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Show z COLLINS ih'1 I'd WORLDS t,gHkCMt1PION5 -JT ' li i M - Clyie A, j ijii VV4' ' ' .i t'MOItS had been circulated by mo If T "underground" routes of baseball Li during the season of 1909 that slg-I slg-I j nals were being tipped off In New York and Detroit. About this time, .Aft. I noticed Ira Thomas and "Eddlo" Plank working together In a game against the substitutes one day In 2 morning practice. Thomas's clgnala jr. were so ridiculously plain that I & yelled to Mm from my ;)OHlllon at I .E Jf second bane. "For heaven's sake, Ira," 1 called, "what ar you trying to do? A blind man !n center field could get thoso signals." "All right, Eddie," be answered. "That's what they're for. It's a stall. Wo open a series In New C York Monday, and they may bo tipping signals j there." Instead of covering up bis algns with his legs is any good catcher will, when he crouches behind be-hind the butler, Thomas was displaying bis signals o that coachers at both first and third base could ee them. I learned In due time that t.ie pitchers sere giving the real signs, and that Thomas had Jevlsod this scheme to throw any obxervers with ipy glasses or oilier artificial aid off their guards. I might add that, as a result. In the following series four of the New York baiters were hit with pitched 5a Us and badly hurt. All this means that, every time a batter faces a pitcher in a game of baseball In tho big leagues, there Is a duel of wits. In fact, the batter Is pitted kgainst both the pitcher and the catcher, as the Incident related above will show. The aeuteness of Ihe duel depends on the amount of wits nllsted on tach side. Koine are not very keen. Hut, although in the vernacular of baseball. It Is called "outguessing tiie pitcher," It Is .eally outwitting out-witting the catcher, for the receivers almost unl- j rersally decide what kind of a diet shall be served lo tho batter. Occasionally a pitcher dlcagrees and lhakei bis head. Successful men behind the time that a catcher throws the ball back to the pitcher until ho delivers It again, a batter fhould never take his eyes off the pitcher. All of the "grooves" of batters are carefully catalogued. Kvery bitter In baseball, with the possible exception of Lajole and Wagner, Is supposed sup-posed to have what Is known to the profession as a "groove," a certain real or Imagined weakness. weak-ness. Some pitchers work to fool a batter, and others aim at bis "groove." Young and Powell are of tho second type, and It Is this style of pitcher that I always try to mnke pitch to the limit, as they have to depend absolutely on oai in me uig leagues nave made a carerul study of batters, their "crooves" and mannerisms, man-nerisms, and It Is on this knowledgo that a pitcher depends. Therefore, In the majority f cases, It Is the batter outguessing the catcher. In only a few Instances does the pitcher give the signals. So much faith have some pitchers In certain catchers that they pitch altogether a different brand of baseball base-ball to other men. This Is partial- yjCf larly true of Krauno. the Philadelphia yVs4 left hander. who pitched such sensa- 0V tlotnal ball In the season of 1909, and of Ford, of the New York American league club, who was the thrill of f, the league last season with his ' double breaking spltball. Krause bad ' no confidence In any catcher except Ira Thomas, and Ford could not work harmoniously without "Kd" Sweeney. j These catchers did all the thinking for the two great twlrlers, and their I work In the bos was purely me- ' chanlcal. f Krause ranged ten straight vie I torles In a row before he fell, In I I ten-inning game with the St. Louis team, then, as usual, In last place. f The secret Is this. Thomas was catch- lug him for the ten he put on the shelf. -Lapp was behind the bat for the eleventh, and It fell off and smashed. Krause pitched without confidence In his catcher's ludgment to outguess the batters, and be lost. The same thing was true of Ford In the post season series with the Giants. In the early Innings of the first game. Sweeney had his hand split open with one of Ford's eccentric spit-ters. spit-ters. The Highlander was never Vv f the same again. He did not pitch -V the wonderful ball bo Is capable of In that