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In the game of baseball the art of hitting has become a science. I've always wondered what it was like back in the early days of the game. Were the secrets to hitting a mystery yet to be discovered? Back in 1917 Ping Bodie, one of baseball's original characters, had his thoughts on how to be successful. Here's how Bodie described the art of hitting.
October 21, 1917 --San Francisco Chronicle
"Swing and Swing and Swing is the system of lacing old pill, he says.
If you have any ambition to attain fame almost as great and lasting as that of a President of the United States, all that is necessary is to out guess the pithcher, grab your bat like it was your last dime and swinng with all your might. Then hope, and hope hard.
That's Ping Bodie's recipe for busting the fences in any league where he may happen to be playing. Inasmuch as it has brought him back to the American League and a chance at more fame as a big league outfielder, there must be some truth in it.
Ping says swing hard the firts time, go into second speed on the second, and then, if you've got to do it again, turn on all the gas, jam down the accelerator and SWING!
PIng cracked out twenty home runs while amassing a batting average of something over .300 last year on the Pacific Coast.
"It's all in the way you grab your bat and swing." Ping is credited as saying in an Eastern interview. "The pitcher who can throw harder than I can swing ain't been found. If you miss the first two, whamg again, and you've got to take Old Man Confidence to the plate with you.
"You gatta think you're going to make the fences rattle or you're done for. Watch the pitcher, outguess him, and you've only gotta hang on to your bat like grim death and swing your head off to set a new ground record."
That was the advice he passed out when he was telling Bobby Jones how to make good as a Tiger.
"How do you bunt?" Bobby wanted to know." How do I Bunt? Search me, I never tried it," Ping responded after a period of grave reflection
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