ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300054
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
THE AVALANCHE'S BRIAN CULP has solved his hitting problem and his neck problem in the past week.
Hitting no longer is a pain in the neck for Brian Culp.
No, we're not talking about the sub-.200 batting average Culp has carried through much of May, although that, too, made him cringe as if he had taken a bad-hop grounder in the Adam's apple.
It was the combination of a hitch in Culp's swing and a crick in his neck that caused his batting average to sink faster than Albert Belle's Q rating. A guy who once was believed to be capable of hitting .300 in his sleep, Culp found himself living a nightmare that manifested itself when he awakened.
That's when his neck hurt most. For two years, Culp has played with a herniated disk in his neck, an injury sustained during a vehicular mishap. He has aggravated the injury several times in his 11/2 seasons with the Salem Avalanche, each time in the same fashion.
``I'd do it by sleeping,'' he said.
Not exactly the most romantic way to incur a baseball injury. Hurting one's neck while snoozing isn't exactly like hurting one's neck by sliding headlong into third or crashing into an outfield wall while making a spectacular catch.
Nevertheless, a pain in the neck is a pain in the neck. Especially when your batting average plummets to the buck-fifty range, where Culp was residing two weeks ago. He had to be coached how to sleep properly and coached how to deal with the first prolonged slump of his career.
These days, Culp is sleeping better for more than one reason. His neck is pain-free for the first time in weeks, and his batting average has climbed 50 points.
``It's about time,'' Culp said. ``This has been very frustrating. I've gone through a lot of soul-searching.''
For a guy who owned a .294 average in two years of minor-league service to the Colorado Rockies, his current .203 clip must seem like Culp fiction. That the Avalanche still is near the top of the Carolina League's Southern Division without the expected production from the hard-hitting 24-year-old Kansan is a testament to how much others have chipped in and how much manager Bill McGuire has been able to squeeze out of the offense.
``Brian has a hard time accepting when he fails,'' McGuire said. ``He has to learn to become more willing to accept it and willing to make changes to succeed. It's tough for a kid 23 or 24 who's having failure for the first time.''
At times, Culp's neck pain was so intense he could not turn his head, much less swing a bat. A doctor instructed him to do away with all the pillows he had been piling under his head as he slept.
``I'd been sleeping with two pillows to support my neck,'' Culp said. ``It turns out, that was putting my neck at a bad angle. Now, when I sleep on my side, I use one pillow; on my back, no pillows.''
The ironic thing about Culp's slump is that his bat is the reason he's a professional baseball player. After batting .279 and leading the Rockies' minor-league system with 44 doubles last year, Culp found himself back in Class A ball trying to learn a position to accommodate his bat. After all, there's little call for designated hitters in the National League.
``There's no secret this organization sees me as a one-tool player,'' said Culp, the all-time home run leader at Kansas State and a four-time All-Big Eight Conference player who knows the company line on his ability: ```Got bat. Tendencies: Can't play defense. Can't stay healthy.'''
He didn't want to add ``can't hit'' to that resume. Clint Hurdle, Colorado's roving batting instructor, worked with Culp while passing through Salem a couple of weeks ago and the instruction he received from Hurdle and Salem hitting coach Joe Marchese seems to have paid off.
Culp said they told him he was locking his front (left) elbow and not getting the bat through the zone quickly, a malady that was causing him to get jammed on inside pitches and not get good wood on quality pitches.
He's responded faster than he could say ``mea Culpa'' by embarking on a five-game hitting streak that included eight hits in a three-game span. During that stretch, it was pitchers' necks that were craning.
``That,'' he said, ``felt good.''
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB