It was as if Michael Bourn had been staring at the same math equation for months, knowing that the answer was right there in front of him. His batting average at the All-Star break in 2008 was .218, and he was more perplexed than overwhelmed. Bourn was clearly seeing all the two-seam fastballs being thrown to him. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with them, exactly what he should do with them, as a left-handed hitter -- smack them to left field, or through the middle.
But Bourn kept topping the ball to the right side of the infield, kept making outs. "I didn't know what it was that was making me do that," Bourn said Friday afternoon, remembering the worst days of his career.
He would find his solution, however, by quilting together pieces of advice and by making a commitment that was unusual for a major league player, and this week, Bourn was rewarded for his problem-solving.
He was one of three National League outfielders awarded Gold Gloves. History will tell you that position players almost never win this honor unless they can become at least passable hitters, and in 2009 Bourn was more than that, accumulating 42 extra-base hits and 131 singles, stealing 61 bases and scoring 97 runs. He became what Houston general manager Ed Wade envisioned he would be when he traded Brad Lidge for Bourn after the 2007 season.
Success like that seemed far off in the summer of 2008, however. Bourn was a childhood friend of Carl Crawford, and as Little Leaguers they had chatted about playing major league baseball, about playing in the World Series. They shared that dream, and an ambitious work ethic. In the middle of the 2008 season, Bourn raised the idea of playing winter ball with the Astros, because he felt he just needed more at-bats, more reps, to work through the problem he was feeling in his swing.
"I just hadn't had a chance to play that much," Bourn said. "I was a backup with the Phillies [in 2007], and I hadn't had a lot of at-bats."
Before joining Aguilas in winter ball, in the Dominican Republic, he started to unravel the puzzle of his swing. Besides pulling ground balls to the right side of the infield, Bourn also was hitting the ball off the end of his bat a lot -- clues, he felt, that told him his swing was too quick, and that his bat wasn't in the hitting zone long enough. He liked to watch Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee take batting practice, and he admired how their level swings seem to be pulled through the plate for so long, giving them a greater chance for better contact. Bourn's swing, on the other hand, was just too quick, which is why he kept hitting harmless grounders to second base.
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Buster Olney
