Richard Schenck, the owner of a billiards hall, helped a burgeoning major-league superstar by teaching him the secrets of the swing that he figured out, quite literally, in his basement
Richard Schenck was vacationing with his family in Colorado in June 2018 when he received an urgent text message. It was from Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees’ superstar outfielder, and he had an unusual request. Judge was struggling at the plate. His swing didn’t feel quite right. He needed Schenck, the owner of a billiards hall outside St. Louis whose unremarkable baseball career ended after a stint at a small college in Missouri, to fly across the country to fix it.
Barry Bonds quickly became Richard Schenck’s obsession. As many as five nights a week, Schenck would hole up in his basement to study every video of Bonds he could find on the internet or record off TV and then try to replicate the swing himself, movement by movement. At first, he assumed Bonds was flattening his barrel and pushing forward, but with far superior hand speed, causing the blur. But upon further consideration, Schenck realized it wasn’t that at all. Bonds wasn’t flattening his barrel — his first move wasn’t forward, but back. He was launching into his swing with a rearward move, “snapping it into an arc,” as Schenck put it. He was creating bat speed not when he started moving forward, but when his bat went backward.
“Brandon, I’m coming over. I’m driving two hours Tuesday, and I’m going to pitch you batting practice,” Schenck remembers saying. “I have found what we’re looking for.”
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