| Site Visitors |
 Membership:
 Latest: angloceltic
Today:0
Yesterday:0
Overall:857
 Visitation
Guests:14
Members:0
Total:14
You are Anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here | |
| Languages | Select Interface Language:
| |
 | |
Gene Woodling taught me how to Bunt
Posted on Friday, May 22 @ 10:15:51 CDT
Topic: Agrarian Interest
|
 Hey y'all,
I am hearing troubling rumors that some of you people like these daily
emails more than you like the blog. This means that maybe you like me
delivering my ramblings straight to your email box and maybe you aren't
going to the blog to read? Which means I'm losing "hits" on the site
maybe? It's so confusing, but I am glad you like the daily posts (if
you do... if you don't, then I'm not glad at all).
You know how sometimes you have a flash of memory from your past that
really comes from nowhere and you wonder why it came up? I had one of
those yesterday and I thought I'd share it with you.
Gene Woodling taught me how to bunt
If you don't know what a "bunt" is, then you might want to skip this
part, or maybe not, because it comes back up at the end. Anyway, the
1950's New York Yankee star who played on the Yankee team that won 5
straight World Series from 1949-1953, the guy who played in the
outfield with Joe DiMaggio and who led the American League in on-base
percentage (.429) in 1953, taught me how to bunt; and I became an
exquisite bunter because of it. Who cares about the bunt, you say?
Isn't the bunt the most boring thing in baseball? Oh no.
When I was nine or ten, my parents sent me to an All-Star baseball camp
just east of Columbus, Ohio (I think it was what is now Denison
University in Granville, Ohio). I don't remember how long it lasted,
probably a week or so, but it was my first time I can remember being
away from home. We lived in a dorm on the campus and were taught
baseball from ex-professionals - most who were from major league
baseball's heyday from the 40's to the 60's. I think the pitching
coach may have been Jim O'Toole who was a pitcher for the Cincinnati
Reds from the late 50's until 1967 (the year I was born). I can't
remember who the other coaches were, but I remember one was a catcher
from the Pittsburg Pirates in the 60's. Anyway, Gene Woodling (who
passed away in 2001) was the big star of the deal, and he taught me a
very valuable lesson that helped me in my baseball life, and my regular
life as well. I was a good sized guy, and I usually batted 3rd or 4th
and there is a tendency to want to go for the long ball when you are
big and batting 3rd or cleanup. Anyway, Gene Woodling took me aside
and told me that a bunt or a well and purposely placed single was far
better than a homerun IF you could do it consistently. It also caused
the fielders to constantly have to play you for a bunt or a sharp
single through the infield, so they play you closer up, which means
more of your hits will make it through and your batting average will be
better. He spent quite a long time teaching me how to bunt correctly
in several different situations (sacrifice bunt, drag bunt, etc.), in
fact, quite an inordinate amount of time when you think of how many of
us there were. It all made sense to me because I lived in Ohio and I
was obviously a Pete Rose fan. Pete Rose had this ridiculous stance
and he would crowd the plate and crouch down to make his strike zone
smaller, and he would choke up on the bat which gave him no power at
all, but which increased his control. Then he would just punch the
ball wherever he needed it to go, and then he would run like the
daylights like his hair was on fire... Charlie Hustle. I liked that
kind of play, and though I was not really built for it, I adopted it as
well.
Later, when I became quite a good ballplayer, like I said - I was a big
guy and I usually was batting in a power slot - I would bunt for a
single out of the blue even when the coach had not signaled a bunt.
When the coaches found out I was good at it, they would signal for me
to bunt quite a bit. When the other players figured out I might bunt
and that I was good at it, they would have to play the bunt and when I
would swing away you would see this terror come over their faces as the
ball sailed way over their heads or slashed through the infield gaps.
Woodling was right, it made me a terrible threat and they just didn't
know how to play me. As a result I had a very high batting average.
Anyway, I think today that bunting is probably a lost art, and I know
that modern players probably get no thrill or excitement out of a
properly placed bunt for a single and/or an RBI. I was a good bunter.
You could have called me Michael Bunter.
Anyway, yesterday I remembered that, and I think there are some more
lessons about how some simple and very good skills are being lost
because they are not as flashy or exciting as modern day things.
So that's how Gene Woodling taught me how to bunt.
The "recession" (what idiots are still calling this a recession?) is turning suburban malls into ghost towns.
