I miss weird batting stances, it's one of the things that actually got me into baseball. Craig Counsell turning his body into a stick and holding the bat up as high as he possibly can will always be the best. Alfonso Soriano is one of my all-time favorite ones.
Gary Sheffield is my all time favorite batting stance, he always batted like he was mad at the pitcher for the having the sheer audacity to throw him a pitch
It’s insane Julio Franco wasn’t mentioned in this video. He had one of the most unorthodox stances and played 25 years until he was 48, had a lifetime .298 average, and was only 400 hits away from 3000
Came here to find a Julio Franco comment! When I was a kid we'd all pantomime the unique stances of players and Franco's was the wildest and everyone would guess it in .0002 seconds! 😂😂😂 can't believe he wasn't mentioned in the video.
That little Japanese pitcher (Masanori Ishikawa) running away from Tony Batista has been a staple in the Japanese version of all-time baseball bloopers. It took place in 2005. Hard to blame him, he's barely 5'6", and is still active at age 44 with 186 career wins as of July 2024.
Gary Sheffield is by far my favorite batting stance. It's like a metronome. But it's a functional distraction to the pitcher as well. I can see how it may act like a hypnotic effect.
During the interview clips, there’s a guy in the background with a blonde mullet, that’s Ian Rotten, a professional wrestler! That the whole segment even weirder ahah
I remember that spring training and that borderline webgem play he made but forgotten that Counsell was the hitter or that Counsell had been 0 for spring training at the time.
Bagwell's thighs were freaking tree trunks. That low stance was so steady, it was like he was sitting on a chair. Insanely strong legs is why he could do that stance.
Some of my fondest early teenage memories, like ‘95-‘97, was backyard homerun derby at my dawg Chuck’s house. No regular batting stances allowed, only MLB imitations. Todd Hunley was my fav, Bagwell a close 2nd, Julio Franco & Gary Sheffield are up there too. Tie breaker round was always Chuck Knoblauch style
As a kid, watching Jim Thome on the 03-05 Phillies was a treat. It wasn’t really a weird stance, but he held his bat real high like a broadsword aloft. And he absolutely put balls in the stratosphere this way.
Bagwell’s stance always got my attention when I first started to watch baseball as a kid. Sadly that was during the 2004 and 2005 season. When he retired shortly afterwards. I really wish he got a ring.
I ALWAYS thought Bagwell's stance was so weird when my parents took me to a game! I feel validated over something I first voiced to my folks 20 something years ago.
This video didn't mention one of the most unorthodox batting stances ever. One that was used by one of the most iconic players in history. The batting stance of Stan Musial, often referred to as 'hitting around a corner.
I remember when I was in little league I copied Ichiro's batting style, and did okay. Mostly grounders, and I definitely would've made more hits if I was faster, but for a 10 year old not bad. The coach demanded I change my batting style to something more normal. I struck out every time after that. Tried switching back to the Ichiro style a few times, but would get yelled at from the dugout and occasionally by parents in the bleachers to stop mid at-bat. Hated it so much I ended up convincing my parents to let me skip that last few games of the year and never signed up again.
As a Phillies fan, Larry Andersen is the color analyst on the radio, and the amount of hell he catches about the Jeff Bagwell trade from his colleagues (and he bags on himself too) makes for some fun radio.
I see other comments already mentioned Julio Franco and Andres Galarraga, but I’d like to add John Kruk and Mickey Tettleton. Tettleton was a catcher/DH for the Rangers and a pretty good power hitter, and his normal stance was standing perfectly still with his hands at his waist and the bat pointing straight back, parallel to the ground. Very weird but did the job.
Carney Lansford, Julio Franco, Harold Baines, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, were all ones I remember, watching Baseball in the late 80's through the 90's.
As someone who knows nothing about baseball, but is quite an avid fan of swords and swordsmanship, I see some of these stances and think "huh, that's oddly familiar."
Fun fact; I based my batting stance in the Arkansas 2005 pitching machine state championship based on my favorite players on mlb mvp 2004 video game. I’m sure it wasn’t accurate at all, but the stance they gave Sosa in that game seemed to be the stance I’d make the best contact. And trust me, I tried every single weird stance that was shown in that game. Everyone wants to assume there’s a “best method backed by science,” but sometimes the simplest answer is whatever makes the result happen. If you made it this far, I highly recommend replaying that game. One of the best mlb games of all time. The stances, the players, dang that game was gold.
