Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-12-22 | Page 19 | Heavers Fear Line Drives

i Sidestepoins" Cannonball Smashes Is Pitchers' Toughest Job. "The toughest part of pitching,'' says Eddie Cicotie, "White Sox mainstay and liJ17 slab champion, "isn't in trying to outguess a slugger. That often is a cinch. But it isn't so easy to sidestep these cannonball dn.ves that have a habit a; coming ever so oitun straight back at us poor guvs on tne runner. "I claim that a duuanhov- rrnmg over the top hasn't a tiling in a pitcher. The miantrvman can nnd consolation m the tliuught that when he docs stop one lie may be out oJ the game tor good, but the poor pitcher who .s laid low realizes even as thev are carrying him olf the field tiiat he wiil have to come back in a week or so and trv to dodge them again. Li o d pitchers. especially those who possess unTTTir.i speed, share tacotte's opinion that there is verv little enjoyment enjoy-ment in the assignment that puts them on constant watch tor smoking rans that must be ducked quicklv or not at all. Grocer Cleveland Alexander, who was a vu.uuu e.ub star before he became an artilleryman m I-ranee. used lo regale lis mates with Ins cxoer.ence m avoiding avoid-ing lightning-like comebacks off hnstile bats. The earn that the Bruins liked best, how-evo!'. leatured Aleck in the role ol goat, with the Great Z:m in heroic , posture. 1 Flays Safety First. As Aleck related the details, he was pitching agauisL the (.i'.ants and Heinie came in. The (Jie-n mi occas.onally ' connects w:i.-i consieera nle force, and I the pummeicd pellet hurl les back with the. z:p of a shell in full flight. Pitchers always remember this pliase of Zim's swatting when he faces them, and Aleck w:ts no exception on this particular day. 1 "I started the ball a little on the out- s:de of the plate, said Alexander, m re- ; counting the inc. cent. "But Zim got h-dd of it alter a prodigious swing. Bat ' and ball came together with a crash, and T got a flash of the pill winging straight for my head. The sun was I shooting over the top of the grandstand j at that, stage of the gapie, which made i me more wary than ever of liners; so when I got a. glimpse of the ball I instinctively in-stinctively threw my glove, in front of my face and fell away from what I took to be. the course of the old apple. ' ft all happened in a fraction of a second, I suppose, and bv the time I figured the pill had wh:;:t'cd by I removed my glove. ''The Philadelphia players (I was with : them then") began to yell at me at once. and I couldn't understand what they were ditiving at until 1 noticed Kiilefer point- ing to my feet. i "Thpre was the ball. My hasty guess 1 that Heinie had started a liner at my dome, was wrong. It was only a puny drA'c that fell long before it got to the rubber. And the worst of 'it was that my safety first stuff had given Heinie a base hit. He had reached first before X vould readjust my wits and make a play, and Zim gave me a richly deserved 'ha ha.' " Vaughn's Narrow Escape. Jim Vaughn, another Cub, also O. JZ.'s Cicotte's theory that the line drive angle is one of the worst phases of pitching. Jim has had many escapes from the shrieking drives that sang past Irs ears, but he was beaned one time, and that incident ' was a comedy instead of a tragedy. r "It occurred while I was with the Yankees," Yan-kees," said Big Jim, "and the Red Sox were batting against me. A youngster I who didn't last long enough in the, 'league lo get Irs name in the averages Was up there hitting. "The sun made it particularly hard to judge drives of I hat kind, and I was more attentive than usual to anything that looked as it' it mi&ht come.-back at me at a dangerous clip. In fact, if I hadn't been so wrapped up in the Idea 'that T might get beaned' by losing a bner in the sun, I don't think I would have been hit. "Anyway, this kid got hold of a pitch, and. sure enough, it came right back at my head. I could s e e it m -a r i n g my sconce, and t frantically clut'ched'at it. J missed. A gain I made a wild stab &or tho Imer, but I didn't even touch it. "All the time f could see the hall speeding speed-ing toward rny face at a fearful rate, I thought, so I made another wild hinge for it. I had no better luck this time, and while gelling set for another grab the blooming pill hit me in the eye. Yes, sir; I made three separate and distinct grabs at the pill, and yet it hit me in the face." , ,