Flashback Friday: Garth Iorg's Batting Stance

Over the years, the Toronto Blue Jays have had some players who have owned some rather unorthodox batting stances. Tony Batista, Alex Rios, and Rance Mulliniks to name a few. But none quite as interesting as the man above.

For this week’s Flashback Friday, we look back at Garth Iorg’s incredibly unusual batting stance.

Garth Iorg spent his entire nine year career in a Toronto Blue Jays uniform, but as one can imagine, any sort of footage on Garth Iorg is hard to find. The only thing I could dig up was this  video below on Youtube from a random at bat against Roger Clemens.

As you can tell, Iorg’s stance in the batter’s box doesn’t look all that peculiar watching him from the traditional angle. It’s only until the camera shifts to the side view where you can really notice the difference.

Considering the angle Iorg stood at, it’s no wonder he never fell backwards in the batter’s box. His weight is almost entirely on his back foot, with his front foot just barely touching the ground.

But it’s not just Garth Iorg’s foot placement that’s completely unorthodox, it’s his hand position as well. Note that his hands are actually slightly above his head in the ready position before he takes his swing.

His batting stance may have been crazy-looking, but for all intents and purposes, it worked.