Stumping the slump - Tulsa World (7-13-2006) ... mentions Doug Benier

[ORUTerry]

Stumping the slump By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer

7/13/2006

Both hitters and coaches weight in on the causes of slumps and how best to break out of them.

If it can happen to Derek Jeter, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays, then it can happen to Doug Bernier, Tyler Mach and Pete Kozma.

They got into a batting slump. They can get out of a batting slump.

Slumps can be sad or hilarious. They can be long or really long. They can be everything or nothing at all. And they happen to hall of famers, minor leaguers, collegians, high schoolers and little kids.

"I think baseball gets you into hitting slumps. It's part of the game," said Tulsa Drillers outfielder Seth Smith. "You get a hit three out of every 10 at-bats, you're doing good. Failure is part of it. It's how you deal with the failures and how you respond and the adjustments you make when those failures come. That's what gets you into and out of slumps."

Everyone who's ever stood at the plate has had a slump:

In 1941, DiMaggio was stuck in a 20-game slump in which he was batting just .184. But a May 15 single off Chicago White Sox pitcher Eddie Smith started DiMaggio's record 56-game hitting streak.

Robin Ventura, who hit safely in 58 straight games while at Oklahoma State, went 0-for-41 as a White Sox rookie in 1990.

Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken hit an 0-for-29 skid early in the 1988 season, and in 1993, Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly went 0-for-21.

Barry Bonds as a Pittsburgh Pirates rookie in 1987 was seen sobbing at his locker after a hitting slump reached 22 at-bats.

Mays started his career 0-for-12 in 1951 and asked to be sent to the minors, but New York Giants manager Leo Durocher denied Mays' request. Mays' first career home run -- off Warren Spahn -- ended the streak and sparked the Giants to the pennant as Mays won Rookie of the Year honors.

Jeter endured an 0-for-32 slump in 2004, the longest in the majors in more than two years, but rebounded to finish the year with a .292 average and 23 home runs.

So Bernier's 2005 season with the Drillers, in which he hit just .203 and muddled through numerous 0-fers, was manageable. Mach's finish to his MVP 2006 season at Oklahoma State, during which he ended 6-for-36 (3-for-17 in the NCAA Tournament), should be no problem. And Kozma's 2006 postseason at Owasso High School, wherein he batted around .400 after hitting .533 during the regular season, isn't a big deal.

"We don't have any secret potion or magic or anything," said Owasso coach Larry Turner. "We just try to work through it."

There might be as many reasons for hitting slumps as there are plant species in the Congo. Hands too high. Too close to the plate. Hands too low. Too far from the plate. Feet too wide. Feet too narrow.

Broke your bat. Lost your batting glove. Pitcher's got your number. Somebody's putting mojo on you. Changed your socks. Didn't eat chicken.

"Basically, a slump is mental," said Drillers outfielder Jud Thigpen. "There may be something a little off mechanically, but your swing is your swing. Especially in Double-A or Triple-A, the reason you're there is because you have a consistent swing."

Still, while mired in the worst offensive season he's had in three years of minor league baseball, Thigpen wasn't above tinkering with superstition. After a slow start this year, Thigpen grew a mustache. His luck didn't change, so he shaved the lip. That didn't help, so he shaved his head.

Through his first 58 games this season, Thigpen was hitting just .228. His fortune hasn't improved much since a re-shave to start the second half of the Texas League season. Neither did a new glove, new shoes, a new cap or a new workout shirt.

"I think sometimes when you're going good, you can almost hit yourself into a slump, as weird as that is," Thigpen said. "You're hitting, you're working out, you come to the field to hit and you're doing so good -- the first few games you're having fun -- but then you start thinking: 'Well, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? I've got to remember this.' When you start thinking about it, that's when the hits quit falling."

A new hairdo is a common remedy for the hitless. In 1991, Tim Naehring of the Boston Red Sox was in the midst of an 0-for-39 tailspin when he had his barber cut the word "hit" into the back of his head.

