the New York Yankees Centennial Edition," is in bookstores now.
http://www.yesnetwork.com/photos/mattingly_jeter_1110.jpg
The former Yankee captain takes on the current Yankee captain as a pupil.