LT: I’m interested in this idea of a Sandlot hitter versus a baseball hitter, or softball, or the majors, college, high school - what is different about hitting in Sandlot?
HC: Well, let's start with softball. As I've said many times, I dislike softball. And I'm talking slow pitch because I don't think you can get out with dignity. You're trying to kill this enormous ball. It's floating through the air laughing at you. And if you don't hit it hard where you want you feel like a failure. And you are. Where hitting a baseball is totally different. So, softball people are trying to just crush it every time. (Non-Sandlot) Baseball now, with launch angle and exit velocity, which every Hall of Fame hitter will say in interviews is bullshit, is less exciting than ever. When you miss the ball with the launch angle approach it’s just an easy pop fly every time. So, you've got softball-style swinging for the fences in baseball at all levels being taught. But look at what Ken Griffey Jr. said, he was trying to hit every ball 10 feet past the dirt at second base, and Chipper Jones, he tried to hit it through the wall, not over the wall. So, now there’s this whole infatuation around power hitting, hitting home runs, and the MLB has suffered, especially over the last 15 years. Batting averages are way down and strikeouts are way up, for example. I think Sandlot allows for more creativity, more small ball, more 1980s MLB style, more Japanese style slap-hitting. There's a broader palette, like running is awesome, and it barely ever happens in the majors anymore. Anybody can do it and be effective, put the ball in play and run like hell and it manufactures runs a lot of times. As Crash Davis said in Bull Durham, strikeouts are fascists, and I’d add, homeruns aren't far behind.
LT: My high school coach was a big proponent of hitting the ball on the ground, which is pretty similar. When you do that, three things need to happen: the fielder needs to stop it, they need to make the throw, and the first baseman's got to catch it. With a pop-up only one person needs to catch it and it's the easiest play in baseball. At some point, you start getting into college and major leagues, of course the grounder is not a high percentage play, but in Sandlot you’re standing on first base a lot.
HC: I give different aged kids hitting lessons, but every one that comes in there, whether they're six years old up to 13, they are swinging for the fences. They're finishing with their swing up over their shoulder, to the ear, it's like a golf swing. It's insane. And you give yourself about three inches, maybe five inches, that your bat's in the zone when you swing at that angle as opposed to swinging through the zone on your entire swing. Where if you're late, you're going to hit it to right, if you're early, you're going to hit it to left, and if you hit it pure, it's right up the middle. So, it's just bizarre. I think it's like anything, teachers in any field get bored or want to market themselves better, and they just make some of this stuff up. It's just horseshit.
LT: What about the mental approach? As you're in the box, what are you thinking about? What do you teach your young hitters to think?
HC: I tell everybody, anybody who wants any advice from me in Sandlot, be a first ball fast ball hitter. There aren't enough good pitchers that play Sandlot that are confident to start with junk. Unless they're a really good junk ball pitcher, like a knuckleballer, or they're really on that day with a curve or something, it's just not worth it to get behind in the count because in Sandlot it puts you at so much more of a disadvantage than it does more competitively. To me that's the biggest thing. A lot of people are used to, especially when they come from playing competitively, watching the first pitch, getting a feel for the pitcher. If you give a shit, you should be watching that pitcher before you get in the box and you should be ready to hit the ball if it's coming down the middle.
LT: Yeah, first pitch let it go it’s a strike and then the next one’s a foul ball and then you’re 0 and 2 wondering what happened. I'm wondering if you have a mantra you’re repeating when you get in the box, I know you’re sort of thinking about hitting but a lot is just reaction. What do you think to not think?
HC: Ideally, I’m not thinking anything, and I’m not sure how that happens. When I go up there, it's funny, it depends if there are people there. Sometimes I kind of think about people, like the people out there, not specific people. But, at my age, almost 57, I'm very comfortable in the box. And if for any reason I'm not comfortable I have to change my approach. So, if for some reason I haven't swung a bat in a while or I don't feel exactly right and anytime I get down in the count I'll change my stance and my swing. I'll choke up a little bit, I may scoot up in the box, and I have this hunched-over look more like a Pete-Rose-protecting-the-plate swing. But if I feel comfortable, which is most of the time, I'm upright and I try to stand really tall right before the pitcher starts to pitch and then I kind of sag down into my stance.
LT: You're not thinking like, “I'm going to knock the piss out of the ball right now.”?
HC: You know, when I miss a pitch badly, whether it's a strike that I should hit or a curve, sometimes I'll think that I'm going to unload on this next one, but not that often. I try to just be comfortable and that's also what I tell any Sandlot people who haven't played a lot, just get some practice in so that you don't feel out of your element going up there. Having that mindset, it helps you accept the strikes when you miss the pitch better because that's going to happen.
LT: What about some hitters you look up to as models for the game?
HC: I follow Pete Rose, Ichiro (Suzuki), those are my hitting idols. And Pete Rose especially because I grew up when he was playing at Cincinnati. And he’d hit home runs, but he was up there to get on base and sometimes it was just a little slap. Tony Gwynn too, he had incredible hands. He was a freak. Pete Rose was not a freak. He was a workaholic and a competitive son-of-a-bitch who was not going to let you throw it past him.
LT: Would Pete Rose be your Sandlot hitting icon? Somebody that embodies that specific style and attitude?
HC: He's too competitive. I would say Ichiro probably because he would do so much,: bunts, drag bunts, hitting opposite field, literally slapping the ball.
LT: He seems like he's the smartest guy on the field baseball-wise.
HC: And I’ll give you another answer: Ted Williams. Because of his discipline regarding the pitches he would swing at. Have you ever seen his chart that he made? He knew he could not swing at a pitch that's not in his zone. Some people are better at hitting outside, better at hitting inside, but you got to know what your zone is and be disciplined about swinging at that pitch. You shouldn’t waste swings on a bad pitch or a pitch that you can't hit. Even if it’s called a strike, so what? You weren’t going to hit it away.
