An Excerpt from the Book, “Inside” Baseball in the Time of Covid
By Pat Cronin
In weekly messages to his “sheltered” high school players, a coach posts pandemic coping strategies, the secrets of playing winning baseball, and his original stories.
Introduction To A Pitching Philosophy
You may find it surprising that much of the pitching philosophy – and that of winning baseball in general – I developed from my work with Ted Williams at his baseball camp down in Lakeville, MA, back in the mid-’80s.
Ted believed hitting a baseball successfully in the course of a season was the most difficult thing to do in all of sports. As the last man to hit .400, I think he was qualified to make that statement.
He was a great man to be around, to talk to, and to learn from. Whenever I hear the word “charisma,” Ted is the guy I think about. He was the man the late, great actor John Wayne (way before your time but an actor who always played the cool, brave, tough guy) WANTED to be.
Ted believed many things about hitting, all of them explained clearly in his book, The Science of Hitting. If you want to become a great hitter, read that book and memorize the key passages, especially the ones about his rules for hitting and how unprepared he believed a lot of pitchers were.
His rules for a hitter’s first at bat each game included the following:
1. Take the first pitch (so you can see what the guy has that day, his speed, his delivery, etc.)
2. Then don’t hit anything you have not seen before (which means if the pitcher throws you a fastball on the first pitch, do not swing if the next pitch is a curve, a change, a knuckleball, etc. His belief here was that the chances of you hitting anything you have not seen at least once are very poor).
3. The same thing applies on the third pitch unless you have 2 strikes by then, which rarely happens unless your team is playing Whitman–Hanson! (Our kids are taught to throw 2 strikes in a row…in fact… all strikes in a row… and this is why!)
Ted also had this overriding rule for everyone: GET A GOOD PITCH TO HIT ! (No explanation needed here! Don’t swing at balls outside the strike zone and you will immediately become a better hitter!)
And a second overriding rule Ted employed: Lift the ball (swing up…today they think they invented “launch angle?!)
I have news for you… “The Greatest Hitter That Ever Lived” said this decades ago. As a young coach, I went into the library and looked up Ted’s stats to see what he was talking about. I knew he had hit 521 career homers… despite the fact that he missed some important years because he devoted a few to fighting for his country as a pilot!
I learned that Ted also had hit a combination of 521 career doubles and triples too. Think about how many total bases that number of doubles and triples makes up! It resulted in more damage by balls that got over the infielders’ heads and into the outfield. PLUS, Ted knew that any time he hit the ball hard, it would have at least a chance to get out of the park for a homer if he elevated it. So, of course, he wanted to swing slightly up.
I actually went out with Ted to the mound on Diamond 2 at Ted’s camp one day after he had sat with me during one of our games. I had his book with me, which he signed. We drove a 2×4 into the ground at the pitcher’s landing spot at the front of the mound. Then we ran a wire to the strike zone of an imaginary hitter at the plate. There it was, as clear as day, the downward angle of a pitch. Ted said in order to lift the baseball – AND to keep the bat in the strike zone longer – the batter should try to swing slightly up
The man was a hitting genius. Ironically, the keys to successful pitching I will post this afternoon came about as I thought about how to beat Ted Williams. Ponder that. I wanted to go against everything he was trying to do. And, I wanted the defense to do the same. Later this afternoon, I will post some pitching notes I wrote after I had studied Ted’s hitting theories. Stay well.
Bill Madlock
One summer day in the mid–80s, I was responsible for coaching at the batting cage at the Ted Williams Baseball Camp in Lakeville, MA.
Bill Madlock comes over to me and introduces himself. The word had gone around camp that he was going to be there, but I was still surprised to see him in the flesh. Here was a four-time National League Batting Champion, a National League All Star, and a World Series winner.
He was playing with the Dodgers at the time, I believe, and they were out east playing in a series against the Mets. He had taken the opportunity to come up and visit his young son, who may have been 10 or 11.
Bill “Mad Dog” Madlock was the real deal, an amazing hitter, as you can imagine. He was also a very nice guy, someone who did not mind taking the time to talk a little baseball with me.
We got around to talking about hitting, of course, and I asked him if, like Ted Williams, he guessed when he was at bat. He said absolutely, everyone guessed. Some more than others. He said that unlike Ted and a lot of the other big leaguers, he usually guessed pitch location, not the pitch itself. He said pitch location dictated pitch in most cases. A pitch inside, for instance, was usually a fastball. If he had 2 strikes on him, he might look outside, which, in that case, was usually some kind of breaking ball.
I started to think about that and realized it was a pretty good approach for high school batters. I particularly liked the notion that kids with 2 strikes would not get caught by as many pitches if they guessed away. Why? Because no matter what the pitch was, they would have a better chance of hitting it if they were already looking out there.
On the other hand, if they were guessing just curve and not location, they would have no chance on a fastball thrown on the outside corner because now they had to deal quickly with 2 surprises: first, it was a much faster pitch, and secondly, it was away from them and more difficult to reach because they were not prepared to go out there.
Of course, guessing according to location requires a hitter to be able to hit the ball to different parts of the field. If you guess away, then you have to be able to drive that pitch away. If, on the other hand, you are looking on the inside of the plate, you must be able to get your hands inside the ball and pull it.
This is a huge problem for many high school kids because so many of them grow up becoming pull hitters.
But I like hitters who guess location. Give it a try. Start taking time during batting practice in the cage and on the field – once we get back – working the ball to both sides of the field.
Also do this in soft-toss. Have the ball tossed to certain parts of the plate as you work with a partner. You will be surprised how much better a hitter you will become.
The best hitters I have seen in my coaching career have been the ones who do this. They practice driving the ball to all fields and then do it in games.
And whether they guess pitch or location, or decide to eliminate swinging at one kind pitch or another, all great hitters, I believe, have a plan, an approach in mind, before they go up to the plate.
Eddie Waitkus
I mentioned Eddie Waitkus in my last article. I met him at the Whitman Legion Post when I played. He was working at Ted’s camp in Lakeville and came up to Whitman with an American Legion member for a visit.
The movie The Natural was, at least in part, based on his life. He was also a member of what is known as “The Whiz Kids,” the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies, the team that won the National League pennant that year with mostly rookies.
The first thing I remember about Eddie Waitkus is that he was a gentleman. Here was a big leaguer who had played baseball at the highest level, and he was a kind, gentle, and humble guy who loved baseball and young people.
I also remember the tip he gave me, and it is related to the hitting and pitching points here.
He asked me to get into my batting stance. Then he walked over to me, turned my chin so that it faced the pitcher and also made my eyes level to the ground. He said everything else was good. ( I told you he was kind.)
He knew, as did Ted and all MLB hitters, that tracking a pitched ball was hard to do, especially if it was being thrown to you at speeds over 90 MPH. He told me in order to give yourself the best chance of hitting it, you must make sure both eyes saw the ball at the same time AND both were level, parallel to the ground. This second point is worth commenting on. I see a lot of hitters who cock their heads on an angle a bit. Pick a point on a wall, get into your stance, cock your head as some hitters do, and look at the spot.
Then put your chin over your front shoulder, make sure your eyes are parallel to the ground, and look again. There is no question you will see a pitched baseball better with two eyes, both even.
When MLB starts up, watch each hitter for this.
Coach Pat Cronin coached East Bridgewater (Mass.) High School for 34 years, winning 421 games and numerous league and sectional titles. He then coached at Whitman-Hanson (Mass.) High school for five seasons, finishing with 73 more wins and two league championships. A beloved and well-respected coach, he has been inducted into the East Bridgewater, Whitman-Hanson, and Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fames.
