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The physics of Hitting
Baseball may be a game of inches, but the science of hitting a baseball reduces the numbers down to quarter inches and milliseconds. One infallible truth is that a squarely hit ball results in a line drive. Any deviation and the results vary wildly: If the batter hits the ball three-quarters of an inch above the center, he hits a grounder; three-quarters of an inch below the center, and he's likely to hit a home run; another quarter of an inch down, and it becomes a routine fly ball; one inch lower, and it's a foul straight back; and if he's farther off than that, it's a swinging strike.
Paul Kirkpatrick, a physicist at Stanford, once looked at the position of the bat, its angular and linear momentum, timing, and so forth, and calculated that there is a finite number of variables involved in hitting a baseball. With each variable the batter can make one of two mistakes (too early or too late, too high or too low, etc.). So the batter, according to Kirkpatrick, "is faced at the outset with twenty-six roads to failure." Maybe that's why few disagree with Ted Williams's belief that hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in the sport.
Ted Williams may have been the best natural hitter ever, but he strongly believed that hitting could be taught. He studied the art like a scientist and even wrote a book titled The Science of Hitting. The Williams philosophy, in a nutshell, is that there are three rules to hitting: First, the hitter has to get a good pitch to hit. Hitting a baseball is tough enough when the pitch is over the plate, so hitters should never swing at a pitch outside the strike zone. Second, the hitter has to use his head and do his homework. He has to know the answers to questions like: What's the pitcher's best pitch? What did he throw me last time I faced him? What are my strengths and my weaknesses? What does he usually throw on the first pitch? Finally, the third rule is to be quick with the bat. As soon as the hitter makes the decision to swing, he should swing aggressively.
The Lau/Hriniak school of hitting
While Ted Williams used his success to teach hitters what to do, Charlie Lau used his lack of success to teach hitters what not to do. Lau was a reserve catcher hitting .180 for the Orioles in 1962 when he decided to try a new philosophy of hitting. He adopted a wide stance, like spray hitters before the home run era. He held his bat almost parallel to the ground. He decided to go for slashing liners and hard grounders, using the entire field, hitting outside pitches the other way. In other words, he stopped trying to hit home runs.
Lau's average zoomed to .294. When he retired from active play and became a batting coach, he taught his system to the Orioles, A's, Royals, Yankees, and White Sox, and they all won titles. Lau's book, How to Hit .300, became the "bible of batting" and he became a guru to stars such as Hal McRae, Amos Otis, Wade Boggs, Carlton Fisk, Don Mattingly, and George Brett.
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