OCR Text |
Show "He Is a Wonderful . Judge of a Pitched Ball" Js'o greater compliment can lie paid to a ball player's merit than to have said of him : "He's a wonderful judge of a pitched haJl." The batter "hard to fool" by pitchers pitch-ers is a tine asset to his club. He may have speed and be a "ball hawk" in the field, but if. when he is up there at bat, he cannot deliver a measure of goods, then his team is weakened at a critical stage, for runs win ball games, and to net runs the batter must win his contest of wits and eyes against the pitcher he faces. It is noteworthy that the three greatest great-est players in their league over a long period of time three who have shone with steady bright radiance in tlie firmanent of baseball for years and years not only have been prominent because of hitting ability, speed on bases and accuracy and judgment in the field, but also for their cunniness in outguessing pitchers. Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins and Tris Speaker have been great "waiters," and so fine is their Judgment of a curve or the hop on a fast one that when one of them strikes out it is an event. They know the morale effect of working a pitcher to "three and two." |