Baseball

Back in the Swing

One of the hallmarks of a great player is his ability to adjust when a change becomes necessary. A year ago both Cal Ripken Jr. of the Orioles and Robin Yount of the Brewers struggled through slumps that left them frustrated and confused. But now, after making changes, some of them very minor, the two future Hall of Famers are back where they belong, among the American League's statistical leaders.

At week's end Ripken, 30, was tied for the league lead in home runs (12) and total bases (111), was first in slugging (.607), fourth in hitting (.344) and fifth in RBIs (36). He was doing all this despite the absence in the lineup of slugger Glenn Davis, who was acquired in January to bat fourth, behind Ripken. Davis has been out since April 25 with a nerve injury in his neck, but Ripken has thrived anyway without Davis's threatening presence in the on-deck circle.

Last year Ripken was batting only .209 in mid-June, and his critics were saying that his consecutive-game streak—which reached 1,458 on Sunday—had reduced his effectiveness as a hitter. "I knew that that wasn't true," says Ripken. "I had made some adjustments [in his hitting stance], but all they did was make me inconsistent."

The change in his stance that has worked so well this season is obvious. Instead of standing upright with his feet close together and his bat pointing toward the umpire, Ripken now goes into a slight crouch with feet spread apart and his bat on his shoulder. "It's not totally different," he says. "But about two weeks before the All-Star break last year I thought I needed to reteach myself how to hit. I spread out a little, I went into a little crouch and decided to wait for the ball instead of trying to hit it before it got to me. The key to hitting is waiting as long as you can. I'm strong enough to hit the ball out; I don't need to gather all kinds of momentum. It was a slow process. But I worked hard on it over the winter. Spring training was a big key, because it worked well then."

Ripken's personal hitting coach has always been his father, Oriole coach Cal Ripken Sr. Says Cal Jr., "I don't believe I fought off others who offered advice," but he may have resisted listening at length to anyone except his father. Cal Jr. still gives most of the credit for his hitting success to Cal Sr., but he also acknowledges the help of former manager Frank Robinson, who began working privately with Ripken last year.

"Frank was a great offensive player, and he was able to share some of his experiences from the mental side of hitting," says Ripken Jr. "He told me about a time in the '60s when he was slumping and didn't think he'd ever get another hit. But he turned it around."

Yount also seems to have turned it around. He won the American League MVP award in 1989 but had trouble pulling the ball in '90, when his average fell 58 points, to .247, and his RBIs dropped from 103 to 77. Brewers hitting coach Don Baylor publicly stated that Yount had to make adjustments but that he was reluctant to do so.

Yount's woes continued in spring training this year, and he began to seek a solution, although he is reluctant to discuss in detail the changes he has made. "I tried some experimentation because of my difficulties last year," he says. "Mechanically, little adjustments make you as a hitter. Some adjustments are so minor, if you watched me play every day, you wouldn't notice."

Rangers manager Bobby Valentine says it appears that Yount's stance is slightly more open than it was last year, and his crouch isn't as pronounced. On Opening Day in Texas, Yount homered to left center in his first at bat, against Nolan Ryan. Through Sunday's games—less than a third into the '91 season—Yount was hitting .283 with nine home runs and 33 RBIs.