Manny, Youkilis, Drew batting cage bright spots

Hanging around the batting cage anywhere, much less Fenway, is not a bad way to pass the time and hear some good stories as well.

Pitcher Chad Bradford of the Orioles gave up the 500th home run to Manny Ramirez in Baltimore last week and was back in Boston with Baltimore this week.

Ramirez asked Bradford to autograph some items that were going to the Hall of Fame in recognition of the moment and Bradford agreed, even if wishing he had not thrown that pitch.

On Tuesday, Bradford came into the game from the pen to face one batter, that being Ramirez. Bradford retired Manny this time.

That at-bat happened to constitute the 500th big-league appearance for Bradford. After the game, on a suggestion from former Orioles pitcher and now front-office executive Mike Flanagan, Bradford sent the lineup card over to the Red Sox clubhouse for Ramirez to sign.

Not a bad little “gotcha.”

I asked Ramirez at the cage Wednesday if he intended to sign the card as a memento to Bradford. He laughed and said, ” I will sign the card.”

That card is not going to the Hall of Fame, but Bradford will get a good chuckle out of it in years to come and have a good story to go with it.

Kevin Youkilis has been struggling at the plate lately and talking with him at the cage I asked about the unusual positioning of his hands on the bat prior to the pitch.

Sox fans are familiar with the large separation between the lower and upper hands as he gets set in the box. He brings his hands together as he prepares to swing.

Hitters have what are called trigger mechanisms that precede the swing. It may be the raising of the front foot, laying the bat on the shoulder (J.D. Drew), wiggling the bat over the plate or any other process that prepares a hitter to swing.

“I don’t know where that came from, “Youkilis said of the hand separation. “I didn’t do that as a kid and started doing it in pro ball just because it felt comfortable getting ready to swing.”

“Everybody is looking at it now that I’m not hitting and asking if that is the reason,” Youkilis went on.

“It still feels comfortable and I don’t think it has anything to do with the slump I’m in,” he said.

He stepped back into the cage and separated his hands preparing to hit.

Sox hitting coach Dave Madigan agrees with Youkilis.

“All hitters have different ways of getting ready,” Madigan said. “I would like to see him quiet the movement of the bat a little, but the hand separation isn’t causing that movement.”

As for the red-hot Drew, Madigan said, “I have never seen a hitter hit the ball so hard in every at-bat the way Drew is making contact now.”

“Even the balls that are outs are screaming line drives that are right at someone,” said Madigan. “The worst thing a pitcher can do right now is thrown him off-speed stuff – he’s driving those pitches to the deepest part of center.”

With that, the crack of the bats continued and the hitters do what they do best – hit and tell stories.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net