Andrew,
Not dumb at all. Very good question.
Bar hanging is an overall grip strength builder, notice I never said it didn't develop endurance strength.
Because it involves supporting your own bodyweight (and any additional weight you may choose to use) and the exercise gets harder every second (due to gravity) it's an excellent exercise to build a base of grip strength.
For grip strength - what Jon said.
Also you could use a 2" wrist roller (easily made with 2" PVC pipe and a rope).
Hand grippers are somewhat good, but for a ballplayer I would think that finger strength would be more important in batting since the bat should be held in the fingers, not the hand.
You could also train with rolling a bar down to your finger tips and then curling back up - there are also devices on the market to curl with fingers.
Don't get carried away with gripping though. The hands can stand more exercise to a point depending on the type of exercise done. Also of note is if you get to doing a lot, then you need to ensure you are doing extensor work also - otherwise you are likely to develop "tennis elbow" which is very painful and can take a while to heal since it involves tendons.
Tim Robertson
Also you could use a 2" wrist roller (easily made with 2" PVC pipe and a rope).
Hand grippers are somewhat good, but for a ballplayer I would think that finger strength would be more important in batting since the bat should be held in the fingers, not the hand.
You could also train with rolling a bar down to your finger tips and then curling back up - there are also devices on the market to curl with fingers.
Don't get carried away with gripping though. The hands can stand more exercise to a point depending on the type of exercise done. Also of note is if you get to doing a lot, then you need to ensure you are doing extensor work also - otherwise you are likely to develop "tennis elbow" which is very painful and can take a while to heal since it involves tendons.
Tim Robertson