Major League Baseball did a beautiful thing in renaming its American League and National League batting titles for two of the game’s greats. Rod Carew and the late Tony Gwynn both represent the pinnacle of studied hitting, taking Willie Keeler’s famous wisdom of “hit ’em where they ain’t” to levels of precision that are still part of baseball’s lexicon and strategy today.
Carew especially espoused the science (and art) of hitting. The Hall of Famer who made the All-Star team in 18 of his 19 seasons in the bigs, hit .328 for his career and won seven batting titles. He wrote two books on hitting, Rod Carew’s Art and Science of Hitting and
Rod Carew’s Hit to Win: Batting Tips and Techniques from a Baseball Hall of Famer. Tony Gwynn, an 8-time batting champ, also took time to teach his technique to aspiring batting champs. Gwynn wrote The Art of Hitting. If you have any doubt there is wisdom in Gwynn’s book, baseball legend Ted Williams will set you straight. Williams wrote the introduction.
