Even your best hitter can use a lesson sometimes

As Bryan White was getting ready to step in the box with the bases loaded in the final inning last Sunday, teammate Donna Sloan detained him with a question.

“Donna came up and said, ‘Where are you going to hit it?’ And I said, Ohh, I don’t know. She said, ‘if you don’t have a plan, just don’t hit it to them up the middle. Stand away (from the box), turn your body, left foot forward, and hit the ball to right field.’ And I did. They didn’t play it, and we got the grand slam.”

It was the big hit in what turned out to be an 11-run final frame as the Buccos broke the game wide open in a 30-19 win over White.

It’s not that Bryan needs a hitting lesson. The leadoff hitter is leading his team this season with .657 on-base percentage and is second to Cary Conway with a .857 slugging average.

Many of his hits are, in fact, line drives up the middle or to right center, an approach he’s had for decades.

Bryan, who played for his hometown Orange High School team, played for years in a lawyers’ league in Cheviot Hills, where there was no pitcher’s screen and just the three traditional outfielders.

“So I just hit the ball up the middle, mostly ground balls, for like 30 years.”

After joining the Culver City Senior Softball League in 2017, where there’s a pitching screen and an extra outfielder, he’s had to lift the ball more to find grass. And the 9-rated player has found considerable success doing just that.

“I’m still trying to learn to hit where they’re not,” he says - exemplified by the impromptu lesson Donna provided in the March 22 game.

One of his favorite softball memories came earlier this season and didn’t involve him at all. It was when 3-rated Pam Kamena came to bat with two outs in the final inning in a game against Blue, which had intentionally walked Greer Wasson to load the bases. Pam took a strike before driving the ball over the shortstop, scoring the tying and winning runs in the walk-off.

“It was like a TV movie or something. She’s really put the work in, she gets tips, and you know that’s not a fluke,” Bryan said.

Bryan, now retired, had a career in corporate law as a mergers and acquisitions specialist and later as in-house counsel for Hilton Hotels. One of the perks of the job was free or discounted stays at Hiltons across the world. “So we went on some good vacations; that was the best part of the job, actually,” he joked.

Bryan, married with a 30-year-old adult son and a daughter, 27, says the Culver City softball community is a key reason why he continues to play.

“I like the competition. I like to win. It’s fun to win. And I like the social stuff. I found when I didn’t play, I really missed that…meeting all these interesting people, getting to know them, and spend time with them.”

Edit this block to edit the article content or add new blocks...