Steven Allen Litzky
Steven Allen Litzky, beloved father and grandfather, passed away on April 25, 2023 at home in Ione, California. Steve was 69 years old. Steve leaves his dog, Pearl; children Alexis, Katherine and Rosalind; and his grandchildren Levi, Solomon, Harper, Sonya, and Nora.
Steve was born on March 10, 1954 to Marilyn Proskauer Litzky and David Litzky in Brooklyn, New York and grew up with his older brother Rick in Roslyn Heights, New York. Steve’s passion for the outdoors began at a young age with aquariums full of fish and turtles. This developed into a deep love for all animals and resulted in his owning many dogs, fish, birds and horses throughout his life. Taking care of animals brought him great happiness and many believe that he liked them more than other people. He later trained for horse cutting competitions and won a non-professional seasonal title with the Vintage Cutting Horse Association.
Steve moved to California in the mid-1970s. He always wanted to be surrounded by “California girls,” so he got married and had three daughters. Steve worked as a handyman, owned a plumbing business in San Francisco, became an HVAC technician and eventually an electrician. He practiced carpentry and built furniture, birdhouses and toys for his grandchildren. In retirement, Steve volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and helped restore the USS Iowa in Richmond, California.
Steve was a man of few words and enjoyed everyday habits. He built a life he loved surrounding himself with the people and activities that brought him joy, like going to the dog park with Pearl and yelling about the 49ers (those bums) on TV.
A celebration of life will be held on June 24, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. at 830 Liberty Rd in Petaluma, California. In lieu of flowers, consider making a donation to the Steve Litzky Seahorse Memorial in the Conservation Carousel at the Sacramento Zoo. Details and donations at https://everloved.com/life-of/steven-litzky/

Published by Press Democrat on May 14, 2023.

34465541-95D0-45B0-BEEB-B9E0361A315ATo plant trees to commemorate, please visit the Sympathy Store.

The post Steven Litzky Obituary (2023) – Santa Rosa, CA appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The San Francisco Giants’ Steven Duggar (left) hits a double home run ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks … [+] Catcher Carson Kelly during the second innings of a baseball game in San Francisco, Tuesday, June 15, 2021. (AP Photo / Jeff Chiu)

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It seems that every season since Farhan Zaidi became president of the San Francisco Giants, the Giants have received an unexpected boost from a player who seems to come out of nowhere. This season, Steven Duggar is experiencing a career turnaround that truly proves that the new regime has an emphasis on player development and problem solving.

Currently, Duggar is cutting .294 / .345 / .520 and has posted 139 wRC + over 41 games. This was a revelation not only for Giants fans but also for Duggar himself.

For the past two seasons, Duggar was essentially lost at sea as he continued to drop in the 40-man roster, but his quest to tweak his swing is finally paying off in 2021.

Back in the off-season before the 2020 season, the beating Brain Trust of Donnie Ecker and Justin Many in San Francisco began experimenting with Duggar’s facility. The two main tenets of his newly developed swing were a much more upright and narrow setup, paired with an equally upright club.

With the Giants line-up up and down, the vertical racket revolution seems to be in full swing for their offensive, as Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford and Austin Slater are prime examples of players who have either set their rackets up vertically or on their setups have built in a more pronounced barrel tip on their first puffs.

If you can remember Steven Duggar’s first experiments in 2020, he went into a swing overhaul. This overhaul didn’t seem to be paying off as he’d hoped, however. Duggar battled with a .176 / .222 / .235 slash line and a 27 wRC + in a 21-game sample in 2020.

Indeed, despite the lackluster results, this could have been a very good learning experience for Duggar. While his swing changes didn’t bring production to the record, they formed a solid foundation for reverse engineering his old swing.

One misstep with Duggar’s swing overhaul is that sometimes an overhaul is not necessary from a mechanical point of view. However, from a mental standpoint, a swing overhaul may sometimes be required. Despite the bad 2020 numbers, Steven Duggar appears to have benefited from this experiment by learning how his body should move from his setup to launch.

Now Steven Duggar’s setup looks a lot more similar to the beginning of his career than it did until 2020. Some of the main differences in Duggar’s setup now are that he’s less stacked on his back leg and uses a more pronounced kick to get into a hip joint pattern, and – of course – he tilts his club more vertically as he initiates his swing. The vertical club incline allows for easier entry into the zone and can serve as a clue to help a batsman work more from north to south, as opposed to sideways movement from east to west which often causes the batsman to hit the ball turns off.

With more balance, more efficient use of his body and a cleaner racket path that allows for more loft when balls hit, Duggar experiences an amazing career turnaround. While his 2020 swing change doesn’t look like the version of his swing he’s using in 2021, it gave him a foundation for a more efficient move to work from and implement from his older setup.

This season, Steven Duggar is riding in what is sort of an offensive renaissance with the lowest groundball percentage, highest starting angle, and highest average exit speed of his career. Combine this newfound offensive production with his still elitist defensive skills and the San Francisco Giants may have filled a void in their offense and defense without spending an extra penny or prospect.

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