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Show jSTOUCHING SECOND i -a- WmJL BY 3UN J. EVEES AND HUGH S. FPT,T,-pn?.Tmc All Bights Reserved. BATTING. i Lho aggressive part of the o test of the nerve courted cour-ted of players, and tbe , interest m every eon- ince of batting, has, it is Sv overestimated, aud !R managers and owners Ihi in every part of the fat rarest of players, the ci hitter," realize the Seome over batting n ,de- .Tho veterans who Sns of tho sluggers of ? dnvP." the old-timer net when sir .300 batters fleam, and tbe student Ck over the records ot -e oh. nil have ,Vt prosent-day batters are Flo the old-time sluggors. Smielea by figures. The bat-Krta bat-Krta modem game are better faorft Bcicotifie, and more ct-those ct-those of twenty or ten is A close nnalvsis of bats-S bats-S lik Md the results of their S pro the point. If fur-gjni fur-gjni needed it is to be i ti strange sets of managers ier icoorine the country to find !mi, handicap him, restrain Bajjmake a .250 hitter of him. k consider Inm a better batter L.B. pcrbnps, ho batted .'62o. W is, the batters of today are Jealific and resourceful, know handling bats, and better 'itlack the weak points, than &?K30rs did. The difference be as that between tho slug-iter, slug-iter, who rushed and pounded 5 Bfia by sheer strength, and M barer who, with one well Tblofr, ends the battle, iuons for the decline of the j' of safe hits, and the number liti, are varied. Tbe pitching. in, has improved steadily and ,tie defensive work of teams J wrfected until only a com-''cUerrinc com-''cUerrinc hitting power, skill jtwill make any batter a .300 Tiwe wero great pitchers in jdiy: Clnrkson, Kecfe. Nnt IBdsjc, Eamse3'; a host of it the ccneral average of pitch-lorrer. pitch-lorrer. Every team now has livro high-class pitchers, where lobs had one good, perhaps. K vreak twirlors. But the 'itself is not lho chief cause cceral decrease of batting, as iFotTD. -ii,. i.-r, jvi it. Bin ur.iicis v iiu wiuulllCl t IIU be Elinor leagues, and hit any -riitching, foil utterly when no tbe major leagues. Many "of the sport imagine that, the r tto failure is to bo found priority of tho major league .rtieh is wrong, These men tin the major leagues, and bit MW as hard as in the minors, d lb bit with the same free-ire free-ire an?, in the major leagues. ers who could not hit in the Hpes at all. The reason for Mnd in team work, which is ,(4ai of the decline in bathe bat-he batters are adapted to the (iters are not. perfected team work of the major leagues batters must hit to id. vance runners and score runs rather than to get base bits. Thov ar compelled com-pelled to permit the kind of ball they il"1 lntt c;ut the P,at unmolested and then hit at one which, perhaps, thSv ftmJ'U?iky 10 tonch' Besides 'man v times they are ordered to wait, ami not to hit at all. in order to allow tho pitcher to weary himself. A tew years ago the Chicaeo clul) purchased a player late in treason ho American association. His hitting helped the team to win the pennant Trot Chance rpIcaKed him without Von bringing him to Chicago to play thb final frames. The. act surpr seel the followers of the Cubs andP someone asked Chance why the man was re Wd. "First ball hitter' espkuned Chance loquaciously (for him). Chance was right. The player was worth ess as a team hitter. W if mitted to hit the first ball pitched to him he batted heavily and it be cou Id have been-the first man up in every "Diagram showing infield "grooves." ' X homo run "grooves" and safetv zones for bunts. ?Hard hit balls following these "grooves" ought to go safe." 6 A The first and third base ' "grooves." Sy " B The infield "grooves." C Spots in which bunts are normal)' safe. . . v - D The home run "grooves." J". E Territory upon which grounders ought to be fielded. " inning ha probablj' would have led the league in hitting. The reason for tho improvement in scientific batting lies in practice, ' and the ampuut of batting practice indulged in-dulged in during tho season is astonishing. aston-ishing. It is the one thing about the game of which tho plavers novor tire. Mominp. afternoon and evening from March 1 until far into October plavers bat as long as anyone will pitch to thorn and on 2sovembcr 1 tho oat feels as good in their hands when it meets a ball squarely as it did the dav spring training started. The first thing in the spring is the solection of bats and whon the Reason closes tho pla3rcrs still are sawing up disgraced bats and buy- lutj new ones. Bats get to "be a mania! with sonifi. "Roger Connor used to oil,! polish and nib down his substitute bats every night and hang them from his I window while he took his favorite to; bed with him. Thero wns a bat in the Boston club1 m 1J09 which became famous. It be-1 longed, to Gesslor, and a scorer one day jestinglv marked upon it the symbols sym-bols meaning a two-base hit and