Show FORD THE PITCHING FIND OF 1910 SHOWS FAILURE OF BASEBALL DOPE DOPEY j W 0 41 4 A W it 4 J W 9 kj A g 4 9 04 0 J 4 ap 4 W A TAIT RUSSELL FORD russell ford of the new I 1 york ork yin frees kees who Is regarded as the pitching find of the american league this year has helped to prove the oft repeated assertion that dope on baseball teams is the most uncertain of any in sport there Is the turf dope tor for in stance the experts have been fairly able to egure that it if cinch beats sure thing and lead pipe throws dirt in the eyes of both of them it Is 1 as good as money in your pocket to have a bet on S lecure when he Is in a race with cinch and sure thing because he has recently trim med lead pipe sometimes it falls fails but more often it will not in pugilism pig and knocker out battle to a draw left swing b hammers in the life 0 out j of right jab tam then e 11 right jab tu turns ns around and inuos r pug along J comes upper cut and he whiles whales bith h lett left swing and right jab tien 71 en some pro moter mate es upper cut and Knocke rout who should win the dope says upper cut but in baseball you have to fig ire on too many men so when the sea son started there were few who thought the stallings bunch would mould be such tro ble makers in the american league it was because they did not know just how good ford Is some per persons ons say he Is a better spit ball artist than fd walsh which is going some rhe youngster won seven straight before he lost a game it Is avreen that his great twirling has had much to do with putting the new york team up near the top thereby showing how impossible it is to dope a base ball team umpire bill evans asked ford the other day it if he really knows which way his spit ball delivery Is going to break ford s answer was that he be would demonstrate and according to bill dill he broke the just as he said he on the strength of what ball players and umpires say bout about the new york kork it Is not at t all hard to understand why he has been een meeting with led suan success every batter of any class can be dl di eded into three divisions accord ng to some of our most prominent urn um pires larry lajoie leads one sec see tion ty cobb the second and frank schulte the third in other words these three great bitters batters are the most typical of their div alons lajoie lajoe of cleveland who has stood as a lead ng u american and national league slugger for years stands up to the ball with only a trifle of a bend and swings his bat slowly he ile does not exactly walk into the ball being more of a one base sw sv atter than a clean up hitter this is the most re liable type perhaps the performer being a surer hitter others of the same clas claes are wagner of the pirates willie keeler now of the giants and a former highlander and johnnie evers of the bibs and craw crawford ford of the tigers gessler of washington and stahl of the boston red sox are other potable examples ty cobb the great tiger slugger is the nervous type his body forms a sort of an arch and he be swings his bat faster and faster is ns the pitcher in winds he puts all the strength of his body into the final swing and it if he hits bit the ball it is good night this Is the clean up type doubles triples and home runs often tall fall to the lot of the lea lers in this division the cuba cubs have many in their lineup who bat ac no cording to this style manager chance Is one and joe tinker another terry turner of the naps falls into the same category and so does killifer 0 the senators then comes the silent type best ex by frank schulte of the cubs to the average fan these bat appear careless they stad hire a statue calm and almost motionless perhaps the batter may give one swing before letting go they stand and eye the pitcher out of counte nance of all the batters this type Is most feared by the pitchers there ig is a grimness grim nesa in the situation the batter seems to say I 1 in laying tor for you old md kid some of the best batters of the decade belong to this classification in addition to schulte there is speak er of the red sox one of last year s sensations dougherty of the sox is another you can almost imagine they are av ning with ennui as they stand up at the plate their position gives ives them an excellent birdseye view of the biall as it hurtles through the air and they have an excellent ch chance ance to aim everything in baseball today Is tl e signal system the marvelous per formantes for mances of the cubs the irre sisti ble rush of the tigers and the sensa dional play of other teams owes much of its brilliance and seeming luck to team signals even the umpires find it profitable to understand some of the signals while of course it keeps them guessing a lot because signals often are switched in a game but they come to know in a general way what Is going to be pulled off the authority for this statement Is president tip 0 odeill OI neill eill of the blest est ern league who was once an ump ie i e himself understanding signals in a general way was often a help to me said 0 Q neill for example the umpire umpire would often be caught napping on a base decision if he d t know that a steal or hit and r in signal wig wis ghen given this enables him to keep one eye on the play and the other on the other angle of the play it has been said that the umpire might give some of the plays to the other team it if he knew the signals that s all bosh no umpire child ild do that and retain his lob job umpiring Is oe one of the hardest jobs in all creation and tor for that rea soi so i avei I 1 atle tl ing helps hat that at ails Is him in his general all round work it Is easier in the b g league nowadays where there is a man on the bases all the time that takes away nine tenths of the worry from the man de cid ag the strikes and balls |