series. He had no con- X fldence In the lumbering Mitchell JSx to handle bis "spitiers," to think Ljl fast; In short, to outguess the bat- r,j ters. tTT Some catchers hare a very busy ' habit of talking all the time to l) 0 j,, annoy a batter In an effort to dls- t tract his attention from his work. it f John Kllng. or the Chicago Cubs, known In baseball as a bad man L i with a batter, "chewed" Incessant- J Iy during the world s series In which we won the championship , from the Cubs. He seemed to tl want to distract attention from fl the pitcher. A favorite line of jfjl bis was: V 1 "Now, lets try him on a fast oJJl one." It Is sort of an unwritten law Plar of baseball to let the flrrt one go by to get a wik at the style. Kllng would say: "lie liked the looks of that Let's try him n another." Then up would come a curve. A favorite trick of his Is to get the batter Into an argument, and have bis pitcher shoot over a fast one. He tried this on me in the first world's series. "So they say that you a.e the best base runner In th If' American league." was Ids r. f opening line. "Well, you are not up against American ' iwtr league catchers now, young w - fellow. Let's see you steal a , be If you get down." V'X I paid no attention to him, i v" although be evidently hoped S";. that I would turn around and reply, so that I would be AtZ-S Li ratight off my guard. And not In conceit, but, as a bis-torlan, bis-torlan, I relate the sequel. V- did get down to first base, j j and by pretending I was go- I Ing to steal, made him signal j to Overall to waste two balls Then, when be bad to put a strike over, 1 went down. ,!? Sometimes a catcher will pror overplay bis part In this respect, re-spect, and a remark dropped by him will give a batter the key to the situation which will enable him to outguess the pitcher. A thing ef this sort happened to me In Chicago on Say last saon. with Walsh pitching and Payne catching. Psyi e - i -4 a remark, w hich set my mind working and which led me to forecast what was eomWig. This cue and the resultant conclusion con-clusion I drew, based on the hasty hypothesis of Payne's remark, resulted In a timely base hit The conditions and circumstances of the bit are not likely to occur often In a game with Walsh pitching. He J4 Is a spit ball pitcher entirely. He V., aes his "spltter" and a fast ball -J "b no curves. On this occasion, "'S Payne signalled for either a spit Jjurt ball or a fast one, I don't know j which. Walsh shook his bead In V reply, and Payne gave him another :, I lrnl to which he again shook his Sl4 bead. ' " '"4 "You d""' wan' "'Is one?" Payne ijI mumbled In bis mask, but loudly Vjfp j enough for me to hear as he gave v a another signal. Walsh nodded aa- vl i IS'0W "re ,s nRt pl,,,(,e(1 through ; JJ my mind, after listening to the bint iJ 7 carelessly dropped by Payne. Two 1 it ere 0,1 ' ' ll'e t,M,e- mun wa H on third base, who, If he scored, I fl would put us ahead, and the count in 1 on me was two strikes and no balls. My flash of thought must have been instantaneous. 1 try never to pay bb ny attention to the monologue of a catcher, but Payne Is naturally a reticent man, and his remark surprised me. Walsh had refused to pitch until he had received re-ceived a certain sign. This made me think that It was not going to bo a "spltter" or a faBt one, evidently the first two signals given. by Payne. He can't Intend to waste a ball, I reasoned, because the man Is on third, and he doesn't think he Is going to try to steal. Then It struck me. ; "Can It be a curve?" I asked my- elf surprised. "Hut he never A throws one," I argued In my mind, t) Then I remembered the surprise X--. betrayed In Payne's "You don't V want this mm." The remark, mum-bled mum-bled In bis mask, bad supplied the key. I took a chance. It was a curve, and I called the turn. It V was the first and last one Walsh ever threw ine, and probably he '"" would have slipped It over, had It (mmf not been for Payne's poorly sup- tg pressed surprise. That cost Walnh If the game. It must be remembered f-g by the reader that all this giving of signals and reasoning took place In about a minute's time. A ball player must think fast Old "Cy" Young, one of the Solons of baseball, crossed me once In almost the same way with reverse re-verse English on It. It was a case of him outguessing out-guessing me. The veteran Cleveland pitcher Is as different from Walsh, In his style, as white Is from black. "Cy" relies on a curve and a fast ball, never using a "spltter." Young had two strikes and one ball on me in ta game In Cleveland. He walked out of the box and rart way to the catcher to receive the ball Easterly, catching, signed for an offering that did not coincide v . 