Show My Biggest Boner Max Carey Hitting Hilling at Spitball By Max Carey Former Piti Pittsburgh bursh Outfielder ond National League Base S Stealing Base ealing Champ Someone told me to stand in front of the plate and hit a spitball before it broke A spitball pitcher named McConnell McCon- McCon McConnell nell had come from the Federal league to the Cubs and the PIrates tackled him in Chicago in 1917 I swung at his low all afternoon afternoon afternoon aft aft- never got a quiet foul struck out four times I was worried started trying tring to figure out how to hit the The next time we faced McConnell McCon- McCon McConnell nell the club went into the inning scoreless Having failed standing in 11 front of the plate the only thing to do was to stand back backof of it I hit after the hail ball broke and the result was a n home run that broke up the game I r got to be a n good spitball hitter Major league batters now swing at the first ball pitched Th They're Thyre playing bad baseball on the pitchers pitcher's pitchers pitcher's pitchers pitcher's pitch pitch- ers er's side As a defensive hitter in m my last 10 years in the National league I never swung at a ball baU until I had two strikes on me The longer the count the better the pitch When I speak of a defensive hitter hitter hitter hit hit- ter I mean the first man up or the situation The main mam idea is to get on base An offensive hitter is one at bat with men on bas bases s in position tobe to tobe tobe be driven in Then of course the tIle batter hits the first good ball he gets A batter isn't going to hit much swinging while the ball is darting He must stand back of the plate and hit after all aU or most of the stuff the pitcher put on the ball has expended itself I pulled more of pf them of course in my 17 years with the Pirates but My Big Biggest est Boner in Baseball was not realizing that the way to hit the spitball was the way to hit the curve At least it seemed that way when I tried to get to McConnells McConnell's i spit spit- pitter ter before it got to me |