Overthinking man's game

Does hitting from a tee help or hurt mechanics? Chicago sluggers take up the question -- and can't take their eyes off what they see

July 6, 2007

BY GREG COUCH Sun-Times Columnist

I might have permanently messed up Jim Thome and Derrek Lee over one simple question.

''What did he say about it?'' Lee asked the other day, wondering how Thome answered my question. ''You never think about that.''

''What did he say?'' Thome asked about Lee.

Let's just say that every sports issue is not steroids, troubled athletes or no-trade clauses. We're getting into the time when youth baseball teams go to the playoffs, and soon I'll be sickened by the way we turn Little Leaguers into superstars by putting them on ESPN. But I've got bigger issues to worry about now. My 8-year-old son's swing is inconsistent.

And in casually talking to some of the greatest hitters of all time about it -- my job has benefits -- it left them rethinking something they had truly believed had helped them to get where they are.

Start at the beginning. My son is very athletic, runs fast. But he hasn't played much baseball. Now he's learning while on a team that has been together for years with regular two-hour practices, assistant coaches and a head coach who is very serious, very thorough and very well-researched.

Well, Coach John loves the batting tee, as do the team's batting coach and several of the team's other coaches.

''This helps you get in 100s of repetitions,'' Coach John wrote in an e-mail about my son, ''to create muscle memory for a good level swing.''

A little tennis lesson

Look, I taught tennis for a while, and you'd hear people say that you should watch the racket hit the ball. But no good player ever actually does that. You pick a spot, then let the hand-eye coordination take over. You can't jerk your head to the racket and then away. So if you're hitting off a tee, doesn't that force you to hold your head down to look at the ball, in a position it will never actually be in during a game? Doesn't the tee actually mess up mechanics?

''Hitting off the tee is VERY IMPORTANT,'' Coach John e-mailed back, ''and useful at all levels. Many pros [Jim Thome and Barry Bonds included] hit off the tee religiously.''

It was all very official-sounding. He cited sources, after all.

''Yeah, I do love the tee,'' Thome said.

''The coach is right,'' Lee said, chuckling at my silly theory while sitting in front of his locker. ''The tee is probably the best drill you can do. The tee doesn't lie.''

If the ball leaves the tee properly, then the swing was right and level. If not, then the swing must have been wrong.

''But you are right,'' Lee added, out of the blue. ''You don't see the bat hit the ball in games. But I don't think I see the bat hit the ball off the tee, either. Wait a minute.''

He stood up, started imagining the tee. ''No, there are too many things going on to see the bat hit the ball.

''I don't think I see the bat hit the ball, anyway ... Wait. No, I don't. You never think about this.''

Should I tell that to my son?

Lee, who nearly won the Triple Crown last year, became a mental pretzel over this. He'll never be able to hit off a tee again, thinking about each little thing as he does it.

''You're probably right,'' he said.

Let's try the American League's leading hitter.

''In all kinds of practice,'' Ichiro Suzuki said, ''it is important to have good fundamental position. Practice over and over. That's the key.''

That didn't answer the question, did it? Does the tee help the position or hurt it?

''I can't really answer that,'' he said. ''I never hit off the tee.''

I asked around. Steve Stone, the former Cy Young winner, said he believes in the tee for beginners. The Cubs' Cliff Floyd, a former All-Star who loves the tee, said it's important to have the tee up high, so that your head isn't too low.

''They used to say that Ted Williams saw the bat hit the ball,'' Thome said.

'You're really making me think'

I don't believe him. Do you see the bat hit the ball in a game?

''No,'' Thome said.

What about off the tee?

''Well, now wait,'' he said. ''I don't see it, no. Wait.''

He stood, put his hands back in the batting position, without a bat and tried to think it through. Thome said he holds the bat in the right position, looks back to check it out, then looks down at the ball to see where it is. ''Then I look up and imagine I'm in a game.''

Then, he swings.

''So, no, I'm not looking at the ball at all,'' he seems to have discovered, just short of hitting his 500th career home run. ''But maybe I shouldn't say that.''

It's not how they teach the kids.

Understand that when you talk to some of baseball's greats -- not counting Ichiro -- and you say the word ''tee,'' they get a distant look, as if you're talking about some lost high school sweetheart. But then when you break it down. ...

''You're really making me think about this,'' Thome said. ''But you are right about what you're saying.''

I'll report that back to Coach John. The good news is, my son is hitting now. The bad, well ... sorry Jim and Derrek.

You still believe in the tee, right, Jim?

''Uhhhh, yeah?'' he said. ''Yeah.''