Batting Stances?

Hitoshi Taneda of the Chunichi Dragons/Yokohama BayStars. He wasn't exactly handsome either, but whenever he came to bat the Tigers gaia used to stack their bats and try to copy his stance.

Here's Taneda at his extreme [image].

Current Dragons manager Ochiai had a pretty distinctive stance, standing up perfectly straight (with his portly figure) and his arms extended out front, can't find a good picture though.

Of course, there's Ichiro's leg swinging, back in his BlueWave days.

And the immortal Oh's one-legged flamingo stance.

Holy smokes! That picture of Taneda is a riot! Hilarious. Great work. Please let me know any more you can remember. I'd love a list of 20 or so.

Thanks!

Although he isn't Japanese (oh wait, I guess he isn't a gaijin anymore), I've always liked Tuffy Rhodes' stance. He's a bit like Gary Sheffield - twitching the bat back and forth before swinging. And when he connects the right way, it's a thing of beauty.

Yeah, twitching the bat almost above his head, watching his AB right now.

I will totally second that on Hitoshi Taneda, he was the first person to come to mind for me, too.

Another one is Michihiro Ogasawara, formerly of the Fighters, now of the Giants. (Grrrrr.) His batting stance is basically to hold the bat out in front of him, as if he's about to start chopping something in half in front of him. First time I ever saw him, I thought "Did this guy wander in from the Kendo club or something?" And somehow when the ball comes in, he just swings his bat back a little bit and wham, hits these huge home runs. It makes absolutely no sense.

Akira Ohtsuka, on the Chiba Lotte Marines, also has a kind of weird bowlegged batting stance, though nowhere near as pronounced as Taneda's.

Yoshinobu Takahashi has a pretty distinctive batting stance, too -- but it's kind of a ripoff of Oh's flamingo, I think.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Norihiro Nakamura in his prime with the Kintetsu Buffaloes. His stance hasn't changed all that much, but when he and Rhodes were clubbing home runs left and right out of Kyocera Dome, it was a little different.

Nakamura would stand almost facing the pitcher, his stance open and his feet almost together, holding the bat over his head. As the ball came in, Nakamura would kick his left leg, lower the bat to about 45 degrees, and then somehow get the bat back into a position where he could hit the ball. I've tried the stance myself and it really does work!

Nowadays, Nakamura's stance is dead square, but he uses the same swing. He's still got some power, too.

The initial stance and the take back may be different, but many Japanese hitters have the leg kick in their swing, like Norichika Aoki. This works in NPB to get the timing right with the pitcher's motion (and provides them with extra power?). But when Japanese hitters go to the majors, they have to adjust to faster pitches, so the big leg kick tends to disappear, or they fail to adapt, like Nakamura.

Kakefu, the ex Mr. Hanshin Tigers, had a unique stance [YouTube - 2nd batter around 1:22]. He would swing his bat in a round motion with one hand and be touching the tip of the hat, sleeves, and other body parts with the other and then get to his stance.

Former Taiyo Whale Kazuhiko Kondo [Nikkan Sports] had a really unique stance.

Former Yakult Swallow Yukio Yaegashi had an extreme open stance, but I can't find a photo. He was basically facing the pitcher with his whole body.

This is awesome! What a great forum. Thank you for adding video clips and pictures! This is really helpful. More, more, more please!

I've been searching online for Nippon baseball highlight DVDs. Is there a video with some/all of these players on it?

It's not exactly his stance wich is particular, but the swing of Hiroyuki Nakamura is really unique, too.

I can't find anyone named that? Do you mean Hiroyuki Nakajima?

Yes Sorry !

I mean Hiroyuki Nakajima (from Saitama Seibu Lions). Really sorry for my error.

Here's a photo of him.

His teammate and catcher Hosokawa used to always get into a bunting stance before swinging the bat last season. Apparently this allowed him to time his swing correctly. He doesn't do it anymore this season.

No worries, man. I get them mixed up all the time myself. So much so, I forced myself to learn the kanji in his name.

I always thought that Rick Short had an interesting stance [YouTube]. Sort of looks like he's leaning back.

And BSG wouldn't stand for "BattingStanceGuy" would it?

Obviously there are many zany batting stances. Will you please rank or comment on these 7. Some are older and some I can't find footage on, but people have told me to check out their swing.

1. Hiroyaki Nakajima
2. Yoshinobu Takahashi
3. Kakefu
4. Hosokawa (bunting stance)
5. T. Kimata
6. Akira Ohtsuka
7. Yukio Yaegashi

The question being, which of these players' swings/stances would be entertaining on a video like this one of the Seattle Mariners [YouTube]?