In our never-ending quest to find new methods of teaching baseball, especially the hitting aspect, perhaps we should stop and look back instead of always looking forward.

Once upon a time a high batting average of .380% or .400% was not that uncommon, and of course there have been many changes in the game since then, but still… change explains everything. I do not think so.

A former baseball player, named Tony Pena, once served as catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and while he gained wide notoriety for his unorthodox catching style, literally catching and throwing while straddling the ground, he was especially known for his swing on almost all pitches hitting style.

For pitchers of that era, walking Tony Peña was almost as difficult as throwing a no-hitter, and despite his apparent wild swings at almost anything resembling a baseball, he hit for a high average. How could a player, who seemed to completely abandon any self-control and proper hitting mechanics while he batted, hit for a high average against Major League pitchers?

Tony Pena grew up in a very poor Latin American community where baseball was the all-time favorite sport of the neighborhood youth, but no family could afford the bats, balls, and gloves we consider so important to the game.

However, they all drank soft drinks, and since the aluminum can had not made its way into soft drinks, it came packaged in a glass bottle with a metal cap. Metal bottle caps, carefully removed so as not to bend them, could be made to sail, and a broken broomstick could be used as a bat to hit them. This is where Tony Peña learned to hit.

Now, after a bit of practice, a bottle cap can be made to sail, dip, drift away, and rise at will, and since this was the only activity available in town, there was constant practice. To hit such a difficult target with a broom handle required exceptional vision and timing, again the result of constant practice.

Here’s how and why Tony Pena apparently took a wild swing, which we now know was actually an extremely controlled swing, but he managed a high average. He had spent his entire life swinging and hitting dart-like objects with a small stick.

Beating up today’s trainers would require Tums, for his heartburn and Advil, for his headaches, to try and coach a player like Tony Pena. It just wouldn’t happen anymore and I’m not recommending that free swinging be revived.

However, I think a good old game of Whiffle Ball, where the ball is tossed, lifted, and bounced, would make a great occasional substitute for batting cages. Instead of trying to perfect timing through mechanics, which is what perfecting hitting a ball that travels essentially the same path dozens of times in a row is all about, we played contact ball.

Let’s expose our eyes and reflexes to a split second of a moving object and learn how to hit it. I can’t see that hurting anything. Can?