Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By PAUL SOKOLOSKI; Times Leader Sports Writer
Tuesday, May 31, 1994 Page: 6B QUICK WORDS: SOX’S BLOSSER
BLOSSOMING INTO A HITTER
MOOSIC — Throughout his minor league career, Greg Blosser has been
accustomed to hitting the ball the way he did Sunday, when his two-run homer
helped beat the Red Barons.
But swings like the one he took Monday afternoon have become all the more
important to Pawtucket’s right fielder.
“I feel like I have a handle on it,” Blosser said, “like I’m in that flow,
hitting real good.”
Blosser smacked a sharp single to left field in the fourth inning, then
scored the game’s first run in a 4-1 PawSox victory over
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. And that simple single showed the tremendous
improvement Blosser has made in the batter’s box during the past season.
“He’s the reason you have minor leagues, Blosser is,” Pawtucket manager
Buddy Bailey said. “Before it was all longball or nothing for him. He’s
learning how to become a hitter.”
Hitting the ball for miles has never been a problem for the 22-year-old
lefty. In fact, he blasted 23 home runs — the fifth-highest total in the
International League last year — and drove in 66 runs during his first full
Class AAA season of 1993. But he also hit just .228 for Pawtucket, and .071
when the parent Boston Red Sox called him up for 17 games.
“Before it was all longball or nothing for him,” Bailey said.
No more.
Blosser left Lackawanna County Stadium after a four-game series with a .340
batting average after a recent 10-for-23 spree left him as the IL’s batter of
the week for May 22 through May 28.
And he still has hit five homers, while becoming a more-rounded player by
scoring 19 runs and driving in 19 more.
“I’m just stepping up there, relaxing, trying to see the ball and make
contact,” said Blosser, the MVP of the 1988 USA Junior National Team that
played in Australia and Boston’s first pick in the 1989 draft. “I’m more of a
line-drive hitter when I’m swinging good.”
That’s a change from the past, when Blosser’s big, looping swing didn’t do
much for his batting average, but did allow him to lead the Class A Carolina
League with 18 homers for Lynchburg in 1990 and the Eastern League with 22
homers while he was with New Britain in 1992.
“I used to have a swing that wasn’t very level,” Blosser said. “This year,
I’m just trying to level it off, make hard contact and hit line drives. That’s
what I was doing in spring training, and that’s what I’m trying to continue to
do.”
And let the home runs, as well as singles, fall where they may.
“I’m patting him on the back,” Bailey said, “for the maturity that he’s
shown.”