Thanks to a commenter from last week who thought of this week’s Top 7: batting stances!  They are the ones that you used to (or would now) imitate in your backyard or family room.  Perhaps you even had a Starting Lineup of one of them.  Hometown bias surely plays into the biases of presumed famous-ness, but I am sure that there are some that I missed…apologies in advance.

7. Moises Alou
There is no denying that the urine on his hands helped with the grip of the bat.  At times, it seemed like Alou was holding it with only his thumbs…the bat, that is.  He would have at least his pinkies hanging off, sometimes his forefingers as well.  There was a little incident against Curt Schilling around ten years ago when he threw the bat three or four times in one at-bat.  Maybe that’s what triggered the peeing.



6. Craig Counsell
He missed being the posterboy for scrappiness by about two years, but he was David Eckstein before David Eckstein.  He also had a stance that got stranger the more you watched it, as it looked like he was going to choke himself with his right arm as he pushed the bat way over his head.



5. Gary Sheffield
This stance would have to be a more famous cousin of former A’s third baseman Carney Lansford, who used to jiggle his bat up-and-down in front of his body.  Sheffield took it to another level, violently flailing his bat back-and-forth as the pitch approached.  It’s a wonder that the bat never went flying in either direction. 



4. Rickey Henderson
Maybe what allowed Rickey to take so many walks was that pitchers weren’t used to facing guys whose entire backs were facing them.  It didn’t help either that Rickey was down so low that his strike zone resembled Eddie Gaedel’s.  Rickey could possibly crack two lists in a row, as next week will feature best swings, and Rickey’s was as sweet as they came, especially when he would hit home runs and pat himself on the chest right afterwards.



3. Jeff Bagwell
The crouch and the twirl of the bat led to the patented uppercut of the man who, along with Frank Thomas, was one of the two most underrated players of this era.  Why was that?  Was it playing in Houston?  Was it that he was so consistent for so long that he was forgotten?  Even Bill James couldn’t muster a comment on Bagwell’s career, simply writing “pass” in his latest Abstract where he ranks Bagwell as one of the top five first basemen of all-time.



2. Cal Ripken
Two of Ripken’s stances could be part of this list—he had the one where he twirled his bat behind him, parallel to the ground, during his MVP 1991 season.  He inexplicably changed it thereafter to the “make a loop with the bat above your head” method.  He has to be one of the best players to ever so drastically change his stance.



1. Julio Franco
Besides being famous for being the first 100-year old player, Franco has the most famous stance of this era.  It’s estimated that around 85% of everyone who has ever seen his stance has attempted to duplicate the bat-head-facing-straight-towards the pitcher move.  Basically, it’s the HHH water-spitting of batting stances.



The Top 7 is written by Jason Major.  He never knew Cal Ripken posed as a serial killer.  Email him at jason@joesportsfan.com