a single. Gossler happened to make a dou.ble and a single that afternoon, and the players swarmed upon thoi scorer pleading with him 10 mark hits! in o tho bnt. Uo marked it full of, hits; tho Hed Sox began a wonderful Iuttingspurt, all using the same bat, 1 and betore long the scorer was claiming part of tho credit for their winning I streak. Before the season onded Gossler Goss-ler hardly, would have traded the bat1 for its weight in gold. J "Evelyn," the famous bat with ' which Tsbell of the Chicago White Sox i made four two-base hits in one gamo I and won tho world's championship for 1 his team; "Big Betsy." Ed "Delohan-ty's "Delohan-ty's famous war club; "Ncllio," used by Schulto, and a doaon other bats have becomo well known through being tho favorites of good hitlors and used by them during batting streaks. There is a plavor on tho Brooklvu club who has an odd habit of using in pract.ico the bat he intends to use in a game to "fill it, up with base hits." Ho tries .bat after bat during practice, prac-tice, and if ho happens to hit well with one, got "two or three hits into it," ho uses that one during the game to get tho hits out again. , The eagerness with which the batting bat-ting practice is indulged in often is laughable. One evening two members of the Cleveland club broko training and returned to the hotel at 2 a. ni. feeling jolly Thoy reached their own floor in the hotel without being untight by the manager and went to the room of a playor who is a wonderful hitter. .Banging on his door they urgod him to get up. "What do you want!" growled the awakened slugger. "Gel. up, we're going to have batting practice," replied ono of tho jokers who knew tho weakness of tho inmate of the room. "There in a minute,' responded the plaj-er, and as they heard him scramble from bed the jokers fled. Ten minutes later tho night clerk was startled to ! soo the groat player outer the lobby J in his uniform, carrying his two favor- ! ito bats, nor did he seo the joke until 1 the clerk pointed into the darkness out- ' Jn the early days of tho game batting practice was neglected. The heavy hitlers hit-lers practiced, but there was no sv3-tem sv3-tem to their work, and very littlo time or thought was given to the scientific hitting, except by a few men who realized the possibilities oil plav. "Dielci'v" Pearce invented the buut and the "fair foul" hit in 18GG, but generations passed .before the bunt was used intelligently by all classes of player.":. play-er.":. Indeed it was the theory of players, play-ers, as it now is with many followers of the game, that "place hitting" was more or less of a myth. In fact, it has been within rhe 'last decade that even the major league players have made intelligent efforts towards perfecting per-fecting place hitting, and their successes suc-cesses in that line have been wonderful. wonder-ful. Managers began to realize that iho attacks could be directed at tho vital spots of defending teams, and tho attack has steadily become more resourceful, better calculated to bring ixf-iuts and more adapted to cope with the improved pitching. Especially has it been made nccesHary in order to break up defensive leaiu work. Whether the modem game of "push, I oke, shove and chop" is better than tho old "swing and hill it" style may be judged by a comparison. The Philadelphia Phila-delphia club from 1S01 to 1S9S alwavs had from live to cven .300 hitters 'in the game. In one gnine in 1S07 there were nine .300 batters. Yet tho team never won a pennant. Tho games were spectacular, but even when hitting hardest it was a bad hitting ball club. The Chicago Whito So.-; rthe hitless wonders." won the world's championship champion-ship in lf)0G when ranking almost last in hatting in lho American league. TheJ team excolled any team over organized organ-ized in concentrating every move toward to-ward making runs, ouo at a time, aud whilo nearly weakest in batting, scored the greatest average number of runs per hit of any club in the history of tho game. Thero is a widr difference of opinion among plovers themselves as to I he placing of balls hit hard, but tht fa'it remains that some players can do it by holding their bats at certain angles, aud the increase in skill in lho last live years has been great. Xouc denies I hat" balls can bo poked, or pushed easily in a givon direction Many of the old -timers wcro skilful in "pulling" "pull-ing" the ball foul in order to wear down pitchers, and by hitting late in fouling off. The skill of batters in that direction increased through stead v practice until lMcGraw, Keelor. Roy Thomas, Single and other could prolong pro-long rho grimes indefinitely and tire oul any pitcher. The rule makers promptly legislated against foul bulls, and opened the new era of batting scioncc. Their object was to hurry the game and avoid unnecessary delays, and thov thought that batters penalized