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Show TTHAT pitiher In baseball has had the greatst combination of speed and a curve ball? This argument developed with great speed recently in a gathering of baseball notable. Your correspondent cor-respondent put this rratter up to a long list of managers and old players, play-ers, who should know what they are talking about. It was generally agreed that Walter Johnson had thei king of all fast J balls. That's about t " all old Barney f needed in his prime. If1 It was also con- ceded that among $ j the smarter pitch- .t .'s'; 1 ers you had to rate 1r! 1 Alexander, Mathew- -.. i:- son and Hubbell. ; 1 Dizzy Dean was v' -' also given a high is)V v . y x a i rating as an all- tfc- 1 -Jr arounderwithspeed, Grantland Rice ! ; a good curve and a j change of pace when necessary. I think it was Casey Stengel who added up all the qualifications needed need-ed and his score card put Carl Hub-bell Hub-bell on top. After all Hubbell won 24 ; consecutive games. Cy Young drew the nomination for durability, including arm and head through more than 500 victories, vic-tories, 510 to be exact. ' The list of great pitchers is ex- ' tremely long, dating back to 1900. j There was Ed Walsh Addie Joss Smokey Joe Wood Jack Chesbroj, (both Walsh and Chesbro won 40! or more games in one season). 'j There was Herb Pennock and Lefty Grove and Ed Plank. There was j Bob Feller, one of the best. And ( Dazzy Vance, voted the most effective ef-fective of all pitchers excluding Johnson. Alexander, Matty and Hubbell Hub-bell finished under a blanket. Connie Mack's Decision In the midst of all this confusion we finally decided to put the problem prob-lem up to Connie Mack, who has only been around in baseball a brief , matter of 60 odd years. ; "Just what is the argument about?" Mr. Mack asked. "The argument is this what one , pitcher had the greatest combination combina-tion of speed and curves?" "My goodness," Connie said. T think that's quite simple. His name is Rube Waddell. New Johnson had the best speed. But Walter only had a fair curve ball. His speed was enough. Matty and Alexander depended de-pended largely on control and smartness. Grove and Feller both had fine speed. But you are talking about both factors speed and curves. "Now I'll tell you about the Rube. He had terrific speed. He was a big, loose, lanky fellow who was almost al-most as fast as Johnson. I know outside of Johnson I never saw any one faster. "But his curve was even better than his speed. The Rube had the fastest and the deepest curve I've ever seen. You know what great hitters Lajoie and Cobb were? What wonderful batting eyes they both had? Well, I've seen the Rube pour one over that started and looked waist high. I've seen both Larry and Ty swing at this pitch as the catcher catch-er dug it out of the dirt. I've seen 1 great hitters miss Rube's curve ball more than a foot. I honestly believe that the Rube's curve often broke , at least two feet. But what is more important it was a fast curve, one that came up in a hurry and then ducked like lightning. "Now, I'm not saying Waddell was the greatest pitcher of all time. I'm saying that he could have been and should have been for the simple reason that he had more natural stuff than any other pitcher I've ever ' seen. I mean by this that he had the best combination of what you are talking about speed and curve. But the Rube had too many sidelines. Now and then he'd take a few days off and go fishing, without saying anything to me about it." I recalled one of the last times I ever saw Waddell pitch. He had Cleveland beaten 1 to 0 In the last of the ninth when an error, a Texas leaguer and a pass filled the bases with none out. The next three coming up were Lajoie, Bradley and Flick, three of the best. The Rube had brought out two friends who were sitting in a box. He left the pitcher's mound and walked over to the box remarking, "Ladies, I'll be with you in about two minutes." He then struck out Lajoie, Bradley Brad-ley and Flick on nine pitched balls. I'll have to string with Mr. Mack on this opinion, which I like to do on any opinion Mr. Mack has to offer. Georgia's Contribution The Red Clay Hills f Georgia have given sport more than their share of stars. It was In this state that a kid by the name of Tyrus j Raymond Cobb came to fame around 40 years ago, via Augusta and Detroit. It was from Atlanta another kid named Bobby Jones moved int the national spotlight of golf back In 1916 at Merion when said youth was only 14 years old. Such champions give my state a running start. |