Reds' Hamilton is the real-life Willie Mays Hayes, but better

CINCINNATI — In the classic baseball movie "Major League," there is a character played by Wesley Snipes named Willie Mays Hayes, whose personal mantra is, "I hit like (Willie) Mays and I run like (Bob) Hayes."

Hayes is the movie version of Cincinnati Reds rookie center fielder Billy Hamilton. They even vaguely look alike and certainly are built alike.

Hayes, though, can't use his speed because he pops up all the time. So his manager tells him, "Every time you hit the ball in the air you owe me 20 (push-ups)."

For most of this season, Hamilton has suffered the same malady — too many balls hit in the air. And he knows it and says, "I know there are no hits for me up in the air. My hits are on the ground."

Manager Bryan Price was asked if he considered the Willie Mays Hayes approach, maybe for spring training, "Drop down and give me 20." He laughed and said, "Thanks for putting that idea in my head."

One thing about the 23-year-old pencil-thin Hamilton, 6-foot-0 and 160 pounds (if you put a brick in his back pocket), he makes no excuses, realizes whatever shortcoming he has and works to address them.

He is hitting only .200 for the second half of the season with only 18 stolen bases after he stole 38 in the first half.

With that frail body he has to be tired, right?

"Nah, no, not at all," he said. "I won't make excuses, I won't take that road. I couldn't play defense the way I have if I'm tired, you know?"

And he is ready with an explanation about his plummeted batting average.

"The last month I've thought too much, the whole month I was switching up things too much," he said. "I changed a whole bunch of stuff from game to game and they didn't work. And I learned from that.

"I know that I can't do that. When I'm going bad for a short while I can't change everything. I tried different batting stances, different bats. If I didn't get a couple of hits for a few games, I changed things up. I won't do that in the future. It had nothing to do with tired, no excuses there."

With his Usain Bolt speed, Hamilton knows that he not only needs to hit the ball on the ground but he also has to utilize the bunt more, become efficient at bunting. He has tried this season, but has not been successful at a high rate.

Hamilton's season ends Sunday, but not his days of working toward improvement.

"I'm going to work on everything," he said. "Bunting. I'm going to bunt a lot. Work on my hitting. It's my first offseason where I can really do some stuff.

"I have to keep the ball out of the air, work on making contact to put it on the ground. There are some hits for me on the ground. I have to hit down on the ball to give me a better chance of getting on base."

Hamilton said it is difficult to work on things when you are playing every day during the long, long season. You can practice, but you can't spend hours working on specific pieces of your game.

Hamilton has always played winter ball or played in the Arizona Fall League after the regular season, "And if you're playing you can't work on things. I'm not playing this winter, the first time since I was drafted, so it will be the first time I've had a chance to really work on my game. It should be good."

Hamilton said he had a conversation with Joey Votto this week about Hamilton's first year in the big leagues, which could end with the National League Rookie of the Year trophy in his den.

"It has been fun," he said. "It was exactly what I expected and a bit more, to be honest. The only thing better would be to be playing in the playoffs. I saw how that wild-card game was last year (a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates) and I'm thinking, 'Man, I want it to be like this every year.' I learned a lot. I did some good things and I did a lot of bad things. But I'm learning and I'll work in the offseason to get better."

Price said the team is shoveling information at Hamilton and letting him absorb it.

"We have to hope he covets that information," said Price. "I want him to stay hungry and he was this year. We want him to continue to learn how to use his skill set.

"He has to keep the ball out of the air, not with any intention but he has to find a way to make the adjustments. His knowledge of the strike zone got better from the first of the year when he was chasing too much.

"He needs to work on his decision-making on where to go with his throws in the outfield," said Price. "But he is only two years into the outfield (after switching from shortstop), so that's where I come in with experience and coaching.

"He'll evolve with his base-stealing decisions when it comes down to matchups against certain pitchers and catchers and the timing of when to run. He can create havoc on the bases without stealing bases.

"There is more information out there that we could have given him, but we didn't want to overload him this year."

While Hamilton has stolen 56 base, he also has been thrown out 23 times, mostly on bad jumps and misreads.

"We're just going to help him find edges," said Price. "His defense has been impeccable and offensively he is only going to become more competitive."

Maybe next season, if Price doesn't want Hamilton to drop down and give him 20 on balls hit in the air, they can find a bat Hamilton likes and hide the rest and show him his best batting stance on video and don't let him change.

"Live and learn," said Hamilton with a laugh.