'th "Cy's" Idea of the exigen-a-jf cles of the situation. The old . .- F' fellow shook his head twice, if which Immediately forced me V ? to conclude that It would be l neither a curve nor a fast one. Oldrlng was on first bane at the I A time, and I guessed that "Cy" , must want to waste one. think- ng he was going to try to steal. When the ball came to me about chin high, I at once concluded -that my diagnosis was the correct cor-rect one, and I let It go. Hut, when about two feet In front of me. It broke across my letters, a beautiful strike, and I had not rmS 'Tn "ken my bat off my shout- der. "Cy" had dished up a splt-I. splt-I. ter from somewhere In bis as sortment, and I didn't even know that he could throw one. He simply outguessed me and caught me in the arms of Morpheus. He bad wet the ball, while walking away from the plate with his bark to me, after getting It from Easterly, thus giving ncint that be was going to throw a "spltter." Young invented this trick and applies It oc casionally to great advantage, I have learned since, catching a batter off bis guard. Hut he depends for the most part on a curve and a high, fast ball, relying on his wonderful control con-trol to put the ball where he wants It That "whisker" trimmer of his, which Is a high, fast one in the vicinity ,r.K of the neck. Is a villainous ball, f A pitcher of Young's type would CSbsm lust as soon tell the batter where sf '.V"""- he Is going to try to throw the "Cfc- r , , ball, because It Is generally known fyl" ) U that he Is pitching at a batter's 'VN? weakness. .' " - So batting in the big leagues la 'o largely a game of thought. The Kf- i man who outguesses the pitchers 1 accumulates the most hits and 1 the largest batting average. Lajot V 1 j Is the only exception to this that )4 . I can recall. Of course, self-con- Ws5 lldence Is an absolute necessity to v" any suceJor',V.W. but the Cleveland second baseman Is more ad chock full of reliance In his own batting ability than any other j player I know. It lsiot conceit, f- just faith In his eye "le shuffles out to the plate, 'm,o, carelessly, and bangs his bft down two or three times as if to say to the LaJ pitcher: "Toss one up here and hurry up about it I'm not particular." He seldom lets the first one go past him. Ho gets bis poise, takes a couple of short steps, wades Into the ball, and bang! "You can't get one by me," bis manner appears to challenge. He j Is simply bulging with confidence. r He Is the one hitter and the only successful one I ever saw who appa- rently doesn't try to guess what the pitcher Is going to throw and really JK' doesnt care. Pitchers have never A y been able to discover any "groove" yV that be Is concealing. He simply wades in and bits at any kind of fi a ball. He Is one batter In a thou- V sand. , If Tyrus Cobb, the Detroit star, Is the exactly opposite type of bitter. He Is thinking all the time be Is at the bat, figuring, planning, to out- I guess the pitcher and the fielders, In baseball parlance "to cross" bis op- ' , pements, a legitimate procedure. If I"" be thinks that the third baseman expects a bunt, he will hit It out He never chases a bad ball, and bo makes a pitcher work to the last i-J notch. He worries many of the 1 men In the box by his restlessness. yvhl and because he Is constantly guessing guess-ing right. He has almost clairvoyant ability to outguess a pitcher. In some games, I have been able to guess right almost every time that the pitcher has thrown the ball to me and yet have not bees able to get a Lit. There is a great dlf- C" ference In pitchers. Some TJ are easy to outguess, f '1 and others are as bad as t a Jig saw puzzle, and I Tjjk ' tl ' never worked out one V ,, i ... of thfwe In my life. I know siitne men who ii; I ' 24Z- have mannerlxms In the S.' box which i-etray defln- Itely the sort of a ball to be de- j llvered