Fastpitch softball players sometimes do the fake bunt-pullback-hit to create more explosive power and force muscle memory to take over. I always did that when I was struggling at the plate, and it usually helped! Unless you're up against someone throwing straight gas, that is 😅 a lot of Japanese and Korean stances are similar approaches to slap-hitting in softball.
Me and a classmate in school invented a "reverse underhand swing" where you hold the bat upright BEHIND you then swing in an arc coming from behind to the front. I swear to god we ALWAYS hit into the outfeild or homers for a double, but we also struck out 30% of the time.
Joe Morgan's wing flap was a lot of fun. But seeing George Brett in the studio should remind us that he changed his stance to a lean-back approach that then turned him into one of the best hitters ever. I believe batting coach Charlie Lau worked it out with him.
Not a huge baseball fan, but i never miss your content. The topics are always so interesting and has a good story to tell. Those 2000 era stances were awesome!
My brother(s). I am impressed how much you live and breathe baseball. I watch your content more than actual games, everything i need to know about baseball i can get from you. Let me know if you ever want to hit up the batting cages...i'm drunk and loose enough...
I remember Cal Ripken Jr more for his different batting stances then for anything else. Also playing pick up games trying to imitate these stances was very fun. Sheffield's and Frank Thomas was my favorite ones to do.
The stance I remember most (as a non-baseball fan) was Jime Tome coming out & pointing the bat at the pitchers. I used to watch him growing up, just because the strangeness fascinated me.
@@Clubber-Slang I don't think Griffey's was "very normal." It was unique and powerful, keeping the bat very close and leading with the shoulder. Surprising to see that no one seems to imitate it anymore.
Two time MVP, 5'-8", second basemen, Joe Morgan. Cincinnati Reds, arm flap. Of course, his teammate, Pete Rose had the compact batting stance in order to shrink the strike zone. He is still the hits king and not in the Hall of Fame.
Brian Downing(Angels, late 70s to late 80s) had a weird stance, similar to Tony Bautista. A RH hitter with a wide open stance. A catcher converted to a left fielder/DH after adopting the wide open stance. The weird batting stance brought him success
You have to back to the 1960's , but the stance you're looking for was that of Dick McAuliffe, 2B for the Detroit Tigers from 1960-1973 . Look at his early stance in 62-65 where he started on just one leg. He was the leadoff hitter. Great player.
Hated McAuliffe. HIs flying kick broke Tommy John's shoulder and put him out for the season. It changed Tommy Johns motion and arm angle a little, which then he developed the elbow problem and got the experimental surgery named after him. Still won 280+ games and should be in the hall of fame.
I didn't play baseball all that well, or for very long, but I decided to have a Gary Sheffield-esque bat waggle just for kicks. I don't remember if I saw the stance on SportsCenter one day, or through a baseball video game, but I decided on a whim to do it. I was 10 years old, and even then, knew I didn't have much of a baseball future. It was fun to do. I do think that individuality, by the time a prospect gets to the bigs, will be all but gone (in terms of a batting stance). I love playing golf, and I am very much a feel player. If things were such that I couldn't be that way anymore, I would struggle. I can imagine baseball players, to some extent, can be the same way.
I love that no matter how batters set up in all sorts of crazy ways, everyone gets to the same ready position before starting their swing. But hey, whatever works!
This was fun but I would argue that the 70's equaled the late 90's in crazy stances. Rod Carew, George Brett, Joe Morgan, Mickey Rivers, Lee May, Mike Hargrove to name a few this rusty brain can remember
In 1980, the California Angels had two players with the most extreme stances. Brian Downing had the most open and Dan Ford had the most closed. Check them out.. 😮
The Little League kid from Nebraska injured his hand earlier in the game that why he wasn’t trying to hit. He actually put the ball in play and almost got a single but was beat by half a step. He was one of Nebraskas best players that year
That kid had a badly injured hand from an earlier play. He couldn't swing. I used to copy all sorts of stances. It was all backyard game stuff. My favorite was one Jose Oquendo used at one point... sort of a crouch like Bagwell's but much more open, with a leg kick and a rocking motion. My weight would start on my front leg and shift to my back leg as the pitcher went into their windup. My front leg would come up and I could pivot and close the stance if the pitch was away, but the idea was that on anything inside most of my body was out of the way so I could pull the ball.
the current "forms of expression" listed in the video are all deliberate choices by the player, a conscious effort to individualize themselves, while batting stances are more involuntary, more true to who the player actually is than a custom chain or a batflip the player practiced for months
Always loved Bagwell's stance. If I recall correctly from my childhood going to games and watching him play, he also practically did the splits as a first basemen which is surprisingly useful.
