Mel Ott of the Giants is one of the youngest, yet smartest all round performers in the major leagues. Weighing only 160 pounds, he is one of the leading long distance hitters of the game. Ott gets his power by timing his swing to meet the ball on the "sweet part" of the bat which is about seven inches from the business end. Timing comes from long batting practice, in which the batter does NOT try to kill the ball so much as to meet it evenly and easily. Ott spends hours in batting practice, hitting the tosses of rookie pitchers, merely laying the bat against the ball with a gentle, relaxed swing.