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Show " ' " NeiYS AArD 6GS5P or . v j less than 20 per cent of the players j ever purchase a 10-cent baseball guide containing the rules. Brothers Liked Swift Balls. Dan Brothers, famous in his day as one of the greatest batsmen the game ever produced, once said that his long-j long-j est drives were made off swift pitch-irg. pitch-irg. and he said that such also was the case with other hard and long hitters. Infielders dislike to have batsmen get the hang of swift pitching, as it means trouble for them if the ball is hit on their ground. The sphere comes with great force and, as it travels with the speed cf a comet, it is hard to handle. This, they say, is not so of slow-pitched balis, which, while they may be hit just as hard, do not come at them with as much force. Chicago's New First Baseman. W. J. Hanlon, the new first baseman of the Chicago National league team, More elements of uncertainty than usual enter into the baseball "dope" this year. There is the open question of where some of the disgruntled players like George .Davis, Delehanty, "Kid" Gleason and others will fir.aily condescend to play. Of thene men Davis in particular can make a big .difference, because the teams which claim him have practically no one to fill his shoos. Then there is the question ques-tion of how many of the old timers who he!;I . the pace successfully last year can keep up with the procession for another circle of the track and what teams will be lucky enough to develop the best one or two youngsters. young-sters. ' Getting closer to the ground, there is t.ie problem whether the 'Cleveland club is to be allowed to play-its play-its ful? strength in Philadelphia this year on account of the injunction still standing against ' Lajoie, Flick and Bernhardt. ' In the American league the Cleveland Cleve-land team is looked upon with greatest great-est favor by the "dopists" in general on account of its splendid showing against long odds last year after it was strengthened up. The blues will have practically the same team as last season, and at the rate they were traveling at one time they ought to win' the 1903 flag, but it is not a " team which inspires confidence in its steadiness. It is a fine batting aggregation, aggre-gation, has a strong pitching staff, and . some fine individual players, second to none in fielding, but Manager Armour Ar-mour and Capt. Lajoie did not develop, de-velop, to all appearances, any tes.m or real "inside" work last year, and, in the long, close race, those are important im-portant essentials to success. Lajoie may not be up to his old time form ' after his illness, and the team may be weakened by the inability of Lajoie, Flick and Bernhard to play in Penn- sylvania. It has been announced that under the peace treaty and because of the retirement, of John I. Rogers there . would be no further trouble in Phila-- Phila-- - ue'ipii'i-. " 'TPa.tt.er is QiC.gLJLt.e. hands of the magnates, however, and ' it is for the courts of Pennsylvania to say what penalty, if any, the players shall pay for their contempt of the . court's decree. With all interests in working harmony it is more than likely nothing will come out of the cases, except a fine for the players, in which case they will be free to play nywhere again. -Tr..-?rNSi Giant's First Baseman. I W. J. Hanlon. hails from Los Angeles. He has made a favorable impression., by his ,v"oi"l thus far. Tim Murnane's Gossip. Professional ball players are the last to take up a new idea in baseball. base-ball. The mask, chest protector, glove, mit and other improvements now used by the star players were all inventions of amateurs and used a long time by the college players before the professionals -would take them up. It was long after the college men worked with the catcher's mask before the league catchers would use the new da-vice, da-vice, as the crowd ridiculed the idea of a player going "muzzled." I find a genuine regret all over the territory that I have covered of late in regard to the foul strike rule. The college boys are practically a unit against handicapping the batsman with this rule, and I doubt very much if many of the colleges work under the now accepted rule. As Charley Co-miskey Co-miskey well says, the idea of handicapping handi-capping a batsman is a new one in baseball,' but the foul strike rule will accomplish this with a vengeance. I can well understand how th batsman would object to the rule, but was not prepared to find the general public so set against the Hart-Hanlan feature in baseball. Like a poor law. the best way to kill it is to force it on the public. Already the batting is dropping in percentage until .25 ) is considered a fair average, by vT wnen .3'Mi should be the mark. The batsman should have more freedom and the foul strike rule should go. Tim Murnane. John Ganzel Best at the Bat. President Thomas Hickey has released re-leased the averages of the American Association, and the list brings out many facts of interest regarding the TGMAW rrxAS-S7Y Big Dan McGann, whose body aids his bat in baffling pitchers. Ban Johnson and the Umpires. Ban Johnson has been a signal success suc-cess as a handler of the umpire problem, prob-lem, writes Tim Murnane. He seldom sel-dom during a season changes a man once appointed unless for good reasons. rea-sons. Knowing that his position is secure if he pleases Johnson, the umpire um-pire works hard to improve his worth and is never intimidated by any magnate. mag-nate. The umpire, like the ball player, play-er, will improve if given the time and encouragement, and it rests as much with the president as with the field official. of-ficial. My. experience with men looking for umpire berths has been that they do not know the rules to start with. This is especially so if the applicant is an old ball player. Players scarcely scarce-ly ever read the rules which they are supposed to know to the 1 tter. All is left to the man?w- or captain, as minor leaguers who have been recruited re-cruited for the big leagues this season. sea-son. Big John Ganzel, the first baseman, who has played formerly with both Chicago and New York National League clubs, and this year is with Griffith's Greater New York team, heads the batters, with a percentage of .367. Shannon of the St. Paul club is second, with 344, while Billy Hall-man, Hall-man, who is with Comiskey in the South, is third, with an average of .334. Dunkle, who is with the White Sox this year, headed the pitchers, finished tjhe season with a batting average of .306 and won thirty games out of forty. Flaherty, another White Sox twirler, who was with Louisville last year, won twenty-six games and lost sixteen. Jack Katoll, who finished the season with St. Paul, left a record of nine games won and four lost. |