Show I Great Stars Stan of Pitching Learn 1 hat J lime ime Comes Conies for Conservation 2 I I a S I c p S y I r M Matty tty left and Coombs Coombe Below Walter Waiter Johnson By Joe Williams I Its It's ts t's to Lo laugh Almost any other pitcher in the big bit bitI leagues could have lost his opening game I and It would have been calmly and un unI onI unemotionally un- un I emotionally written down In the records record There would have been no comment it would have merely represented a defeat signifying nothing more than a bad start Hut u It so happened e that Walter v John John- ol son soli was V the baby who got off on the wrong g foot Not only rl tJ lost but was wn walloped wal J gt r loped I hard a and a all but bill driven from the box i Whereat the r lutle fan tan wags his un unkempt unkempt un- un kempt head hea and amid observes H I tell you ou Johnsons Johnson's through H He hasn't been himself him him- s self lf for several years ears and It wouldn't surprise me to see him step behind tile the field this year maYbe sear maybe to the minors Piffle Likewise tush True we ve usually do look for Johnson to start Ol out Oct t with something resembling a hit no-hit scoreless game he be has been the American leagues league's leading pitcher for s so man many seasons that we have come to fo O stall Pet st all our baseball standards bv by the caliber I of ot hi his slab performance Slut nut It 11 tak takes s smore more than swallow to wet a giraffes giraffe's neck And its it's going to 10 tale take more than one oner I r py i-py reverse vOr r. r e. e o o on one bad d Fal season On for that thaI ma mai- mai mar mar-I I Iter ter to Lo crush the speed king out of fast fasl fastI fasli i I company i 1 The truth lruth is Johnson has just come to 1 i appreciate tics He's been in id the t there value e pitching of conservation year va after r r S year car without much to teaS tin tea S future The lh last two or three seasons he hei i has gradually slowed up pitching at cup tup UPI tupI I speed only when it It was necessary toS toi to i S a avert v d Na the opposition non nonI has been abe b l 18 tO ht hIm more moe frequently I I than was th the ease fase use In the years rears when he heI I was i lot dIthe Ithe t and c and making them them- And d to the f fan n who 1 stop to Lo study conditions this greater of hits me ins but Lut or ore ON e thing and that is Johnsons Johnson's 10 losing loping his old time skill i i The cases of Christy Mathewson and j Jack Coombs probably stand out as vivia examples Matty Batty was a big I league pitcher for sixteen seasons No NoS j S team could beat him when he was pitching pitching pitch pitch- ing at top speed all the way V Witness I the three shutouts he dealt the old Athletics Athletics Ath Ath- S back In the tilt world series of 1915 1115 an anS S 8 d pitching feat Wh When n It v V. isn't necessary to put h hlll his heart and amid S left hand behind every ban ball he lie threw S when the basics bases were empty or 01 the game was running along easily Matty was the safest kind of a proposition Anybody could I hit 1 him 1 S And d the e same e was true of ot Jack Coombs S Few i-ew pitchers had a better curve ball ballS ballI S I than Jack an and none nOl of them the had haJJ a bettel bettel better bet bet- tel ter change of or pace But Jack never felt feltS S that his great curve or his adroit mix mix- tire of a fast and gnU slow delivery was re responsible re- re for his consistent g Rather he attributed atti It to his ability to pitch pitch a Ii little harder hardel when the crisis grew rew more serious And Ana Jack Coombs Is still in the big biK leagues taking his turn I in the box for Brooklyn I Walter Waiter Johnson ma may win a lot of ball games ames this year yearby by shutout scores and ana hit few efforts effort but Ht it wont won't be because he wanted to win them that WS 1 It takes as much energy to win a shutout game as it do s a t to lo win vin three games where It Isn Isn't t necessary nelar to blank the opposing sine side In order to lo come out on top And John Johnson on has hils reached readied the stage where conservation of ot energy Is an essential matter |