If the men who are paid big money to wallop baseballs know what pitch is coming, the pitchers who face them become like ducks in a shooting gallery.
So says Merv Rettenmund, a San Diegan who spent parts of five decades in pro ball and was hitting coach of the second Padres World Series team.
Rettenmund, 76, is among the longtime baseball men who applauds MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s crackdown on the sign-stealing Houston Astros.
Rettenmund said we all should exhale, in light of this fact:
No Astros opponent was sent to the hospital by a Astros hitter who teed off on a pitch he knew was coming.