Video junkie: Nine minutes after the Mariners had beaten the Angels Tuesday – on the strength of Mark McLemore’s first home run – the Seattle outfielder was hunkered down in front of a clubhouse television.
He was watching video of one of his at-bats, provided to him by team video wizard Carl Hamilton.
“I always watch the video,” McLemore said Wednesday. “If I have a good game, I may wait a day, but I always watch it.”
And what was he studying after Tuesday’s victory? Not surprisingly, it was the at-bat in which he struck out – not the one in which he’d homered.
“I did it right in that at-bat,” he said of the home run. “The strike out, something was wrong.”
In professional baseball since 1982, McLemore has stayed in the game largely because of his approach. He can and will play most anywhere – six positions for Seattle last season. He’s a switch-hitter who can bunt, steal bases and keep a clubhouse loose.
And he takes advantage of every technological advance he can – including video.
“You play as long as I have, you get to know your swing, and you can tell when something is not right,” he said. “With Carl and his video, I can look at an at-bat right after it happens. I can look at it after the game, the next day, whatever.”
Sometimes, the problem can be so subtle that even after frame-by-frame breakdowns, it’s not obvious. McLemore has huddled occasionally with hitting coach Gerald Perry. One of the results was McLemore’s .286 batting average last season, and a .500 average in 12 pinch-hit at-bats.
“He’s a professional hitter who studies how pitchers get him out,” manager Lou Piniella said. “He doesn’t leave anything to chance.”
Against Kevin Appier, for instance, McLemore came to bat in the sixth inning with teammate Ben Davis at second base and no one out.
“I’ve faced Kevin for years, and he’s gotten me more than I’ve gotten him, probably,” McLemore said. “He knows my job is to pull the ball, get the runner to third base. I know he’s going to try to work me outside, make me push the ball to the left side.
“He probably made a mistake in a little, and I got it,” McLemore said.
He back-tracked the video and came to the home run at-bat. On the pitch before he hit it out, McLemore squared to bunt, then pulled the bat back.
A bluff?
“Not at all,” McLemore said. “My job there is to get Davis to third base, and if I’d liked that pitch, I’d have bunted.”
Next pitch, home run. McLemore fast-forwarded.
“I’ve seen that,” he said.
Big hair: Bret Boone went to the family video archives Wednesday and came up with some footage from a 1989 Team USA-Japan baseball series that broke up the clubhouse. There was Boone and catcher Dan Wilson on one team – facing Japanese right-hander Kazuhiro Sasaki. All were smaller versions of their current selves, unless you count Boone’s hair.
“That was a big hair year,” Boone said. …
Short hops: Seattle began their ninth game batting .239 in the first six innings, and .383 from the seventh inning on. … Jeff Cirillo started the night seven games short of the current major league record for consecutive games without an error (99) at third base. Cirillo was also just 16 chances away from the big-league record (261) for chances without an error, set in 1975 by Don Money.
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