Where have you heard that before? Next will be the grass growing in
the car dealership lots, and some "church" or Goodwill moving into the
Home Depot. Anyway, GM's bankruptcy should be announced in the next week
or so. They have to declare bankruptcy - first, because they are
bankrupt, and second, because it is the only way they can break their
contracts with thousands of local dealerships. This is all just the
beginning, but most of America is too decieved by the dead cat bounce
in the stock market, and they have been trained like Pavlov's Dogs to
believe that the 30 industrial stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial
Average actually represent what is happening in the economy. In the
meantime, average Joe out there is still floating in a bit of a dream
world not really realizing that he his old world has already run off of
a cliff. There is big talk out there over these last few days about
Amerika and maybe Britain losing their AAA rating, and some economists
are guaranteeing that it absolutely will happen. This and the fact
that the Chinese and many others are no longer threatening, but promising
to dump their dollars as their main store of reserve currency. Rumor
has it that it won't be long before street merchants in Mexico City are
asking patrons for Pesos instead of dollars. Wouldn't that be
interesting. (Secret Tip: Your "savings" and "cash" might soon be worthless)
I was reading all of the pompous prognostications about how "we have
already passed through the worst part of it, and recovery is just
around the corner" (which always reminds me of... "housing bubble? What
housing bubble?") and quotes like this one from Treasury Secretary
Geithner who recently said that the rise in yields on Treasury
securities this year “is a sign that things are improving” and
that “there is a little less acute concern about the depth of
the recession.” Treasury yields increase when no one is buying them
and when they drop in the market. Anyway, these stupid comments made
me wonder what kind of nonsense the government was spewing during the
Great Depression... so here you go, check it out for yourself - 1927-1933 Chart of Pompous Prognostications.
I love the last one. After all the pompous prognostications of how
things are going to get better "just around the corner", or "next
spring", or "later in the year", or "this summer" - they have the quote
from Roosevelt stating that it is now illegal to open your own safe
deposit box without an IRS agent there!
All of these statements and prognostications are actually about
pin-headed policy wonks who think that twisting knobs and putting
fingers in dikes is going to fix what they already broke. They
honestly believe they can fix this thing by tweaking some policy that
almost nobody knows about, because, in the end, they think they have a
good grasp on human behavior. What the policy wonk has never been able
to quantify is human fear or worry, and when, in matter of fact, people
are not going to the mall or to the suburban big box store, and when,
in matter of fact, people begin to operate "outside the box" because
they don't have a job or any hope of returning to their old insane
world of spend, spend, spend, then the policy wonks lose any real power
to fix things. Some market realities are going to start sinking in
really, really soon, and the policy wonks are going to be scratching
their heads and rearranging the seats on the Titanic as it slips
beneath the freezing North Atlantic waters. Good thing the band is
still playing, otherwise the panic would overwhelm the few lifeboats
and things would really get ugly. That is for later. Check back with
me in a couple of years, but then, you probably won't be able to,
because things may have fallen apart by then and I will be eating
tomatoes out of my garden and not warning you on the Internet.
Most folks are actually just sucking in their breath, waiting for the
pressure to ease so they can still get the newest gadget or toy - and
if they did just buy one for less than they thought it would cost
(because companies are dumping inventories) they think things are just
sailing right along with no problems, I mean, If you just got a nice
Plasma screen for $99 on Craigslist that was selling for $400 just a
few years ago, things can't be all bad... can they? Just wait. The
Western experiment has been relatively short-lived, and we have a load
of history that shows us what happens when these Ponzi schemes fail.
Think scarcity Managua style, or rapid devaluation in Buenos Aires, or
burning currency for warmth in the Weimar, because that is where
Amerika and the West is headed.
Maybe we should have learned to bunt earlier, because it would be good to have such a skill today.
I am your servant in Christ Jesus,
Michael Bunker
The
experience of all times doth witness that no man is held more in
contempt, is more persecuted, or treated more pitilessly, then they
which have the singular and special commission of the Lord God to show
forth the praise and glory of God to all men (Joachim Vadianus).
|
|
| |
| Article Rating | Average Score: 5
Votes: 2
| |
|
|
| | The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
|
|
|
No Comments Allowed for Anonymous, please register |
|
Re: Gene Woodling taught me how to Bunt (Score: 1)
by truthseeker3 on Friday, May 22 @ 12:53:03 CDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | Michael,
the year you were born, I was a wide eyed 13 year old having my one and only in person experience at the House That Ruth Built. I lived and breathed baseball back in the 60s(from Tball to Little League to Babe Ruth to American Legion and some college), and my fave team, the Yanks, most of all. Very cool story about Woodling and your baseball camp experience. I too attended one of those one summer with some ex pros, but none as famous as Gene.
You're right though, the good ole bunt has pretty much gone the way of $2.50 bleacher seats and day night doubleheaders....not flashy enough and not an eye opener on the resume of steroid stoked guys looking to make the megabucks. It is a good analogy of our times.
Was Smokey Burgess perhaps that catcher from the Pirates?
BillyBob
|
|
|
|
