I direct the "Just Leave Him Alone . . . " folks to Mitch Williams, who is a passionate advocate of that approach. The Wild Thing is unwavering in his belief that you don't just have back-to-back seasons of 58 and 47 homers with a total of 285 RBI by accident. This is a brutally honest guy, by the way, who in 15 years has not attempted to deflect an ounce of blame for that pitch he made to Joe Carter in Game 6 of the Phillies' most recent World Series. "He'll figure it out," Mitch says, "just like he did the last 2 years."
Which brings us to "Hitting Coaches Inc." composed of just about anybody with at least one lifetime base hit while playing at any amateur level from tee-ball to college Division I.
It's amazing to me that the single act in sports said to be the most difficult to master - hitting a baseball thrown with speed and deception - has produced so many experts in how to do it. If Howard is any indication, for every Hall of Fame hitter there are at least 10,000 civilians who can break down a swing and tell you what makes it work or not work better than Ted Williams spellbinding an audience of scribes around an All-Star Game batting cage.
Most of these former line-drive machines correctly state that Howard stands too far off the plate with a stance that is much too open. For the record, he is setting up in just about the same stance he brought to the majors in 2005, when he was rookie of the year. The difference, of course, is what he does with the stance once it unfurls into the various components of a swing.
