Their Thoughts And Mine
September 30th, 2009 | 
Author: Todd Thomas
Author: Todd Thomas
Here are a bunch of great quotes from some of baseball’s best. I have added my commentary under each quote by underlining my thoughts. Enjoy!
“In my twenty-two years in professional baseball, I went to bat almost 8,000 times, and every trip to the plate was an adventure, one that I could remember and store up information.” – Ted Williams, The Science of Hitting
Learn something from every at-bat that may help you in a future trip to the plate.
“They talked for years about the ball being dead. The ball isn’t dead, the hitters are, from the neck up.” – Ted Williams, The Science of Hitting
Is your eye on the ball mentally??? See PlayMyBestBaseball.com asap!
“It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you’ve been playing all of your life.” – Mickey Mantle
And we think players as young as 6 years old should know what they are doing at every turn of a game. ???
“When you look at the overall talent level of major league hitters, something has to set the outstanding ones apart from the rest. It’s their mental approach. That’s the difference.” - Bob Brenley, Former MLB Manager
There’s that mental thing again. Must be something to it.
“Balance is the first lesson I should teach a beginner.” - Max Carey, Hall of Fame Outfielder
Balance. Balance. Balance.
“Players get to the major leagues ‘from the neck down’ and stay there ‘from the neck up’.” - Mike Epstein
Again, a mental game reference. Hmmm.
“The natural way of doing a thing is the correct way. Watch a bunch of kids playing ball on the sand lots and see how many of them slug, easily 100%. Only when a batter has faced a clever pitcher and his own shortcomings are revealed, does he fall back on chop hitting. And he does so simply because he isn’t a good hitter.” - Rogers Hornsby, Hall of Fame Outfielder
Many young players have a very natural swing until some coach or parent comes along and takes it away from them with bad instruction and/or over instruction causing them to think to much.
“I am convinced that had I not tried to ‘guess’ what the pitcher would give me, I would not have hit .100.” - Hugh Jennings, Major League Infielder & Hall of Fame Manager
Don’t guess or just take a “stab” at what the pitcher might throw in a particular situation. “Anticipate” your pitch in positive count situations.
“The hitter must think like a pitcher in the batters box.” - Mike Epstein
Try to think along with the pitcher. Get inside the pitcher’s head. It’s fun! And usually it’s an area with lots of elbow room. 
“Ever since I can remember, I have watched other players and learned things for myself. I am still learning. You can get many a useful point by looking over the leading hitter of the opposing team during batting practice, they way they handle the bat, the swing, the position of the feet, all these things are important. Batting is difficult to learn, but I believe it can be learned.” -Charlie Grimm, First Baseman (1916-1936)
Watch what the best hitters(MLB & Collegiate hitters) do and emulate them. This is how players from earlier years of baseball learned to “swing”. There were no hitting coaches back then. In fact, did you know that there were no hitting coaches until the 1970s?
“Successful hitters adjust ‘who they are’ with the game situation.” -Mike Epstein
Keep your head in the game. Watch, listen, and learn at all times.
“The pitcher will continue to throw the pitch giving you the most trouble. Count on it!” - Mike Epstein
Those jerks. Just throw me something I can hit would ya?
“History is made on the inside-half of the plate.” - Ted Williams
Why do you think that pitchers try to live on the outside corner? There’s a much less chance that you can significantly hurt them from that location.
“The earlier a hitter learns that he can’t cover both sides of the plate on any given pitch, the quicker he will develop.” - Mike Epstein
With less than two strikes, decide which side of the plate you are going to cover with your best swing. Put yourself in a good position to drive the pitch in the location you are looking. The only time you must cover both sides of the plate is with two strikes. And therein lies the reason why most hitters are ineffective hitting with two strikes. It’s hard to do. Just get the bat in the way of the ball at that point and put it in play.
OTHER GREAT QUOTES ABOUT OUR GREAT GAME!
“When they start the game, they don’t yell, “Work Ball!”. They say “Play Ball!”. -Willie Stargell
“I don’t want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it.” - Rogers Hornsby
“When you’re in a slump, it’s almost as if you look out at the field and it’s one big glove.” - Vance Law
“A pitcher who gets his curveball straightened out, is about to turn some heads. His outfielder’s.” - Todd Thomas
“(Unlike in Football)You can’t sit on a lead and just run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. In our game, you’ve got to throw the ball over the dang plate and give the other man his fair chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of all!” - Earl Weaver
“Things could be worse. Suppose your errors were counted and published every day, like those of a baseball player.” -Author Unknown
And Finally to remind us all how much we love this game…
“As a ballplayer, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” - Jim Bouton
“People ask me what I do in the winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” - Rogers Hornsby
Amen to that!
Coach Todd
www.HitItHere.net “Bringing Hitters & Potential Together”
Mike Epstein Hitting Instructor