onn btrike for a foul, would hit harder and 'oftoner. The players discovered, how lover, that hard driving did not pay ngaiust improved infield work, and that, tho new rule aided both the pitcherj and fielders when the ball was hit hard, as it went too straight towards second .base, and allowed tho infiold to concentrate con-centrate thoir defense One of the first results of tho ncw rule was the increase in-crease in bunting, with variations tending tend-ing to upset the infield. Tho "force bunt" was brought, into prominence by little Butler of Cohtmbus, who after-wnrd after-wnrd blew ono hand ofT with a firecracker fire-cracker and rotircd. Ho pushed tho ball slowly down the infield, striving to make it roll fast enough to pa83 tho pitcher either to his right or left, rot so slowb' that the shortstop or sacond baseman, playing deep, would have to take it whilo sprinting forward at top speed and make a. perfect throw. Tho gain by the play was not to the batting bat-ting averages. It did not produce manj' safe hits, but it was productive of wild throwsi and fumbles, and it at once became popular as a method of destroying infiold team work and break-inir break-inir up eamcs. Tho Chicago Cubs used the forte bnnt' during all their championship term, pushing the ball, instead of bunting it dead, a short distance in front of tbe plate. Their cticcusb with tho ball was marvelous. Tn tho fourth game of lho world's championship series in 1007 at. Detroit. Sheckard pushed a force bunt past Donovan in lho critical moment of the game, and beforo the panic in the Tiger ranks ended, Chicago had made three runs aB a result of the brunt. I and won oasilv t.horenftor. 6 to 1. Tn one game at Philadelphia in 190S Tinker Tin-ker made tho bunt with two men on bases, puahing a plow roller toward shortstop. Doolan was rnuning to cover second base and tho ball rolled clear onto fhc grass behind shortstop, Tinker taking two bases. Men of tho type of Speaker. Cobb. Clarke, loft-handed batters, and occasionally occa-sionally a right-hander, Leach for instance, in-stance, uso the force bunt with great effect. During the seasons of 1906 and 1907 Sheckard of Chicago used a bluff bunt which worked with great success. Jlo bunted at the first ball pitched to him, and purposely missed it. Then he bluffed that he intended bunting again and, as the third baseman tore forward. for-ward. Shockard poked tho .ball over his bead. Leach, in the world's series of 1909, beat Detroit two games by tho same play. Three- times he drew Moriarity forward to field expected bunts and then drovo tho ball past him liko a rifle shot. Beaumont, a veteran vet-eran of many teams, has for years been regarded as ono of the most dangerous place hitters, either when bitting the ball hard or when pushing it on a short line fly ovqr fielders coniiug forward. for-ward. In tho hit and run game his batting was remarkable, for whichever fielder tho runners managed to draw nwny from position it was almost certain cer-tain Beanmont would hit through the deserted post. "Calling the turn" is a style of batting bat-ting employed b' some batsmen in trying try-ing to outguess tho opposing pitcher. It means striving to guess what kind of a ball is about to be delivered. This style, whilo effective, is oxtrenioly dangerous dan-gerous for the batter, as to guess wrong is to court sorious injury. In one game at Cincinnati a few years ago, Coalclev pitohing, McGa.nn tried to outguess him. Ho guessed a curvo was coming, and his wrist was broken by a fast in-shoot. in-shoot. Two innings -later Bresnahan guossed wrong and was knocked senseless. sense-less. There are times when a play comes up to a batsman which compels him to try to outguess tho pitcher. One of theso times is when the bit and run play is ordered. With a runner on first or second base, and the battor giving the signal, ho is compelled to attempt to guess whon the pitcher will put the ball over the plate. He guesses, signals the runner, who is expected to start as if to steal tho next base in order to draw ono or more in fielders ont of position, and strives to hit through the deserted place. If the batter's bat-ter's guess is wrong, the runner is the victim. Sclec, when manager of the Cubs, once &ecured a player from the Coast league who was reputed to be a Avon-derful Avon-derful batter, who had hit over .400 in his loaguo and could call tho turn OVOr" tim Snlno trinrl Uim field against Boston, and "Vic" Willis, Wil-lis, ono of the best "guessors" in the business, and a pitcher with a marvelous mar-velous curve, both elow and fast, wns on the slab. The recruit struck out four times and when ho returned to tho bench after tho fourth effort some of the players sympathized with him. "Tough to start against Willis," remarked re-marked one. . "Yes. an1 I'm calling tho turn every time, too," mourned tho recruit. "Well, old boy," said