Word: musials
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...batter's box, he coils into a carbon copy of St. Louis' Stan Musial. His stance is closed, his right knee is slightly bent, and he scowls at the pitcher over a high-cocked elbow. When he unwinds, his swing is level and lightning-quick. His reflexes are so fast that even bad balls become good targets. In his first time at bat in a major league game, Boston Rookie Carl Yastrzemski sliced an outside fast ball into leftfield for a single. Next game against the Los Angeles Angels, he drove in two runs, hit a single...
There hasn't been a .400 hitter in baseball since 1941. And there aren't even many .300 hitters any more-only ten last year (five in each league), compared with 28 in 1950. How come? Last week in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, the St. Louis Cardinals' Stan Musial, 40, who owns a .335 lifetime average and is getting ready to start his 21st season, put down some of the reasons...
...Stan Musial went out of his way to insist that the decline in batting averages is not due to a decline in the skill of the players, the old shibboleth of many sportswriters. "In the '40s. when I came up, I played against the great players of the '30s. and I heard them talk about the great ones of the '20s. Now it's the '60s, and some of the kids I'm playing with and against will be the superstars of the '70s. You get a long perspective, and the players...
...began to develop his assortment of multiple-speed curves. Ten years ago, when he saw that even his curves and control were not enough, Spahn started to perfect a screwball and a slider with the patience of a hothouse gardener growing prize orchids. Says the Cardinals' Stan Musial: "The tough pitcher is the one with a pitch that breaks in and another that breaks out, and Spahn has them for either right or lefthanded batters...
...unconscious habit of turning the trademark toward the ball, thus hitting against the grain and losing the bat's resiliency. The solution: special bats made with the trademark running with the grain so that Berra could have his habit-and his hits. When Cardinal First Baseman Stan Musial grumbled that his bats had lost their "feel," Hillerich hustled to St. Louis, discovered that Musial had worn down the handles a decisive %4th of an inch by scraping them against the dugout steps as he waited...