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A22 SPORTS
Saturday 1 april 2017
Baseball’s new trend: Saying ‘NO’ to ground balls

JAKE SEINER helped a number of major
AP Sports Writer leaguers, including Chris
Josh Donaldson and Reg- Colabello, A.J. Pollock and
gie Jackson stood off to Matt Joyce.
the third base side of the Tewksbary is on a mission to
batting cage, a pair of make hitters better by de-
former American League bunking the axiom against
MVPs discussing their craft swinging up. He felt his
in spring training. When the own career was hindered
Blue Jays star hopped in to by the hitting instruction
take his swings, Mr. Octo- he got as a young player
ber pulled out his phone to — he was always told to
shoot video, a visual aid for “swing down” on the ball.
his job as a special adviser “Johnny Little League
to the Yankees. coach says to swing down,
“Josh’s swing, it’s some- get on top, and hitters will
thing new and different,” literally swing down,” he
the 70-year-old Jackson said.
said. “I wanted him to in- Tewksbary thinks the ter-
terpret it for me.” minology does more harm
Donaldson is an early than good — and he’s not
adopter to a growing big nearly the most famous
league trend — hitters fix- This Oct. 18, 2016 file photo shows Toronto Blue Jays’ Josh Donaldson watching his a home run dissenter of that base-
ated on producing fly off Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber during the third inning in Game 4 of baseball’s ball adage. In his book
balls. Or, as Donaldson put American League Championship Series in Toronto. The Science of Hitting, Ted
it recently on Twitter: Associated Press Williams bemoaned that
“Just say NO.... to ground hitters “always heard that
balls.” swinging up, and he’s not stardom by adding some oritized hitting the ball in the ideal swing is level or
Donaldson put his career alone. Toronto teammate loft, and Chicago Cubs the air his entire career. ‘down.’” The Hall of Famer
on the upswing by, well, Jose Bautista achieved slugger Kris Bryant has pri- Detroit’s J.D. Martinez and advocated a “slight up-
the Dodgers’ Justin Turner swing” because it “puts
have made millions since the bat flush in line with the
Chicago deciding to shoot for the path of the ball for a longer

Cubs sky. period.”
It doesn’t take an aero-
That is, if the ball is travel-
Continued from Page 17 space degree to see why. ing down from the pitch-
“Usually, they are 15-20 On ground balls in 2016, big er’s hand to the catcher’s
spots down the list and still league hitters had a .239 glove, the best chance at
average and .258 slugging
have drawn lots of tickets solid contact is to swing
and money, creating big percentage. On line drives the bat on the same plane
and fly balls combined,
liabilities for sports books — up toward the pitch-
over the years,” said Jay they hit .411 with a .785 er’s release point. “For
slugging percentage.
Rood, vice president of years and years, people
race and sports books at For those that want to have disagreed with the
dig deeper, there’s never
MGM Resorts International, greatest hitter of all-time,”
where the Cubs are a 3-1 been more to explore. Tewksbary said. He’s stud-
Over the past two seasons,
favorite to win it all. “The ied video of Williams, Babe
Cubs have nearly twice as MLB.com posted data pro- Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe
vided by Statcast, a track-
many tickets written as the DiMaggio, and Albert Pu-
next closest team, which is ing system that records the jols was “very influential” in
distance, speed and tra-
the Indians.” helping him develop his hit-
The Caesars Pal- jectory of batted balls. ting principles.
The numbers make one
ace sports book has writ- None of those hitters swung
ten 1,700 tickets on the thing clear — it’s good to like they were hunting for
hit the ball hard, but it’s
defending champions and well-placed ground balls.
1,200 on the runner-up Indi- better to hit it hard and Which isn’t to say the an-
high.
ans. The Dodgers, with their swer is a full-blown upper
loyal California following, “I’ve done a lot of re- cut. The adjustment for
search,” Donaldson said.
have about 800 tickets. players like Donaldson is
Director Frank Kunovic said “I’m confident in what I do more subtle than just selling
and I believe in it.”
the betting line at the ho- A screen showing a Chicago Cubs spring training baseball out for air balls.
tel-casino for the number game is reflected with other screens on a countertop at the Before the 2013 sea- “I’m going up there to
son, Donaldson re-engi-
of games the Cubs will win Westgate Superbook sports book, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Las drive the ball, which means
Vegas.
is at 96.5. Associated Press neered his swing with the get the ball in the air,” said
help of Bobby Tewksbary,
For the Dodgers, it’s 94 and hulking Phillies catcher
the Indians 93.5. They were solid before hander’s ailing elbow. “But a hitting instructor whose Cameron Rupp, who hit 16
At Wynn Las Vegas, the what happened to (David) the Cubs are as good as playing career topped homers in 105 games last
Cubs are projected to win Price,” Johnny Avello, the they were last year, may- out in the independent season.
96 games, the Indians 94 Wynn’s longtime oddsmak- be even better. Therefore, Can-Am Association. The “I want to be on plane with
and the Red Sox 92. er and sports book direc- there’s no reason not to 33-year-old works out the ball as early as I can
“Boston’s got a good team. tor, said referring to the left- make them the favorite.”q of a facility in Nashua, and stay through it as long
New Hampshire, and has as I can,” he added. q