Well, I guess you don't need the bat once you make contact with the ball.
Todd Frazier proved this with one of the more unusual home run swings you'll ever see in the Reds' 7-5 win over the Rockies on Sunday.
In the bottom of the fourth inning Frazier homered to left on a 1-1 pitch. The ball sailed over the left field fence while his bat landed in the infield. Replays showed that Frazier lost his grip right as he made contact with the ball. He managed to get enough power on his swing while his hands were still attached to the bat to get the ball over the fence.
"I felt the bat slipping out of my hands," Frazier said. "I looked at the (slow motion) and it looks like my bottom hand is off. At first, I thought it was a short popup, but then I took a couple of steps and said, 'Oh.' It's a pretty interesting way to hit a home run. It was a pretty cool."
It was a sign of just how easy it seemed to be to hit a home run in the Great American Ball Park on Sunday. In total, there were nine home runs in the game, a record for the 10-year-old stadium.
"You have a day here with this kind of weather, the ball travels real well in this ballpark," Colorado manager Jim Tracy said. "The evidence of that is the Frazier home run that was hit. It looked to me like he had maybe a hand-and-a-half on the bat when he hit it, but what are you going to do? The ball went over the fence. It's that simple."
The Rockies hit five homers, all solo shots. The Reds hit four, including a three-run homer by Brandon Phillips. Only one run in the game was scored on something other than a home run.
