Show WH S WHAT IN THE BASEBALL WORM WORLD who is it that gets most of the put outs in american national game some figures by fullerton in pastime four years is made according to hugh S fullerton Ful lerlon the well known authority on baseball the fans often argue and dispute as to the amount of work each player on the field has to do in fielding players jbf thi ielse ire ives frequently debate as to the relative fielding importance of certain positions fullerton says figures dont lie except in the official averages and a study of the actual work done by each man in the field is interesting for this purpose I 1 have taken each position each american and national league player in that position and covered tour four years of figures to ascertain the average number of chances per game a in any position will have and learn the chances of any man getting a put out or an assist and how many he ought to get in each garte garde to keep heep up the average for his position I 1 discovered that the chances per team per game are 40 h divided as follows put outs assists errors 28 while these figures practically a diee with the season records as announced by the secretaries of the big leagues they differ in some respects respect from those figures and to ascertain whether or not the rule of chances ran the same I 1 procured the records of GS CS games played in four minor leagues in two seasons and discovered to my surprise that tile the lule iule of chanco chance runs about the same in tile the small leagues as the large regardless of the speed of the men or the caliber of the league PLACE HITTING unreliable all of this goes to show that what is called place hitting is to it gay eay the least unreliable possibly a dozen bijj men can under certain circumstances 1 lit hit tile the ball babi in ill a general direction that they decide upon atre I 1 hand but the great majority of players simply rap the ball the deeper I 1 go into the figures the more interesting they lecome become I 1 was struck with the number of chances bill B 11 ll joyce had at third base for the old new york team in tact fact with ie collection rather dim it made me think thick for a minute that joyce must have been a cracker crack crackerjack er jack a at third despite the fact that my recollection was that helas he was punk there and switched across the diamond suddenly light dawned when I 1 discovered that tile the pitcher who was responsible tor for joyces joycea many chances ivas dad clarke in games that dad pitched joyce would have eight or ten chan chances eez th that it recalls to me the tact fact that dad always claimed joyce relief arom rheumatic pains 1 I suffered with rheumatism tor for over two years says mr rolland holland curry a policeman 0 f K key ey west florida sometimes it settled in ray MY knees and lamed lue so EO I 1 could hardly walk at other times it would be in my feet feel and hands so eo I 1 was in ca for duty one night when I 1 was in severe pain and lanie lame from it my wife went to the drug store here and camo came back with a lottie bottle of chamberlains ber lains pain balm I 1 was rubbed with it and found the pain had nearly gone fione during the night I 1 kept on using it lor for a little more than two weeks and found that it drove the rheumatism away I 1 have not had any trouble from that disease for over three months for sale by the eddy drus drug store released him because lie kept pitching a slow one that everybody hit toward third it really is in an astonishing study to see how the right wing of the defense is kept busy by one pitcher and the left side of the field by another the majority of balls pitched by speedy pitchers are driven toward right field the majority of slow balls are lift hit to the left of second base tile the majority of safe lifts hits oft off left handers banders go toward right but the majority of balls ire are hit toward left CHANCES IN POSITION this Is the way the ball goes so far as chances are concerned of course the first baseman has more chances than any other player I 1 regret to state that the figures will not decide the relative e importance of shortstops short stops and second base their average chances figure so closely together that they practically are equal the average number of chances per game by each player is as follows first base second base 58 third base 32 shortstop 37 57 catcher 51 pitcher 26 center center field ia 32 left field 22 right held field 21 among all the pitchers whose averages are arc included in the grand total the left handers furnished the surprise it is generally conceded among baseball authorities and managers that left handers are not strong in the field yet it Is a remarkable fact that on oil number of chances per game the left handers more than hold their own it is a close race between jess tannehill and nick altrock for honors as to the number of chances per game they seem always in the pat flat h of the ball whether because of 0 some peculiarity of pitching or extraordinary quickness or both altrock I 1 know when things are arc going wrong filches pilches to make batters hit bit at him and I 1 believe that tannehill does the same lee tannehill probably will ivill lead in number of chances per game among the lie third base basemen nien lajoie leads the second basemen merman herman long led all the third base basemen nien did bid and fred proffer were almost tied among the first bas basemen enlen this dees s not include comiskey I 1 was unable to get hold of the figures but I 1 believe that lie he had more chances per game than any first baseman that ever played the bag and his chances were assists more frequently than any other first baseman although a tenney runs him a close race the figures for and who were only a shade behind lajoie are rather surprising considering the difference in their style of play always played a moderately dera tely deep game not as deep as evers affects but still far elou enough ii behind the line to be noticeable while played a short game almost on the line and covered the bag in the line and three or four feet toward first fattened ills his alian chances leg on oil touching runners at second wl two great catches throwing to him while got his on oil ground balls WHEN RUDE RUBE PITCHES when rubo rube waddell pitches his first and second baseman and ri right bt fielder have busy days ills his great speed and ills his quick curve toward a right handed batter baiter cause them to lift hit a bit late and the result is the ball seldom goes toward left on the other hand cy young with ills hia ter terrific rifle speed is lift hit toward left almost as is much as to right tile the tendency being to drive the ball toward center one of the funniest examples or of changes of batting discoverable in the figures is that found by tr tracing acing the ilie record of james kicks hicks ryall ryan always was a corking good hitter for over 12 years lie he was a terror aci to third ba basemen sellien ile he had a knack of cricketing low balls and il driving riving them straight across third like a flash pitchers c regarded him as a rank lefthand hitter and refused to be per ner sanded that ile he could lift hit hard in any other direction in the spring ot of 1898 ryan suddenly switched and became one of 0 the most remarkable right field hitters in the business he was a terror to pitchers that year no one knew I 1 how to pitch to him ile he was driving them on the line straight to right a and nd whipping the ball over first as lie he formerly did over third the score books reveal the start startling change of style after figuring on him tor for days days I 1 called on him and inquired how he did it he said lie he had changed style purposely and found that by merely shifting his feet lie he could lilt hit as well in that direction as toward left ile he made the switch but never was able to sw switch tell back ack successfully anson perhaps had the best eye of all the hitters that ever wo v to bat he drove everything straight out meeting the ball so squarely that the ball usually went within 15 feet one way or the other of the pitcher ho he crippled more pitchers with line drives straight at them than any other man mail ever did his trueness of eye and remarkable ability to meet the ball squarely handicapped him heavily in ills his later years as the fielders bunched on oil him until they left him little space for safe hits |