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Show SPITBALL HONOR GIVEN TO CHIC FRASER ; BY MANAGER MITCHELL OF CHICAGO CUBS ' I j yt y , J Us 'V,. - " Reason "i; . - " ,. " ! Pitchers Nowadays Do Not Use Spitball Very Much. Next to the origin of baseball itself there have been more disputes over the inventor of the curve ball, and next to that the discovery of the modern spitball is shrouded in mystery, mys-tery, writes I. E. Sanborn in Chicago Tribune. Elmer Stricklett, who came out of the bushes to the White Sox in 1904, lias been most generally credited with being the first to introduce the moist delivery in practical form. He taught It to big Ed Walsh, who afterward became king of the spitters, while Stricklett never won great laurels In the majors as a fiinger. Gives Credit to Fraser. Now comes Manager Mitchell of the Cubs with the assertion that Chic Fraser, old-time pitcher for the Cubs and Phillies, beat Stricklett to it. The Cub boss declares that Fraser was monkeying with '.he spitball at least a year before Stricklett was heard from, but Chic never used it much because he thought it too erratic to control with any degree of certainty. Fraser showed Mitchell how to throw the thing, and Mitch could get a pretty fair break on it. You remember re-member that before Mitchell was a manager he was a catcher and before that a pitcher in the major leagues. It was while Mitchell and Fraser were on the Phillies together that they were experimenting with the spitball and the present Cub boss thinks he was the first pitcher to use it In a championship cham-pionship game. Batsman and Catcher Miss. Chief Zlmmer was doing most of the catching then and Fraser, who was a great practical joker, coaxed Mitchell Into throwing a spitter to Zimmer just to see what would happen in some sit-l sit-l uation where it didn't matter what did a fast ball, so Mitchell threw the spitball. spit-ball. The batsman missed it a foot and so did Zimmer, who was so astonished aston-ished that he forgot to go after the passed ball and let the batsman reach second base. The chief simply stood looking at Mitchell and after he had retrieved the ball, called for a conference. con-ference. Zimmer Wants a "Sign." "Say, kid," said Zimmer, "we'll have to have a sign for that one, whatever it was." Then Mitch told him what it was, but they did not use it much, considering it too risky. Later on in the season Fraser pitched pitch-ed up a spitball which the batsman bats-man knocked on an easy hop to Kid Gleason, second baseman, who was playing close In and tried to nail a runner scoring from third. Gleason threw the ball against the grand stand, then commenced looking over the turf adjacent to his station, searching for a wet spot on the diamond. "The ball was wet, Chic," exclaimed the Kid, and showed his damp hand to prove it. Fraser explained to him how the ball got wet. That was another an-other reason why the spitball did not 1 "take" very well at the start. The fielders made too many wild throws. Loses Pennant on It. Jack Chesbro was the first major leaguer to make much use of the spitter. spit-ter. He worked hard on it in 3 90-1 when he was one of the New York Yankee regulars. But Chesbro did not get perfect control of it and lost a game that might have given the Yankees the pennant in 1904 by making mak-ing a wild pitch in the ninth inning of the next to the last game of the season. In recent years the spitball is not used anywhere nearly so much as the public believes. There are numerous pitchers who can use it, but they do not do so regularly. It is merely a bluff most of the time when they spem to moisten the ball. That serves to I keep the batsman guessing. happen. Mitchell and Zimmer were working one day in a game which the Phillies had sewed up safely, Near the end of the contest Mitchell had two strikes on a batsman with two out and nobody on bases. Zimmer called for |