One thing I've noticed about professional hitters... as a general rule, they are emotionless. Now, without question.. during a key moment of a stressful big moment game.. emotions are hard to hide.. passion rides high and ... occasionally, there is emotion. Sometimes for the good.. ala Alexei Ramirez' elation in yesterday's dynamic White Sox win (above). And... sometimes for the bad (after a strike out or a disputed called third strike). For the most part though, emotionless rules.
The professional hitter is concentrating on one thing.. the ball. It's intense concentration, too. Watch for yourself and figure out when the last time is that you focused on something.. anything.. so intently. Pure focus... "I am going to hit this pitch!"
Then, here comes the pitch... the professional batter does everything just right.. perfect load, perfect timing on the step.. whips the bat through the zone and.. oops, missed it. He is stoic. He doesn't stomp around.. hang his head or any other shenanigans. He just regroups... sets his focus and goes right back to work on the next pitch!
I like to use the analogy of a carpenter. Carpenters are paid to hit nails. They climb up on top of a structure.. they have their tool belt.. they have their nails. And they have their hammer. Pounding nails is what they do. Nail after nail.. whack .. whack .. whack! Hey, on occasion, they miss one. Do you think they stand up on the roof and announce to the world with some kind of antics that they missed the nail? Uh... no. They just pull another nail out and go back to work.
This is how a professional hitter approaches his at bat. He gets three strikes at the ball.. more if he "just misses one and fouls it off".. but, essentially he gets three shots at it.
He has his tools (knowledge of the game, the pitcher, the count, etc.) and he has his hammer (bat). His job is to hit nails.. hit the ball. Period. Go to work... be a carpenter at the plate.
Where as a carpenter has the little bitty nail to hit with the head of his hammer... a professional hitter has a small sweet spot (17 to 21 inches from his top hand) to hammer the baseball with. You have to concentrate to do that. You can't have emotion clouding your focus. Go to work. Hit some nails.
