HOF Gibberish

            With Hall-of-Fame inductees Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas having such strong Chicago ties, the sportswriters have been working overtime producing stories and commentary.  Only some of it is gibberish.

            As in Maddux looking so normal.  Granted, the man could never pass for Roger Clemens, but he’s still a freak of nature.  Maddux pitched 23 years in the majors and went on the disabled list once, for his back not his arm, elbow or shoulder.  And he didn’t throw much harder than 90 mph.  So, where did all that movement come on his pitches?  I’d argue that Maddux was the perfect height with the perfect-sized right hand and fingers and with the perfect sized legs making for the perfect stride to the plate.  That package can’t be bought, with or without PEDs, and cloning is still a ways off.

            One other thing—Greg Maddux is indirectly responsible for more bad pitching over the past quarter century than we can imagine.  That’s because other young pitchers, not nearly as gifted, thought they could succeed like Maddux did given how they weren’t that tall and didn’t throw that hard, either.  All they had to do was nibble, work the ball up and down, inside and out.  And those guys always get creamed.  For every Greg Maddux, there are countless entries in baseballreference.com with career ERAs of 4, 5, 6 and worse.  I think a moment of silence is in order here.   

Now, let’s move on to Frank Thomas, who can’t stop proclaiming his love of hitting coach Walt Hriniak.  Please.  The Big Hurt was so talented he could have used Mario Mendoza, Ray Oyler and/or Mark Belanger for a hitting coach and still gotten into Cooperstown.  I read in the paper Saturday how fortunate Hriniak feels to have HOFers Thomas, Carlton Fisk and Wade Boggs among his pupils.  And what about Red Sox catcher Rich Gedman?  He also used a level swing and had his top hand come off the bat on his follow-through.  Gedman’s career was pretty much over by the time he was 28.  How many more Gedmans than Thomases did Hriniak have as a coach?

            If I were to pick a favorite hitting coach, it would be former outfielder Bill Robinson because first he practiced what he later preached.  Robinson was a top prospect the Yankees were banking on in the late ‘60s to lead them back to glory, only he was a bust, batting .196, .240 and .171 his first three seasons.  Robinson didn’t learn to hit until the season he turned 30; 142 of his 166 career home runs and 527 of his 641RBIs came from that point on.  That’s what I mean by practicing.

            Robinson’s pupils with the Mets included Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez, and he also served as hitting coach for the Marlins when they won the World Series in 2003.  According to his obituary in the NYT, Robinson believed, “A good hitting instructor is able to mold his teachings to the individual.”  For such a coach, “If a guy stands on his head, you perfect that.”

            Which is what I’ve always wanted for my daughter.