Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 21, 1995 TAG: 9506210087
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE/STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Long
The cause for his displeasure is an inside pitch that rides in on his hands.
The ball plops off his bat, arches into the bright afternoon sky and drops harmlessly into the manicured outfield of Hooker Field, home of the Martinsville Phillies.
Kennedy, 17, doesn't watch the ball's flight; he is too busy shaking the sting out of his right arm.
"What's the matter, kid?" calls out Jerry Martin, a Phillies hitting instructor watching from behind the batting cage.
Martin laughs because he knows the answer.
The promising young hitters who arrive each year in the Appalachian League, the first stop on the road to the majors, grew up in the era of the lightweight aluminum bat.
The Martinsville Phillies may be among the best young hitters in the country, but until now they have yet to experience some of the thrills and spills known to any sandlot hacker who grew up before the mid-1970s.
These young stars haven't heard the wooden crack of a line drive echo in their ears. They haven't learned the humility of a fastball sawing their bat - literally - into two pieces. They haven't felt the tingle when hitting one off the handle.
They haven't, as the old saying goes, gotten much wood on the ball.
The transition from aluminum to wood is one of the toughest adjustments these players will face in their first professional season.
"The biggest thing I see with these kids are dead hands," says Martin, a roving minor league instructor who played in the major leagues for four years in the 1970s, which puts him safely in the pre-aluminum era.
"We call it dead hands because the aluminum bats let them get away with a lot of mistakes. They might have had pretty good bat speed, then we get them and put wood in their hands and it's not the same speed."
A wooden bat typically weighs an ounce or two more than a comparable metal model. An ounce may not sound like much, but it can throw off a player's timing in the split second it takes to move the bat through the hitting zone.
And bat speed is the most important factor in determining how far a ball will travel.
"A kid would be foolish to play in competition with a wooden bat if everyone else is using aluminum," says Bill Williams, vice president for Hillerich & Bradsby, the world's largest bat manufacturer and maker of the Louisville Slugger brand.
Even if a wooden bat weighs the same as an aluminum model, it will feel heavier.
That is because hollow construction of an aluminum bat allows the weight to be distributed somewhat evenly along the length of the bat, while the solid design of the wood bat concentrates the weight at the barrel.
Williams said a household broom provides a clear - though exaggerated - example of how differences in weight distribution can affect a swing.
"Hold the broom by the handle, with the bristles pointing out, and try to swing it. It's very difficult to get any speed.
"Now take the same broom and turn it around so you're holding the bristles. It's the same object with the same weight, but see how much quicker you can get swing it."
Martinsville Phillies coach Kelly Heath says the best hitters have the quickness and bat speed to adjust to wood.
"Once we get their mechanics straightened out, it doesn't make that much difference," Heath says.
The wooden bat, however, can send the marginal prospect packing after only a season or two, he says.
To ease the transition to wood - or at least to prevent breaking a slew of bats in practice - many Phillies have started off swinging a "Baum" bat that looks and feels like wood, but is made of a composite material.
"It gives them a little security blanket," Heath said.
Before they arrived in Martinsville last week, most of the Phillies got a feel for lumber at a training camp in Florida. But at least five players missed the camp and came to Virginia with little or no experience with wooden bats.
Matt Buckles, 18, stood out during a practice last Wednesday because his blue spikes that once matched his high school team - the Palatka (Fla.) Panthers - clashed with his crimson Phillies uniform.
"They've ordered me some red ones, but they won't be here for a few days," Buckles said.
The stocky catcher used an aluminum bat through little league and high school, but occasionally took batting practice with a wooden bat in anticipation that he would be drafted.
"I figured I would have to make the transition," he said.
That transition appeared slow going last Wednesday. He repeatedly hit the ball weakly into the ground, foul.
"What am I doing?" he said, more an expression of frustration than question.
Another catcher, 22-year-old Clyde Livingston, stroked drives and hit the only home run of the day, a towering shot over the Stanley Furniture sign in right-center.
Between his turns at the plate, Livingston says he learned to handle lumber in a summer league in Virginia that allowed only wooden bats.
"I broke a lot of bats the first few times," he said in a South Carolina drawl. "The biggest difference is the inside pitch. If it's an aluminum bat, you can get fisted and still get a hit. If it's a wooden bat, it will be broken."
Back at the plate, Livingston lifts a lazy fly to right.
"Doggit," he mutters, "I hate doing that."
Martin, the hitting instructor, laughs another knowing laugh.
"Yep," he says, "you're gonna hate yourself a lot this year."
Martinsville Phillies home opener 7 o'clock tonight at Hooker Field against the Johnson City (Tenn.) Cardinals. $4 for general admission, $5 for reserved seats.
by CNB