I remember being really excited when the White Sox hired Lau in 1982, almost as excited as I was when they got Fisk. Two years later, Lau was dead from colon cancer, but his influence there continued under Walt Hriniak a decade later.

Charlie Lau, Walt Hrniak and Rudy Jamarillo are the only celebrity batting instructors that I can recall. I think Jeff Pentland got some credit for Sosa's emergence. Seems like hitting coaches get far less celebrity treatment than pitching coaches.

I didn't know Lau died of colon cancer. There's another former Royal in the cancer cluster.

i remember that rudy was the astros batting coach when i was a kid, don't remember why he left - maybe because drayton mclane had bought the team and wanted all new people

interesting that the hitting coach gets credited for hitters who were already good hitters. i seldom see hitting coaches get credited for turning some mediocre AAA callup into an all-star

Lau taught Matthew Broderick to hit so he must be pretty good.

Clemenza, the stuff with Lau makes that movie very good. I love how Lau refers to the "philosophy" of hitting which ties into Robard's character.

A couple of years ago Tony LaRussa said the two most significant people in baseball in all his time in the game were Marvin Miller and Charlie Lau.

Clemenza, the stuff with Lau makes that movie very good. I love how Lau refers to the "philosophy" of hitting which ties into Robard's character.

Yes. I really enjoyed "Max Duggan" as a kid and still do as an adult. Robards and Mason are terrific together. The dialogue is very Neil Simony which, like Mamet, I think you either like or don't. I like it. "Seems Like Old Times" is another Simon movie that I think is great. "California Suite", "Murder By Death" and, obviously, "The Odd Couple" are others.

Apparently Logan Morrison read Lau's book as a kid (or at least his dad used the book when teaching the young LoMo to hit), but I don't seem to see the typical Lau style in his stance/swing. After Frank Thomas and Robin Ventura, I haven't seen that approach to hitting (at least not in the obvious sense). Are there any hitters today who seem to follow the Lau hitting style? Albert Pujols's swing is kind of close.

I'm not sure how close Pujols' swing is; he doesn't stride at all, and the Lau acolytes all had a pretty big stride. Still, I think his overall approach carries through -- you rarely saw guys going out and driving that outside corner pitch over the opposite wall back in the day, as compared to now, and I think those batters diving over the plate to hit that pitch are descendants of Lau's approach.

In the article, I mention Jaramillo, Hriniak, and Lou Piniella (with the Yankees) as "celebrity" hitting coaches. To a lesser extent, Merv Rettenmund and Kevin Long have received some acclaim, though I wouldn't put them at the same level as Jaramillo, Hriniak, and Sweet Lou.

I didn't write about Charley Lau, Jr., who is carrying on his father's name and runs the Charley Lau hitting school. The younger Lau did some coaching in the minors, but never made it to the big leagues.