Kevin Long, the Yankees hitting coach, is working with Nick Johnson to improve his ability to hit home runs at the new Yankee Stadium.

Long told King: “We worked on trying to keep his back foot [left] in place, trying to keep it from flying back. When it moves he collapses the inside right away. That takes away the inside of the plate. We talked about Yankee Stadium and figured we might want to address that.”

Johnson never struck me as a home run hitter, more of a high OBP doubles hitter. If Long can get a few more of Nick’s balls to go long, so much the better.