Pitching e.g. Teddy Ballgame - The Happy Zone, & Ok Buddy, I can Hit You With My Eyes Shut

"To the young baseball players of American, who dream, as I
did, or becoming great hitters. May this help them on their way."
Ted Williams 1970

Hi Greg,

I think I heard your message and point of view.
Some of it is my point of view, however some of the information is not within 'The Science of Hitting'
as you have stated or implied. I will try to provide some information from what I remember that's in the Science of Hitting as related to pitching, and of course hitting.

Yes, you will agree when I say Teddy Ballgame was a dedicated hitter.
And yes, you may agree, that Williams was known through out his career as a hitter who 'guessed' a lot. And of course successfully I might add.

And yes, you may agree that Williams was an advocate for teaching
hitters to "Observe".

And yes, you may agree that when Williams spoke about hitting
(even as a manager of the Senators), he spoke about the desire for 'complete'
hitters. And you may also be aware of the heated arguments between Williams
and Ty Cobb, between Williams and Al Simmons, between Williams and
the entire Boston newspapers. The 'complete hitter' to Williams was
the hitters with concentration, observation, "style, power, smartness,
everything'. According to Williams, 'No Hitter has it all. There
probably never has been what you would call a complete hitter."

Up until the 90's, there were only a few 'complete hitters'.
Within the 90's, a few more were added: Here is such a list:

- Rogers Hornsby
- Joe Jackson
- Jimmy Foxx
- Willie Mays
- Roberto Clemente
- George Brett
- Ken Griffey Jr.
- Nomar Garciaparra

Those great hitters that Williams did not consider 'complete hitters'
- Babe Ruth
Greatest Power hitter of All
Struck out more the should HOF
- Mickey Mantle
Greatest SH Power Hitter of all
Not serious enough HOF
- Bill Terry
Forsook power for average HOF
- Ty Cobb
Smartest Hitter of all.
Lacked power number HOF
- Harry Heilman
Top Five RH hitters.
Not serious enough. HOF
- Dale Murphy
Toughest hitter.
Low Avg due to bad balls
- Wade Boggs
Great Carew type.
Lack of Power
- Rod Carew
Get's bat on ball
No hit with power HOF
- Pete Rose
Passed Ty Cobb on hits
low average Not yet
- Al Kaline
Only Rookie to lead in BAvg.
.297 hitter HOF
- Ernie Banks
Best SS to pull pitch.
.274 hitter HOF

Other Great Hitters, Stylists, Sluggers or Moderns as noted by Williams
- Al Simmons
Great Power to all fields HOF
- Mel Ott
Could wait on a pitch
Adopted Style to park HOF
- Lou Gehrig
Top Five LH hitters all time HOF
- Stan Musial
Top Five LH Hitters all time HOF
- Joe D'Maggio
Top Five RH all time HOF
- George Sisler
In prime,great player all time HOF
- Arky Vaughn
Fine Hitting SS
- Chuck Klein
Great LH power Hitter
- Tris Speaker
Lifetime .344. Lacked power HOF
- Hack Wilson
Great HR hitter to opp. field
.307
- Henry Aaron
Smartest hitter ever,
.305 lifetime avg HOF
- Harmon Killebrew
Great Power Hitter
- Frank Robinson
Smart Situation hitter
- Hank Greenberg
Smart Hitter.
- Eddie Murray
Best switch hitter of modern day
- Ralph Kiner

And to reiterate Williams 'Three Rules to Hit By' before 'even considering the rudiments of a good swing'.

1. To get a good ball to hit.
Famous Strike Zone. The Happy Zone.

2. Proper Thinking
Anticipating, Guessing !

3. To be Quick with the Bat
Close Hands, Compact, Hips, Wait."

And of course you will agree that Williams as a manager, instructed
hitters to
a) see the curve ball the moment it was thrown,
b) know what pitch was thrown,
c) know what pitch was swung at,
d) know what pitch was hit, was hit hard, or was missed.

And of course, you will agree that Williams also understood, or
his theory was that a pitcher established a pattern to his
trade.

However, Ted Williams did NOT know most of the time what a pitcher
was going to throw - no matter what the count.

And of course, you will agree that Williams believed in a hitter's Happy Zone.

That he believed a pitchers makes enough mistakes to give to hitters a pitch in their 'Happy Zone'. Williams did believe that if a pitcher had 'fooled' Williams, it was Williams who could not wait to step up to the challenge, and get up again, because it was Williams belief that the pitcher's would throw the same pitch again
that retired him before. This is the 'pattern' Williams frequently referred to.

The best story I could think of to decribe how Williams considered being 'smart' is the one with Ken Chase and Ted Williams. 'Lefty' Chase was born and died near Cooperstown, NY (in Oneonta, NY). Chase was a friend of Williams and Lefty died just before the completion of the revised and update
edition of Williams 'The Science of Hitting.' Chase played in the 30's, early 40's, and pitched for the lowly Washington Senators (and briefly with Boston Red Sex and NY Giants (when Mel Ott managed and played). As the story goes, Chase was one of the few lefties that got Williams out (the year Williams hit .406 so it was probably the only curve ball Williams could not hit.) Chase had a pretty decent array of breaking pitches. Of course in 1942, the Boston Red Sox obtained Ken Chase (from Buckey Harris Mgr Wash Senators).
Of course Chase pitched in the mornings to 23 y/o Williams before most games.
Soon, and through Williams
'observations', 'dedication' and 'smartness' (and 500 LH curve balls from Chase), the young Williams would say "Okay buddy [Lefty], I can hit you with my eyes shut"

Good Luck to All Hitters and Pitchers.
This is truly where the game is played.