Chance, "I'd liko to watch you when vou weren't " , ufc V,? nl of batting ia hitting the ball. I hero is method in ihe jockeying jock-eying of the batter. The moment a baiter stops to the pinto with the bases clear lho game becomes a duel between him and the pitclmr, and although the crowd may bo calling for him to hit. his intention may be not to hit uutil compelled so to do. His first effort is to "get. the pitcher in tho hole;" that, is, make him pitch enough balls so tho batter can be certain tho next, one will be over the plato. For. if the bat-tor bat-tor knows the ball is coming straight the chances of making a base hit are doubled. Then. too. the batter nuiv be under orders to follow out n manager 'n plan pf battle. Frequently a manager, feeling feel-ing certain tlie game will be close, or-dors or-dors his men to wait. The waiting may bo either to discover whether tho pitcher pitch-er is likely to become wild, or to wear him out. Each batter then instoad of hifting. tries to make the pitcher throw as many bulls as possible. If a bat-tor bat-tor can pet three balls, foul off three, and then strike out. he mnv have ac complishod far more toward tho final result than he would have done had he made a base hit. off tho first ball pitched. Tho average number of balls pitched bv one pile her in a camo of nino innings will run about 125, and every additional ball pitched wearies tho pitcher. Many "ninth inning rallies" ral-lies" by which spccntcular games are won. nre lho results of tiio waiting of the bnttors who struck ont during (he early innings. Chance is a great believer in the waiting wait-ing game, and insists upon his men trv-ing trv-ing out pitchern during the enrlv in-lungs in-lungs of games, especially new and unfamiliar un-familiar pitchers, believing Hint what ench .man discovers, will help the sue needing bailers. The practice of foiling, to first bao by allowing ihe pitched ball to hit thorn, is inoro general with batters than usually is supposed. It is not indulged in as extensive! v as in former years whon "Hed ' Oulvin used to allow the ball to carom off his head in order to reach first, but it still is used extensively, ex-tensively, despite rules forbidding umpires um-pires to allow batters to take" first when purposely hit. There ia scarcely scarce-ly an important tiime between contenders contend-ers for pennant honors, in which a down batters do not strive to make tho ball hit them. Batters who "crowd the pla" nsu-nlly nsu-nlly nre good hitters. They havo tho courage to risk injury, thb nvrvo to i allow (he ball to, hit them, and the advantage ad-vantage in getting decisions because, knowing they crowd the plate habitually, habit-ually, tho umpires decide that they tried to escape. Besides pitchers will pitch outsido to them stendilv through nnx-icty nnx-icty to avoid hitting 'them, if thev know the men will let tho ball break a rib in order to reach first. Tho actual pain through allowing the ball to hit him is not so much for a player's team as the moral effect upon thn defending club. Nothing in baseball base-ball is so calculated to discourngo a team, or destroy its confidence in a pitcher as to havo him hit a batter iu a crisis in the game. Scores of batters each season mako tho ball hit them, and take first in spito of the rules. The umpires must judge, from the actions of the men whether they tried to avoid the ball, and in most enses any contortion of the arms is construed as such nn effort, ef-fort, especially when there is a large homo crowd on tho field. In tho sea-non sea-non of 190S, during ho fierce struggloa of New York, Chicago and Pittsburg for the pennant. New York won throe games from Chicago because plavers allowed themselves to be hit, and thev oamo near winning the game in which thoy played o(T the tie by the same method tho second batter iip throwing his arms ncroKS tho plato and making tho ball hit him. McGrnw's vi'rbal orders to players to get hit were audible audi-ble in tho stands, and in ono game Doylo made three attempts logct hit bofore he succeeded and then was allowed al-lowed to walk Umpire O 'Day unmasked ono trick on the Polo grounds that same season which wns laughable. Bresnahan was batt ing, and while wiggling a la Salome, ho kopt pushing his knees out toward the ball. O'Day stopped the game, ordered or-dered Bresnnhan (o adjust big clothing. cloth-ing. Bresnahan argued, but O'Dav made him obo3', while the crowd roared at. the umpire. Bresnahan had stuffed his shirt front out six inches, and inflated in-flated his trousers legs three inches in order to give tho ball more snrface to hit. Such tricks, howevor. are outside the real sphere of baseball and aro the final resorts of desperate men in desperate situations. Onl3" a quick eve, loug practice, prac-tice, courage and accurate" swinging of second grov,-th ash will win steadily. (To bo continuod.) |