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Show HEAVIEST SLUGGERS ON TAIL-END TEAMS ill1 : XJY '-f: r IT" jttj sexr'ci' fc "A player on a tail-end team ought to hit front 10 to 30 points higher than he would if he were on a pennant battling bat-tling crew," ventured a fan the other day. "Howzat?" "Well, pitchers rarely work their Seads off against cellar champs. Class tells in baseball. Usually before the fifth or sixth inning comes along, the good team is so far ahead that the game is practically sewed up. Therefore, There-fore, the pitcher on the top-heavy team saves his arm. He doesn't pitch bis mightiest. He lobs them over, and af course, the batsmen get more hits. "Now take the case of the Giants and Larry Doyle last season," continued con-tinued the fanner. "In 1015 the Giants slew themselves to be first champion batsmen they have had for many years, Also, the Giants finished in the cellar. After August 15 they never had a :hance to win the bunting. "And so, from that time on, the opposing op-posing pitchers didn't work so awfully iard against the Giants and Larry Doyle's average grew so large that it the end of the year he led the pack. "Napoleon Lajoie never played on a championship team. Yet his batting iverage, year after year, was wonderful. wonder-ful. His grand hitting mark ranks imong the highest ever turned in. Only twice during his long career had La-oie La-oie been on a club that actually was ,n the fight for any extended period. Opposing clubs rarely found it hard to seat Lajoie's team and so the rival pitchers f reqxiently took it easy when heaving to Napoleon. "Joe Jackson averaged somewhere around .370 while he was with the Cleveland club. He was shipped to the White Sox, a team that was in the pennant hunt for a while in 1915 and Joe turned in an average of .308 last year. "Practically every batsman in the game hits far better during the last month of the season than he does during dur-ing the first four weeks. But that is easily explainable. During the opening month of the campaign most of the pitchers are on edge. They twirl their darndest. And only the star flingers work during that period. "But toward the fag end of the season sea-son managers of clubs that are out of the race, begin experimenting for the next season. They work their youngsters, young-sters, fresh from the bushes. Veteran batters find it easy to connect with their twisters and slants, and, as a result, the averages fatten. "You've often noticed, too, that some of the minor league batting stars, getting a major tryout in the fall show up well with the bludgeon. It seems then that the majority will land. But In the springtime they cannot can-not do any consistent hitting. Here's the answer: "The minor league batters, getting a fall trial in the majors, rarely face major league pitching. They go up against the minor league hurlers, who are getting their trial. The 'bush' hitters, therefore, face the same caliber cali-ber and, of course, find no trouble maintaining their minor league averages." |
