Major League Baseball has seen a variety of unconventional hitting stances over the course of its illustrious history. Many of these outlier stances belong to some of the game’s best hitters!
Memorable Baseball stances:
Baseball players are constantly aiming for perfection, which means their hitting stances may alter many times throughout their career. A minor adjustment here and there is sometimes all that is required to get a hitter back on track. Here are some pretty memorable baseball stances:
- Kevin Youkilis:
He’d sink his heels into the bottom of the box and elevate the bat over his head, the barrel pointing out toward the outfield. Because he batted right-handed his left hand remained on the knob, but his right hand moved up toward the grip, guiding the bat rather than grasping it firmly.
No matter how strange it seemed to attempt to emulate Youkilis in the backyard, it wasn’t nearly as strange as he appeared when he used that stance and grip against MLB pitching.
- Gary Sheffield:
Another super popular and oft-imitated batting stance in baseball is that of Gary Sheffield. He’d wave/waggle the bat around as if it were the world’s most vivacious metronome.
He was challenging the pitcher — almost pleading with him to throw anything near the plate so he could smash it hard! And then the swagger and stance were imitated by plenty of fans in their backyards around the world!
- Ichiro Suzuki:
Everything Ichiro accomplished was so fantastic, from his debut in the majors through his final at-bat in the majors. He’d walk up to the batter’s box, sink his left toe into the earth, then step into the box and swing both hands in a clean arc over his head.
His right arm came to a complete halt at a 90-degree angle, with the bat pointing upwards from his grip, and he held it there for what felt like an eternity.
Which one’s your favorite stance in the game?