Diamondbacks Bullpen

[moviegeekjn]

ESPN Sunday night baseball actually offered a little gem last night during the Cardinals-Astros game.

We all know that it often takes a player a while to get his timing back after he's been on the DL for a stint, so it was puzzling how David Eckstein was able to step right back into the lineup recently after being on the shelf for 3+ weeks and without going down to Memphis for a rehab assignment. His first at bat amazingly was a home run, and he had 5-6 hits his first couple games back.

Turns out that he followed some advice from Red Schoendienst, who had received the tip from none other than Ty Cobb:

Without swinging the bat, simply get in the batter's box daily and have one of the pitchers throw thirty pitches: ten fast balls, ten curve balls, and ten sinkers/sliders. The exercise is to keep your batting eye in shape.

Jim Edmonds must be following a similar program. He hadn't batted in a game for a month until he pinch hit tonight--three run homer.