Show Double Play Up Break-Up Perilous By By GRANTLAND RICE RICE- SOME TIME HACK BACK Dr George Bennett Dennett the tho noted medical and surgical expert from Baltimore Baltimore Balti more was talking about th the 0 double play break up at second This is the play used to break up double plays he said Bald It is the mo most t dangerous zap A play In baseball t and seed should be a bolo abol atola a fished It should be abolished because It is unfair and nd cowardly and also Grantland it lt hurts burt more ballplayers than you know Ive I've had any number come to me mo for treatment of of back or leg Jeg injuries Injuries In in- in juries due to collisions at second base I cant can't understand why baseball base base- ball baU tolerates such a play It will end or shorten the careers of ot many ballplayers in the course of time Dr Dennett Bennett Is la per cent correct In the first place the tha play Is unfair and cowardly The player handling the ball shortstop or second b baseman seman has no chance to protect himself him hIm- self leU Ills job Is to take the throw and make the relay to o first base The runner base coming to the bag bap has hili a clear shot chot at athis athis athis his unprotected opponent The opponent Is 15 often orten completely at atthe atthe atthe the runners base mercy The player handling the ball can cau have back muscles torn loose or hIs bis legs lega or knees badly damaged A recent example was the Eddie Joost case Joost Is one of ot the star veterans of baseball lie He was Connie Con Con- rile nie Macks Mack's most useful player or orone orone orone one of ot his more useful players playeta at least lIe He was wu taken out by Cliff Mapes of the Yankees Yankee in a recent game But Dut the main trouble was wal he wasn't merely taken out of that particular play He lie Ie was taken out for the rest of ot the season or the better part of it lie He may have been taken out for the rest reat of his career Certainly Mapes didn't intend to wreck a fellow players player's baseball career But Dut in the speed peed and heat of action such as this play calls call for it Is Impossible to tell what the re result reo suit sult might be There Is I. no one who knows more about the handling of ballplayers In trouble rouble than Dr Bennett Dennett When he rates ratu thus this pta play the most mos and usel s. s In the game rame be happens to know what be he Is I. tailing about One of the first moves movel at the next fall or winter league meetings meeting should be bo to abolish boUsh this play Baseball Base Bue ball isn't supposed to be football The two games game are entirely differ differ- ent Baseball is more a game of ot skill kill than football can ever be The chances are nothing will be bedone bedone bedone done about the play until two or three stars are wrecked possibly for life lUe and end then some lome change chanie will willbe willbe willbe be made later when later when it i Is too late halo for the already Injured Most Graceful Player Help us settle an argument writes L. L F F. F Who in your opinion Is or was the most graceful ballplayer ball baU- player you ever saw Amon Among those thoe mentioned by the tho group were Tris Speaker Nap LaJoie Joe DiMaggio DIMaggio gio glo Joe Gordon George Burns Dum and George Nap LajoIe Is the most graceful grace grace- graceful ful fal ballplayer we ever saw aw In action One proof of greatness Is III that we cant can't recall any spectacular ply play Larry ever made He Ice made ever every type ype of pIa play seem leem easy ealY There was waa no waste vasto motion For example In covering second on a steal teal Lajoie La La- jolt joie used only his gloved hand lie He had bad the tho knack of sweeping the ball to the runner base with one motion This grace extended to the bat i You never saw Lajoie crouched and I tense as most hitters are today lie He would stand tand st at the plate with the bat in his left hand and take it up up just in time to swing at the ball In spring training pitchers would test out timing They would get to him the first day or two in camp before his batting eye was wa adjusted to the ball They would throw in front of ot him back backof of ot him in the ground at his feet over his head But Dut Larry kept knocking the ball back On a hit and run Ive I've seen leen him throw his bat at a wide pitch and single lingle over first base bue Lajoie was wal no small man He lie was wal over six feet and he ho weighed around pounds pound Ketchel and Greb The meeting of this pair would have been a ring classic The west Welt still goes with Ketchel The Tho east cut rides with Greb Of the two Ketchel was the better puncher Greb was wa much the better boxer Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadel Philadel- phia Jack O OBrien O'Brien Ketchel for nine round rounds by a wide margin and then finished the dreaming of ot the hour after alter the manner of ot Byrons Byron's Turk Ketchel practically beheaded OBrien Kid McCoy I might have been beena a tough opponent for lor either Ketchel or Greb at his bis peak The Kid was wal a brilliant boxer and a punishing puncher Greb at hi his hi best almost annihilated hated Tom Gibbons and Gene Tun Tun- Tunney Tunney ney fey in one season leaton This Thi was Wal the worst wont be beating Una that Tunney eVerI ever I got lot I also allo saw laW Greb take Jack Dillon apart |