Interesting thing about Olivo...

by GoBabies!! on Jul 8, 2008 11:00 PM EDT

Has anybody noticed that when he fouls off pitches he often smells his bat?

I know WHAT he is smelling. For those that haven't hit w/ wood before, occaisonally when you hit the seams of the ball just right on a foul ball, it will 'burn' the wood of the bat and it will create a smoke type smell.

My question is WHY he is smelling it? It is a pretty frequent occurrence. Check it out his next AB....

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He loves the smell of napalm . . .

after a foul ball.

by Raisethefencesbackto12feet on Jul 9, 2008 12:08 AM EDT reply actions

Superstition?

Just a guess.

This is just my opinion. I could easily be wrong.

by Scott McKinney on Jul 9, 2008 1:01 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah

batters do some pretty weird stuff as part of their routines. During my at-bats in high school, in-between every pitch I…

1. Stepped out of the box and took one (and only one) practice swing
2. pretended to squint at the useless third base coaches signs
3. Waved to my mom in the crowd
4. Flipped off my friend on the bench (and he WAS always on the bench)
5. Stepped back in with my back foot
6. Lined up my knuckles
7. Stepped in with my front foot
8. Reached over to the plate with the bat to make sure I could reach the outside corner
9. Looped the bat in forward circles twice
10. Lined up the barrel with the strike zone and brought the bat up as far as the plate twice

...if the pitcher interupted this process by stepping off or attempting to someone off (or, say, throwing a pitch), I’d restart the process. In retrospect, I think I know why I lead our team in HBPs.

A mind without purpose will walk in dark places.

by NHZ on Jul 9, 2008 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions

What is Gordon's routine again?

OMG Banny. FWIW I am only crdtng u w/3 runs allwd bc of DDJ OMFG

by Matt Klaassen on Jul 9, 2008 12:44 PM EDT up reply actions

He smirks

A mind without purpose will walk in dark places.

by NHZ on Jul 9, 2008 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions

Alex

Who cares about RBI's, how many HDB's you got?

by kcscoliny on Jul 9, 2008 8:13 PM EDT up reply actions

If you see TPJ do a similar thing,

remember, he isn’t smelling his, he is inspecting his bat for holes.

by loyal2sdad on Jul 9, 2008 2:14 PM EDT reply actions 3 recs

I get the superstition thing...

But it’s kind of a strange superstition?! I mean this makes Wade Boggs & his chicken seem normal by comparison.

I had my share of superstitions.

I didn’t have an AB as a Jr. in HS w/o starting the AB w/ 8 sunflower seed in my mouth (always on the left side).

I was too drunk/hungover in college to remember my superstitions 1/2 the time.

I ‘burnt’ a bat a couple times when I played with wood. It is kind of strange, sometimes you can even see smoke. But after playing w/ wood bats for the better part of a decade I guess I thought Olivo would be beyond this fascination?