Show M MILLIONS ILLIONS many millions follow baseball records closely this includes batting and pitching especially but you often wonder just how much they actually mean take the won and lost column what chance has a pitcher working with a r or a cellar cont a n d er against one pitching for it a winning team the best way to judge a a pitchers true value is to take his average against the average of his team even this W V johnson t a fair t te tesi since he naturally would have a better average with a better team I 1 recall in other years that christy mathewson had no respect for an earned run average the main idea Is to win the ball game matty malty used to say and to save yourself for more work on ahead if I 1 can pick up four or five runs why pitch my arm ott off for an individual mark tills this lead gives elves me a chance to rest my arm tor for other games pitchers who bear down all through nine innings are sure to have trouble later on home run records and strike outs cuts are usually earned although tho the quality of opposition is still a big factor looking over pitchers phil marchildon of the athletics ranks extremely high winning four games with the athletics puts him tar far above such stars as feller as and nn dd in checking along these lines the two greatest pitching records belong to walter johnson and grover alexander team support counts johnson won over games working for a weak club and one especially weak at bat washington could give johnson few runs he had no heavy artillery back of him throughout his long career it was johnson who had to face the cobbs ruths jacksons speakers cajoles La joles colllns collins and such the stars were all on the other side in the same way alexander in his earlier years had the weak phillies Phil lles with him with cubs giants pirates and other teams far better supplied with ballplayers ills his feat of pitching 16 shut outs la in 1916 stands as a record that may never be touched one reason 1 Is that he pitched many of these thes a in th the hallia hll lia bandbox park where a long fly meant a home run alexander missed the opportunity of pitching for a strong team until he be was moving over the ilia hill by the time pete reached the cubs and the cardinals his prime had passed it is easy to understand why no good ballplayer with a chance for stardom cares about landing with a weaker second division club As tar far as pitching records go tor for 1947 what about schoolboy rowe and his mark with the phillies Phil lles also dutch leonard I 1 jn in sizing up records you must take fh 16 the quality of the club and the quality of the opposition other wise records can mean little hartung matty sister no clint hartung yet proved that he is or will be another matty or ruth but he is a 4 member of their order which might be known as the tha club of shifting positions when tall blond good looking christy mathewson reported to the giants 47 years ago from norfolk va where he had won 21 games and lost 2 he promptly lost his first three starts in major league competition andy freedman friedman the giants owner thereupon decided that mathewson was a first baseman and should be so used it until john J mcgraw began to manage the giants that mattys full skill as a pitcher began lo 10 be realized it long before the bucknall Duc knell entry was one of baseballs all time sensations in the box one of the best that all the years have uncovered the list of those in baseball who entered the as a star in one capacity and then switched jobs is a long one G george a orge was a star pitcher at michigan ile ho could have been one of baseballs best left handers the browns started him in the box switched him to the outfield and then moved win him to first his fame f ame us as a pitcher or as an outfielder would have been enduring lie he finished as the star first baseman of all time a great ballplayer in every department where his batting and his base running left him unchallenged at first almost the sa same me thing happened to a baltimore bal ilmore kid till still remembered as aa babe ruth nuth the babe broke in as a pitcher with the red sox box and ho he was among the brilliantz brilliants brilli ants for oralce five years etwas it was in 1919 that E ed d barra barrow W decided that it a cannon was waa more useful than a rifle so BO the babe was waa moved to an everyday job in the outfield chere increasing crowds could alls ten to the thel musical boom of his bis big bat |