Show R CE T THE pHE HE best pitched ball game isn't A always a matter of what the pitcher figures but what the opposing opposing ing batter knows For example Joe DiMaggio has faced more than his share of great p pitchers including Bob Feller Bob Grove Tex Hughson Hugh Hugh- son and the pick of the National league When I asked Joe the best pitched game he had ever seen DiMaggio hesitated about one fifth of a second second second sec- sec ond easy he said It was the game Dizzy Dean pitched against the Yankees in the 4 1938 World Set Se Se- t ries Pitching consists of four M i important details k a an a n a arm r m a ahead ahead h 1 head a heart a 4 and control The i. i 9 N. N N arm is supposed aaa to be the most 1 f I Iguess It n important ik JJ it itis guess maybe t y Y f H N is is t if you have AJ an arm like Wal- Wal ter Johnson Dizzy Dean Lefty Grove or Bob Feller But in this World Series Series Series Se Se- ries game Dizzy had no arm It was gone We watched him warm arm up and he could just about get the ball up to his warm-up warm catcher This was to be our day We figured we ought to get about three hits apiece from that dill daffy Diz was pushing over It was something pitiful Well anyway DiMaggio continued continued continued con con- here was our pushover And we all knew that Dizzy Dean had been one of the great pitchers of all time One of the tops But Buthe Buthe Buthe he was a crippled duck now He had no arm Just Head and Heart HeartSo So what happens Here come these dinky dinks floating up to the plate No speed at all Not much of a curve Just a shot put But they would come at tough spots Low and inside inside around around your shoulders ders just ders-just just balls you dont don't like Balls Balli that are hard to hit solidly And we swing and pop up or go out out out- and theres there's Diz grinning at us and getting by with only a head and a heart No stuff at allAnd alL alLAnd And if those two to Cn Cub infielders hadn't collided early in the game to give Ive us two runs on a weak dribbling dribbling drIbbling drib drIb- bling Infield roller Diz would have had us as shut out 3 to ro 0 up to the and I think would have beaten us This game convinced me that Dizzy Dean was one of the greatest greatest greatest great great- est of all time Think what he must have been when he had his arm Im I'm glad he was in hi the other league when he was right lU More ore About Pitching At this point DiMaggio and your correspondent became involved in a discussion What do you figure the toughest ball to hit I asked your answer Joe saidA saidA saidA said A low curve ball over the inside inside inside in in- side corner was my reply Any low curve ball Joe said Inside or outside I hit on a level plane So did Hornsby Bill Dickey and Babe Ruth But when you get one of those low ones around your knees you have to swing in hi a different different different dif dif- dif dif- ferent way Its It's a great thing for forthe forthe forthe the hitters that only a few hurlers hurlen can handle this type of pitch For Forit it takes perfect control to make this low throw Heres Here's a funny tunny thing A low curve breaks much faster and sharper than a high curve Why I dont don't know But it does After all we have to deal with facts not with ideas You know Grant from the pitching distance that ball comes up to you in less than half halfa I a second Johnsons Johnson's speed was 1130 feet a second You dont don't have time to do much figuring in half a second Its It's different with just a fast ball You can time that But you cant can't time a fast breaking curve around your knees Strong Hands Needed You read in various gazettes the number of earnest and enterprising athletes who are now working to build up their legs and arms Such I men as Louis Conn Greenberg Dickey DiMaggio Ted Williams etc But too many of these and a B great deal too many of the youthful competitors just getting under way way overlook a section of the body just justas as important This happens to be bethe bethe bethe the two hands Hand strength and hand action play playa a big part In baseball baseball baseball base base- ball football boxing golf tennis riding basketball fishing and other sports Especially in baseball boxIng boxIng box- box Ing trig horse racing and golf A pair of big powerful hands was Hans Dans Wagners Wagner's crowning glory Jack Dempsey's two Iron fists almost almost al al- most never Injured were a big help Two of the strongest looking pair of hands I ever saw belong to Tommy Armour the golf goll star and Bill Bm Dickey the Yankee catcher It isn't everybody who happens tobe to tobe tobe be born with Wagner Dempsey Armour Armour Armour Ar Ar- mour or Dickey hands But this defect can at least be partially cured by the right sort of hand exercise One of the best methods is to use we rather small hard bard rubber balls squeezing one In each tach hand |