Those Drumming Fingers

At the age of perhaps 11, I began to understand that great batters do not crush the bat handle in their fists.  Tight muscles are slow muscles.  Loose muscles are limber and quick.  I learned this by watching grainy black and white television baseball games.  Ernie Banks, who would be NL MVP in back-to-back seasons when I was 11 and 12, held that bat in his fingers and literally flexed them, drumming on the bat handle, as he waited for the pitch.  The fingers were the first details I looked at and there they were . . . those drumming fingers!