The book on Lance Berkman.(baseball player)(Brief Article)

If there is a secret to his success, it hangs some years back on a chain, draped from a tree limb behind a house near Austin, Texas.

If there is a secret to his success, it is black and stamped and smudged by the same tool Lance Berkman has used to make his mark throughout his baseball career: his bat.

If there is a secret to his success, it takes the shape of an old tire, one that Berkman's father, Larry, hung from the tree when Lance was a boy.

Berkman used to take hacks at me tire after school. Actually, there were several tires because 100 swings every day--50 from each side of the plate--put a lot of wear on the rubber.

Larry picked up the idea from a scout he encountered while playing at the University of Texas. It was meant to build arm strength in young hitters without the dangers of lifting weights.

Berkman didn't start lifting weights until he was a junior in high school, but he was switch hitting from the time he started playing the game at age 6.

Whether batting from the right side or the left against the tire, Berkman had to drive through the hitting zone when taking ...