On Bunting

I taught B. Roosevelt how to bunt today. We started with the feet (as Pops used to say, wrt tennis, Get Your Feet Right for Jesus). Squaring around. Sliding the hand up the bat. Making sure your hand is behind the bat so that fingers don't get mashed. Feigning a real swing to keep the 3d baseman from sneaking in. B. Roosevelt loved it.

There is something particularly attractive about the bunt. I spent a whole season of little league bunting on almost every at-bat. When B. Roosevelt demanded to learn the bunt, I thought back to that season. Why bunt every time? I was not particularly fast, but in those days it almost always worked. I think it must have been swing anxiety that did it. I didn't have to worry about hitting the ball. Most times I could count on the catcher to throw it away.

So B. Roosevelt, for whom lack of self-confidence is rarely an issue, really wanted to learn to bunt. Once he learned, it was hard to keep him swinging. Though I think the home run he hit and the end may have taught him that a full swing now and again is a good thing.