OCR Text |
Show MAJOR LEAGUE MAGNATES WOULD ABOLISH FREAK DELIVERIES; BUT HOW? Shiner, Spitter and Their Cousins Regarded With Much Disfavor; Suggestions Invited for Airtight Method of Eradicating "Evil" So That Old-Fashioned Old-Fashioned Flinging May Be Restored. By I. E. SANBORN. IUCAGO, Oct. 21. Freak pitching, Cshineball, spltball and "everything," "every-thing," will be abolished by the major leagues before another season, sea-son, if a way can be found to do It effectively. The mapority of the club owners are in favor of reducing the art of slabbing to the old-fashioned formula. In which brains were the dominating ingredient. in-gredient. How to do it Is the problem on which manv think-tanks are concentrated and possibly some fan may find the way. Practical suggestions will be welcomed by President Heydler of the National league or President Johnson of the American Ameri-can league. There are tons of Impracticable Imprac-ticable ones. When the problem was submitted today to President Vreeck of the Cubs he frank-lv frank-lv ndmitted he did not know the an- swer, although he favored the abolition of freak pitching. Is Difficult Problem. "I have discussed the matter with many people, including club owners and umpires," um-pires," he said, "and none of them even claim to have a method by which freak deliveries can be stopped absolutely. There nre plenty of ways to curb the thins, but unless an effective remedy is found it would work more harm than good probably, because it would be an injustice injus-tice to enforce a rule that would handicap handi-cap some pitchers and benefit others who might find some way to beat it, "Granted that such restrictions could be placed on the pitcher that it would be Impossible for him to doctor the ball j in play in any way without detection, he might pitch one wide ball and the catcher could have something concealed in his big mitt by which the ball could he fixed up. Or the first time the ball ; was hit to an infielder or outfielder the 1 fielder could doctor the ball. Search and Seizure. "In order to make any rule of the kind effective it might be necessary to adopt ; a search and seizure law by which an umpire would have to examine the gloves ! and uniform of every player before the taking of the field in every inning. That would entail tedious delay between In- j nings, particularly if a player had to be sent to the .clubhouse to change his shirt or knickerbockers." i Levity aside, there is a serious dlsposl- . tion on the part of both leagues to abol-! abol-! ish the freak stuff from the slab. Presi- , dent Johnson of the American league has been hounded for several seasons with demands to stop the shineball, but has ! refused to take any steps to rule it out unless the club owners were willing to abolish the spitball, too, and there was opposition to this from owners who had good spitball artists. Mr. Heydler has been courting suggestions for a solution of the freak delivery for months. It looks as if a way would be found before another championship season begins, be-gins, but it must be airtight, because the men who have perfected the freaks will not surrender the advantage to old-fash-i ioned pitching without a struggle. - 1 -- i |