Word: batted
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Nixon's law school alma mater, Duke University. After thus going on record, Infielder Groat was greeted by a few boos along with the cheers when the Pirates met the Philadelphia Phillies in a doubleheader. He silenced the booers by slamming six hits in eight turns at bat, helped push the Pirates to two victories...
...Secret: Sympathy. To supply these needs, Bud Hillerich has learned to combine the persistence of a bleacher heckler with the sympathy of a wife. When it comes to bats, he has discovered, ballplayers are as sensitive as violinists. He follows the major league teams with the vigilance of a scout, roams across the U.S. chatting about bats in dugouts and dressing rooms. When Yankee Catcher Yogi Berra complained that he was not getting enough power out of his bats, Hillerich checked up, found that Berra had an unconscious habit of turning the trademark toward the ball, thus hitting against...
Some of Hillerich's best friends are trees. Though some of the timber used in his bats is grown on the company's 500-acre tract in Pennsylvania, he is always on the lookout for good timber. H. & B. has found that white ash grown on eastern or northern slopes has a bat's best qualities-resiliency and strength. The most important ingredient is careful labor. So skilled an art is hand fashioning that H. & B. has only four qualified bat turners, overseen by 65-year-old Fritz Bickel. Bat turning, says Bickel, "is like painting...
Built-in Hits. Bud Hillerich's father was an apprentice in his father's small wood-turning shop one day in 1884 when a local ballplayer, Pete ("Old Gladiator") Browning, broke his bat. Young Hillerich offered to make Browning a new one. The next day Old Gladiator rapped out three hits. Ballplayers figured that young Hillerich made bats with hits in them, rushed to place orders. By 1904 John Sr. was a full partner in the firm. He started an advertising trend by getting famous players to endorse his bats, wrested the professional bat market away from front...
...they wanted in the old days was plenty of wood," recalls Bickel. Ty Cobb swung a 42-oz. bat, and Babe Ruth sometimes used bats weighing 48 oz. But styles have changed, and players now prefer lighter bats that they can swing more quickly. The Cubs' Ernie Banks uses a 31-oz. bat; the Giants' Willie Mays never goes heavier than 33 oz. The shape has changed too. Only White Sox Second Baseman Nellie Fox still uses a thickhandled bat; the rest prefer a slim handle. H. & B. keeps an index of the types of bat...