| Show FIFTEEN EN CENTS CENTS I INDUCED 4 4 4 TO CHANGE 4 BATTING I STYLE 1 I Early Gets Knack of Holding llong Out for A An in is s Salary I Acknowledgment of His Pitching Genius Greatest Great Great- I est Compliment Ever Given to McGraw Giant Pilot Shows ys That Curve Ball I. I Can Be Pitched Then Joins Olean and Jumps t By John J. J McGraw t I I GOT my first first idea ida of learning to place hits when but years old the idea being forced upon me through a a lack of small change cange Fifteen cents in those days was a lot of money At t the e time there was no way of my knowing that I was was building building up the most lost valuable asset that any left handed hitter could possess My Idea was purely commercial COST FIFTEEN CENTS TS I was playing o on the school c team at Truxton to N. N 1 where r I was born ben Always Alwa's I was a lef handed handed hitter The open lot on which we prayed played was bounded on the right field side IJ by a schoolhouse with many windows In right center there was a a. chur church h. h AS Aa ASa Aaa a left handed hitter bitter naturally hits into right field I broke sex several eral window panes In addition to several threatened threatened threatened threat threat- ened thrashings m ray my father had to pay 15 cents for tor each pane of ot glass broken Other fathers In our town had to uw Uv likewise Mighty few boys In that time or In our set ever had that much spending money at atone one time To avoid this wrath of ot my old dad and to save as many 15 cents as possible possible pos pos- sible I studied how to change my po position position po- po m at bat so o as to hit the ball I mt left field In time I got to where I 1 i could hit In that direction Just as well as Into right The mastery te of that art of hitting heeln ait In Into either field while rl a. a b boy is re re- re i I think for tor my batting and run-getting run record In the major leagues Often otten I have wished that I could devise some such compulsory method to make mak our present left- left handed hitters shift from one field to ia the other BAMBINOS BAMBINO'S CHANCE You can easily understand for tor In Instance instance In in- stance what confusion Babe Ruth would cause the opposing outfield If I I he could bat either way They woula This never ab ability know ri t to where shift t t to Is aY also play Invaluable for him bT in working the hit and run play Willie Willie Wil Wil- il lie Keeler neeler had the he art down pat You an readily understand therefore why he and I worked the hit and run play so successfully for tor years on the 0 old 1 Baltimore club But I am ala getting a little ahead of ot my story I started o out as a pitcher t This will Sh f se serve as an answer to many y who have asked why I 1 always made pitching my life study During the worlds world's series one baseball base base- ball bali writer quoted d Bill Donovan V as assaying assaying saying McGraw rc t turned dD out to be bethe bethe the best pitcher In the series THINKS THINKS' liES liE'S PITCHER Though intended as a a. pleasantry I 1 took that as a downright compliment troa fr Even n to this this' I day a I feel as if I could pitch though I never did in the bi big bis league Pitching was my first love and I have never got away from it To me It Is the most fascinating art artIn artIn artin In the world It r illy is an art too too not not merely science During the summer months up at Truxton I worked as bu ch boy on the accommodation train tram I sold glass pistols filled with candy magazines bananas chewing gum gUm alt all the things that the butch boys still handle out In Inthe Inthe Inthe the sticks I was one of the smallest butch boys boya you OU ever saw I didn't t weigh more than 10 pounds CURVE DOUBTED In those days people scoffed at the Idea of ot anybody making a a. curve It was but a few tew years ago in fact that many skeptics were really I convinced In the smoking car where I kept my stuff stutt there were many conversations and arguments about baseball Very few tew believed that anybody could pitch pitcha a curve v What are you t talking about said aid aida a a. man from my town to his companion there there he he pointed at me me Is Is a little fellow tellow who can pitch a curve Bet you 1 Jiff 10 he cant can't the other came back At least he cant can't prove It to me Id like to take a dollar doUar of ot that my- my I chimed In I 1 was pretty fresh In those days BET DE' OX OS CURVE The argument grew warmer and warmer until the money was finally put up The conductor In the meantime meantime meantime mean mean- time had come come- along and got in it Ill put up three stakes twenty feet teet apart I suggested and I will stand stan 1 at one end