These little physical , eccentricities are true Indices and often cost men, who would f-? otherwise be successful pitch- ers, many games. It may be r-'"" the twist of the wrist In throw- V'' Ing a curve ball, or some motion r t of the foot peculiar to a "spit- ; ter" that divulges the essential 1 secret This tell tale sign Is . fatal to a pitcher, when players .1 get on to it, and It usually does not take bis opponents long to discover and associate It with a certain kind or be.lt. Working in combination to outguess the batters, bat-ters, a catcher wi: often help a pitcher aut by talking Incessantly, hoping In this way to distract a hitter's attention from bis business. Street of tbt Washington club Is one of the worst talkers In the business, and Is called In some strata of baseball "Gabby." From the their control Tho catcher la obviously Included in the guessing match which always results when a batter faces a pitcher. I recall a funny Instance of "Hal" Chase making Ira Thomas look llko six nickels in a game last summer. sum-mer. Thomas formerly played on the Yankees, and, at the tlma, Chase's sign for the squeeze v play was given by putting his i right hand to his nose. Ira had j tTHK when they were team mates. 1 4 W A "ut on lnl" occa8lon. Chase f9i was playing on the New York ' C'UD- an(1 Thomas was catching ;A' ' 'I on the Philadelphia team. It was j-v''i( J ,n th e'8bth Inning with the jrf - score tied, and a New York run- fJI i ' h ner on third base, champing on I T nli el,tllc t0 et home when J fli Chase stepped to the bat. One was out. "HwT went irouwU the usual preliminaries of knock-rn knock-rn Ing the dirt out of his spikes, fix- 1 Ing his hat the firmer, as If he L ) i expected to take a long run and didn't want to be called back to Jf 3 get the cap, and spitting on his "-" bands. Then he put the first ole. digit of bis right hand to the side of his noso. "What are you going to do, Hal," asked Ira, "frame up something here?" Thomas did not expect to find out anything by the question, but wanted to drag Chase into conversation to get his mind off his work. 'Sure I am." replied Chase, and he repeated the old sign very de-4 de-4 liberntcly. p "What." exclaimed Ira, "you're not giving me that sign, thinking 7 I'm not Jerry to It?" ' ' "That's right. Ira," answered r Chase rarelcssly. "I bad forgotten forgot-ten you knew, but It goes anyway." any-way." This conversation wns carried on while Plank was pawing around In the box and preparing to pitch. As the tall southpaw wound up, Daniel started In from third base. Plank delivered a perfect strike, nnd Chase half bunted and hal hit the ball, which allowed Dnnlels lo score. "Hal" bad beaten Thomas at his own game. He had given a sign that Thomas knew, nnd which the latter lat-ter did not for a moment think bad been passed out seriously. Therefore Ira did not signal for a Ite. pltchout as he would have done if he had guessed the play was coming Thus Chsse double-crossed Ira. A ball player is trying to outguess the pitcher from the time he leaves tho bench until he sits down again. He doesn't terminate his engagement at the plate. As soon as a batsman bats-man becomes a base runner, bis object Is advancement. Every "all player knows exactly ex-actly how much of a lead he can lake off first base on a certain pitcher ar.d not get caught. There are recognized standards In the '"'-big leagues. For Instance, know rcmjT. that I can go fifteen feet away V from the bag and get safely bac k 1 ; - '" - wlth White of Chicago ! tw-"'. 1 pitching, but If I' ao a sten over 1 -rj ten feet on Walsh of the same 1 - j dub I will probably get nipped. ' "4 J ' ,ant exactly explain what I T ( mean, but when I once get ac- 1 ' customed to a pitcher's delivery, 1 ' I know how far to venture. x Y In base running, I believe ' ,nat be secret of 1 success Is the start. 1 absolutely. Speed is ' r ) r'at asset but ( the start Is eve-y 1 .,.'r thing i Chase. Outguessing the ' pitcher and catcher Is 1 a sort of Instinct which some players have and ' others never attain. A man seems to do it by 1 Intuition and often cannot tell Jut wht con- ' crete hypothesl Jeads him to reach a certain conclusion. Hut believe me. It Is a great art for a ball player to have, a great art. and one to ' be cultivated. |