Bautista's 'Load' Helps Slugger Load Up on Dingers

Here's a baseball term I know you never heard before: a batter's load.

No, we're not talking about Prince Fielder's expansive derriere.

A load, as defined by Tyler Kepner in the NY Times this past weekend, is the path of a batter's hands to the ball.

Kepner, who spends a ton of time inside baseball clubhouses, suggests the load is an established term inside MLB's corridors of power.

Speaking of power, he refers to Jose Bautista when discussing load.

[Hitting coach Dwayne] Murphy and Cito Gaston, the former Blue Jays manager, eventually got through to Bautista, who maintains that his swing is the same as it has always been. The difference, he said, is his load — that is, the path of his hands to the ball. Hitting is timing, the saying goes, and now Bautista is on time.

Jose Bautista takes a load off before facing the Bronx Bombers. [photo NYT]
 
Homerin' Jose went hitless yesterday, but did drive in a run at the Stadium. That gives him 16 rib-eye steaks thus far in 2011--a load by anyone's count.