College Ballplayer's Peculiar Batting Stance
College Ballplayer's Peculiar Batting Stance, Weirdest batting stance ever? Alex Buccilli from Coastal Carolina has a strong claim, Coastal Carolina's Alex Buccilli looks normal here, but it's hard to believe what he does first. Coastal Carolina designated hitter Alex Buccilli is burning up the Internet on Wednesday after his weird and wild batting stance was featured during a game against Clemson that was broadcast on ESPN.
Sweet mother of mechanics. If you just look at the screen cap above, you come away wondering how any human beings could ever hit from that position. But if you watch the clip of a Buccilli at-bat below, you'll see that strange Gargamel crouch is only the starting point for the 22-year-old redshirt junior. His whole plate approach is based on rhythm with his stance eventually opening up as the pitcher prepares to throw home:
Eat your heart out, Batting Stance Guy.
And lest you knock Buccilli's approach, you should know there's no right way to hit a baseball. (Kevin Youkilis and Julio Franco, among others, have proven this.)
You should also know that Buccilli has had a fair amount of success. Through 36 games, he's hitting .313 — third highest on the team — with three homers, eight doubles and 20 RBIs.
Buccilli, a "Rudy type" who sat out the 2011 season after transferring to Coastal Carolina from Oregon, only adopted the stance recently. He told Myrtle Beach Online in a great feature that he's aware a lot of other people find amusement from his setup:
The stance originated from a discussion with Brian Cain, a sports psychology consultant who met with the team over the summer to talk about the mental side of the game. Feeling he had been hindered over the years by lacking a consistent stance, Buccilli adopted his elaborate pre-pitch routine to help him focus in on one pitch at a time — much to the amusement of his teammates, that is.
"We've been making fun of that since the fall," [third baseman Rich] Witten said with a smile. "It's old news to us by now. We see guys on the other team laughing at it and people in the stands laughing at it. We almost forget he does it by now and then we get reminded when we see everybody laughing at him."
Said Buccilli of the notoriety that now follows him wherever he goes:
"At first they're like, 'What are you doing? You need to go see a chiropractor. Is your butt itchy?' [...] I hear a lot from the fans and stuff, but it's all process and routine."
via: yahoo
