Choking up........

edmundfitzgerald

Here's a real dumb question, but one I'm intrigued by....

Why did guys like Sal Bando, Rusty Staub, and Pete Rose choke up on the bat ? I know you'll say better bat control, but
couldn't they have gone to a smaller size bat to get the same effect ?

Bando hit over 30 home runs one year for the A's while choking up. Pete just slapped the ball silly, and Rusty showed some
decent power using that style.

Do we still see guys choking up in the big leagues ? I'm not sure I notice anyone doing it anymore. Does anyone have a guy
on their team who does it ?

bman90278

Actually an interesting question. Many hitters today have spent lots of time customizing their bats. Look at how skinny they have been making the lower or handle part of the bats. Lots of bats are breaking when they hit the ball below the barrel part. Maybe the players back in the day used the longer bats because of the larger barrel, and choked up to get an effective lighter bat? I'm not sure as I was never good enough to make it into the leagues with wood bats.lol

Brian

MPeter

Maybe it had something to do with the physics of it........

By choking up on the bat, it made the pivot point closer to the end of the bat. When swinging, the head of the bat had a shorter distance to travel to come in contact with the ball. Kind of like a lever system. An example would be those heavy doors at a Department store. They put the hinge several inches in, instead of at the end of the door, allowing you to push open the heavy door with ease.

This would make the heavier bats a bit easier to swing. They weren't swinging for the fences anyway.

Dboneesq

Well guys ... if you want some tidbits about Physics and baseball, here is a short article with some pretty kewl statistics:

www.bostonbaseball.com/whitesox/baseball_extras/physics.html