Oakland A's & Elbows

Hi Guys

David Kreis made some pretty accurate observations in his last post. Thanks Dave.

I have been keeping up with Oakland as best I can with Houston being a National League city. I watched them give New York all they wanted, in terms of competitiveness. Two reasons for rooting for Oakland: One they are the MLB equivalent of "leftover talent". Second, Art Howe has AGAIN built a fine ballclub with one of,if not THE smallest payrolls in MLB baseball.

(Maybe one of you knows. If so,please tell.)

What many of you might not know is that he has done it before, and this is not a fluke. Houston was trying to find a Texas owner for the ballclub, and the former owner had traded away all our talent and potential talent to save payroll. Art Howe was brought in to manage the club, and he proceeded to take a bunch of ragamuffins nobody ever heard of, (Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Ken Caminiti, and a host of others), and instill a winning attitude and ability. It is a shame he could not be here to enjoy the fruits of his labor, but it also gave him the opportunity to be a "team builder" once again, and establish himself as great in that role.

ELBOWS: With the playoffs going on, chances are a lot of you will be watching some of the best of the best do their thing over the next couple of weeks, and I want you to watch with me to see if I am hallucinating again.

As I watched on TV, (most often from behind the pitcher), It was confirmed in my own mind once again that most of the great hitters do some of the same things.

IE: I kept seeing the rear elbow "peek" behind their back the split second before they began to come forward with the bat. I want you guys to watch, and keeping in mind the slight down angle of the camera, tell me where that back elbow shows up behind their back.(high, low, middle, shoulder-blade high, kidney high, belly high, etc.) Thanks!

Best regards
Kenneth Bean