Major league slumpbusters are infamous: Ozzie Guillen once used eye drops on his bats "so they could see the ball good." Leo Cardenas would shower in full uniform after a hitless game to wash away evil spirits. Mike Greenwell would gather bats of slumping hitters in the center of the clubhouse and exorcise hitting demons.

And while everyone remembers hit king Wade Boggs' quirky pregame rituals -- eating only chicken, hitting and running at the same time every day, scrawling encouraging words to himself in the batter's box in a foreign language -- few recall the even more demanding regimen of Tony Gwynn, who studied video replays of every at-bat following each game to make sure his mechanics didn't stray.

"We'll videotape 'em and show 'em their swing when they're going good and when they're going bad, try to pick some little something that they're doing in there," said Turner, who has the camera on during games, scrimmages, practices and batting cage sessions. "Maybe they're dragging their hands or just some little ol' bitty thing that nobody really notices unless we have it on video."

Turner's 9-year-old son, Dodger, plays for the Owasso Red Wings, a competitive American Amateur Baseball Congress team that won the state championship last week. Even in ballplayers' first year outside of coach-pitch baseball, slumps are real. Red Wings coach Rusty Blevins, who played with Ventura and Pete Incaviglia at OSU, said he'll often signal for a player to bunt if he's slumping. At that age, too much coaching can be a bad thing.

"What I try to do is just be real positive; (tell players), 'You've just got to keep trying,' " Blevins said. "At this level, you can talk way over their head."

"Little League, you're just having fun," Smith said. "Here, you're having fun but it's a job, too. . . . If you're not playing well, you're not going to get moved up and that kind of stuff. But Little League, just tell 'em to play hard and have fun, and if they're having fun, then they're winners and they're being successful."

Said Turner, "When it truly becomes a slump is when you start pressing too much and swinging at everything, trying to really make something happen out of nothing. Just stay back, have a quality at-bat and hit the ball hard, and it'll all work out."

Jeter's 0-for-32 skid included more than a dozen quality at-bats -- line drives that were caught by diving fielders, fly balls held up by wind and caught at the wall -- but his zeroes kept piling up. Although the numbers suggested otherwise, Jeter's slump wasn't all that bad because he was still hitting the ball hard at times.

"The big thing," said Bernier, "is not to focus on results too much, but rather the process and your journey as a hitter."

True slumps are soaked in self doubt. A lack of confidence at the plate can prolong a slump quicker than any cut fastball or hard slider.

"A slump," said Smith, "is whenever you start thinking you haven't had a hit in a while."

Although they can be started by a tiny, unseen change in one's mechanics, a slump doesn't become a slump until the hitter tries to get out of it, and in doing so gets away from his strengths. Every at-bat starts with the right mental approach.

"A good approach is having an idea," Bernier said. "Let's say you like the pitch middle-away, you really need to focus on that. . . . I feel like I hit the ball away better than I do inside, but a pitcher will just throw a pitch in, and even if it's a ball, I'm like, 'Oh man, I might be able to hit that one over the fence.' Even though that's not part of my game, that still enters into my mind.

"You're constantly playing tug-o-war inside your head."

Said Smith, "You hear coming up in high school and college it's all mental; that you're not actually in a slump, it's just that each at-bat is not going your way. . . . It is mental, but it's up to you. You get yourself into and out of slumps.

"It's baseball. I can crush three balls right to people. Is that a slump? No, that's not a slump. I'm doing everything I can at the plate, I'm hitting the ball hard.

"I'm sitting here telling you all this and I've been through like five or six slumps this year."

And, like any hitter in a slump, he's gotten out of each of them.

[tmh8286]

The pic that goes with the article is a classic! 

[richieoru]

The pic that goes with the article is a classic! 

[tmh8286]

I guess if it's not too - uh - suggestive to go in the paper it's not too suggestive to put it on the board!