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Show SISLER'S INJURIES HURT B MARK Promising Young Brown Clouted .353 Despite Interruptions In-terruptions From Hurts. My showing last season was satisfactory satisfac-tory to me in the sense that it was th8 best I have made so far, writes George Sisler in an article for the April issue 1 of the Baseball Magazine. But it was decidedly unsatisfactory compared to what it might have been, had I beeu in a position to piny my best game right through the year. I know a player must be guarded in making such statements, out o deference to public opinion, which is prone to accuse him of trying to alibi his case. But the things 1 am going to speak of now are. known to my teammates' ou the St. Louis club, and to many persons, players and writers if not to the general public. My record was greatly marred by three disliuct slumps, which were duo to injuries received on the playing field. Had I not been injured upon these three different occasions my work certainiv would have been better than it was, 'how much better I cannot say. But it stands to reason that a player is not going to do himself justice when ha is not iii good physical shape. And the fact remains, that my work declined very obviously in quality after each one of the three injuries. Made Good Start. The first of these injuries was the most disappointing to myself though, perhaps the. last was actually the most damaging to my record. 1 say the first was the most disappointing because it broke up a f ine start when I was going just right, and improving daily. That is the ideal situation for the player, a start, at full speed when he can get a good jump ou the field and, barring accident, ac-cident, breeze through to the finish with, all sails set. My first, injury completely demoralized demoral-ized my start. It occurred, if 1 remember remem-ber correctly, ou Mav S. At that, time I was hitting over .400 and seemed to be improving rather than declining. On that date, however. I collided with Bav Schalk and sprained my left thumb. I was out of the game for two days and very likely would have been better off had' I remained on tho bench for a loncer time although a vacation in miol-season is always damaging to a batting average. But. the club rieecded me ami as speedily as possible I got back into uniform and played as well as I could with that crippled' thumb. Aa you know, I am left handed and I never ' before roalizod so clearly the importance of the thumb on tho hand you use most, j Not only was I handicapped greatly in i' trying t'o throw the hall, but I "could not grip the bat after any normal fashion. I could not even take any swing but had to improvise a new method, pushing with the bat instead of clouting as I ' would ordinarily do. Needless to say this method was a very hulifforbnt substitute sub-stitute and mv good" average shrank alarmingly. Tiiere was no help for it, !; however, except to get back into shape as speedily as I could, which 1 did n.y the end of the month. But by that time i my average had slipped from above .-100 ; to very near .r-iOO and. I had to begiu all over again. Good Year, Nevertheless. My second injury wasn't so important i, J but it bothered me none the lo?a. H :: occurred in mid-season and consisted i: of a bad stone bruise. Although I j: could not walk without limping I did ; . not miss a game. It. didn't bother me :1 so much in hitting though, of course, it !t slowed me up somewhat. But it ilid M handicap me greatly in base running, ; and no 'doubt contributed considerably j to my indifferent scoring record. : ; The third injury occurred in Septem- j ber. It consisted of an injury to my , right wrist. Eventually it, proved more ! I troublesome than either of the others. j 1 played wilh it for a week but found ! that I grew worse instead of better. Finally I was taken out of the game altogether al-together and kept out for the balance j of the season. These three injuries set an indelible i-tamp upon my whole season 's work. True, they did not prevent me from having a good year, but they did hamper ham-per mo more lhan 1 can well explain, and they cut into my averngo to a decided de-cided degree. Still, iu spite of such disappointmenl.fi. which aro a lml I player's lot, 1017 hui many satisfactory features to my point of view. Tris Speaker, tho champion of the previous season, slumped just a little more thau 1 did. Had soineouo 1 told me on the preceding season that the very next year 1 should beat, out the great Tris, no doubt I should have felt abundantly satisfied. So I do not know that 1 have any just causo for i complaint. , i As for mv chance of beating out Tv Cobb 1 fully realize the difficulty of such nn undertaking. Ty is one tough customer and he dosn 't like to be beat out. I am not at all sure that 1. could I have, done, it this past season even j though I had been in perfect trim at ' all times. But, f do think 1 could have made him hustle a little more to keep liis batting crown. SISLER'S BATTI.YO HKCORD MONTH J(Y MONTH. (Tames. A. B. lilts. Avn. April 17. c.o 22 ..1(17 Mav 2: ?1 27. .275 Juno 27 1 oh :ir. .:::(0 July .'(2 122 .VI .409 A'iKUst 21 17 41 .3 SVU. unber 10 13 i:t . 3u3 Totals l.T, r.2!l 100 .303 |