of ot the row and the catcher at the other Ill I'll bet I can make hI ball go on the right hand side of ot the he middle stake and the catcher will catch It on the left hand side of the end one That would be ho a curve wouldn't ltV Yes Yea It would prove It all right the theman theman theman man declared and Im I'm betting 10 that you ou cant can't do It TRAIN IS HELD I 1 had a ball and glove in my kit So at the tho next town the conductor held the he train while white we all got out on vacant lot near hear the depot All AU Ane tle passengers went with us A man from the he train said he would catch the ball ballor for tor or me As cocky as you please I 1 got gat out there here there wound up and sure enough I pitched an outcurve that went Inside one and outside the other The ball bali didn't break more than four inches to do this I could easily put an in Inch eight-Inch bend on it In sixty feet Well Veil m my backer won the 10 and ana gave me 1 Ji of it The other man sad sad- ad admitted ad- ad I that a curve ball bail could be pitched JOINS TRUXTON TEAM l. On account of my pitching and hiting hitting hitting hit- hit ting ing on the school team I was ma made e a member of the Truxton Grays all aU hom ho boys who played teams within a Tadius radiuS ra- ra diuS ius of ot twenty five twenty miles I 1 was very much younger and very much smaller than ban the other players Still I won WOI two wo or three games and this reputation reputation tion lon caused the East Homer team to offer Ifer me a job East Kast Homer was five miles away and 1 had to walk there and nd back But I got 3 2 for each game that hat 1 I pitched or played in I stepped right ight out and won my first game I want you to 0 pitch again Saturday Satur- Satur da day ay the manager said to me meUS me rne I j US LUS FIRST HOLDOUT All right I agreed but It'll tn cost costou I you ou 5 and what's more youve you've got goto gotto gotto to o send a h hack ck to take me there and back ack The rhe manager argued over this but 1 I Iwas t was as obdurate and he finally gave e In in after fter trying to io make me mc compromise by y the hack fare tare one way A. A F. F Kenney a Truxton man who managed the Olean N. N Y club of ot the theIron theIron theron Iron ron and Oil on league had been watchIng watchIng watch- watch advice After Atter Ing ng me and giving me my y success with the East Homer team Mr r. r Kenney Kennel offered me a Job with tile Olean lean team at 60 a month and my board beard That's when I really to o play ball I jumped I at the chance FIRST lT PRO 11 BALL ALL My dad tried to p persuade me nie to reat ref re- re at at home but I talked him out of f It J Why dad dad Ill I'll be be making a year before you know It I said anu he finally gave v In lint he My fondest d hope o was realized Tl h height l ht of my ambition was to be a aI professional ballplayer like th those se I had read alJo about abot And sure enough here Iwas Iwas I Iwas I was a j. professional Gee how good that word professional sounded And with that job came the beginning beginning begin begin- ning of ot the end of ot my career as a a. pitcher Manager Kenney put ne sue on third base I played six games there and we lost every everyone one of ot them I could field the ball all right but on the throw I couldn't couldn hit the first baseman baseman baseman base base- man or anywhere near him I 1 was quite a bust in my start as a a third baseman I was benched benched and and by my friend from Truxton too I was certainly certainly certainly heart broken That benching though was the making of me me a anu often otten I have thanked Mr Ir Kenney from the bottom of my heart I didn't then though JUMPS Juans II'S IJ LEAGUE t I I was getting I ready for jump a u there was no rile ryle ler against ai n fr it lt in f those days days but but t a good laugh caused no to stay over another day or two Al Smathers Smathers' team from Bradford Pa came over to play Olean and Smathers had 6 bet on the result haI In the h fourteenth t ni g of that game with the score a tie and two out Egan Olean's pitcher singled over ever third A stray dog dashed out of ot the crowd grabbed the ball tall and ran away it t. t All All' the players started Jn in n pursuit but the harder they chased the faster the dog ran ran thinking it fine sport In the meantime Egan ran around the bases and the umpire al allowed allowed allowed al- al lowed the run to count To this day Smathers has never got over losing that game and the 6 warming Bench-warming grew Irksome to to me The next night I packed up quietly and slipped sUpped away Into new v fields Copyright I 1923 23 United States State and Can Canada Aa by the Christy Walsh Syndicate |
