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Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Not all TV commentators believe in clutch hitting
While watching the (Fox Sports Houston) Astros broadcast tonight, either Jim Dehsaies or Dave Raymond remarked that there was no such thing as clutch hitters - that the hitters who are perceived as clutch are simply good hitters. He also said that the “evidence” was that some years players have good clutch stats and other years they don’t (IOW, there is not a good y-t-y correlation). He didn’t articulate quite that way (about “one year to the next"), but that is what he apparently meant.
Finally, he mentioned that he once asked Merv Rettenmund (famous hitting coach) about clutch hitting, and that Merv looked at him askance and said, “There is no such thing.”
I’ve been watching baseball a lot for many, many years, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a TV announcer speak with such heresy. Nice to see/hear…