[quote=L. Brown]There's a story--maybe true--about Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle, going back to when they first played on the All Star team together. Both were supremely gifted "naturals". As a batter, Mantle had the advantage of being a great hitter from either side of the plate. Williams' advantage was that he was not only a gifted natural, but a serious student of the art of hitting. (I lived in DC when he managed the old Senators, and he turned a couple weak-hitting infielders into much better hitters.) It's also interesting to note--contrasting the two--that Williams' lifetime batting average was close to 50 points better than Mantle's, and that's with having lost the equivalent of about 4 seasons--in his prime--to military service.
Anyhow, the story goes that Williams asked Mantle a lot of questions about his batting technique--which Mantle hadn't really thought about in the same way Williams thought about those things. The result was, post-All Star game, Mantle went into a slump. Yogi Berra helped Mantle end it after a few games by telling him: "Mick, stop thinking. Just hit!" Likewise, it's possible to overthink shooting too--at least while you're doing it.
Some great shooters are more like Mantle, others more like Williams. But all are pretty much like one or the other. The rest of us, less gifted naturally, need all the advantages we can get. [/quoteI'll betcha old Ted Williams- Ace USMC fighter pilot in WW11- along with Joe Foss- must have read Havilah Babcock's "Slim Boggins' Mistake"--and I can picture ol' Slim's 20 gauge pumpgun- a early Model 1912 20 with a 25" barrel, half the choke bored outta her-no blue or varnish left on the field grade stock-and when with the action slide locked shut tight, you tipped her muzzle toward the sky and hit the release button (LH rear of the trigger guard) the slide dropped like ol Bessie Smith's legendary Fat Daddy sittin' down in a tub of warmed up honey--0h yeah!!
