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Show PECULIARITIES OF BIG LEAGUE SLUGGERS ' it ' a 7 ly I Xv? n VV.-'y , - v A y Right Handers Who Hit the Ball Hard. A perusal of the batting records brings out a peculiarity. It uncovers the fact that, the majority of the greatest great-est sluggers the game has produced have been right-handed hitters, yet, the bulk of high percentage hitters are left handers. The left-handed batting stars for the most part, are speedy afoot, the right handers are clumsy to an extreme, most of the right handers have been big men; the left handers run. to the diminutive on the average. Old Cap Anson was a right hander. So was Ed Delehanty, who could drive a ball as far as any man in the game. Lajoie and Wagner, the veterans, are starboard clouters. 'Cactus' Cravath, who lammed the fences over and anon last summer, is a right hander. Fred Merkle, the long-distance banger of the Giants is a right hander; "Piano Legs" Hickman, famous slugger of a few years ago, was a right-handed swinger. On the other hand, Cobb is a Southpaw South-paw clouter. So are Collins, Baker, Kauft, Speaker, Daubert, Luderus, and Doyle. With the exception of Baker and Luderus, all are fast men. Excepting Ex-cepting those two, none can be classed as a terriffic slugger; at least none is in the Cravath, Lajoie, Wagner, Delehanty Dele-hanty division. They hit the ball hard and far but it is their speed that enables en-ables them to take unto themselves each year a husky average. ' - Wilbert Robinson's Advice. Wilbert Robinson, the brainy Dodger leader, was asked "If a youngster, aspiring as-piring to become a big leaguer, asked you from which Bide he would swing at a ball, what would you tell him?" Robinson, who has been in baseball since 1882 answered: "My first advice to him would be to swing from the side in which he packed the most shoulder power. That's the main essential es-sential in hitting. In cases where a youngster has almost equal power in his shoulders, I would advise that he bat left handed. "A left-handed hitter always is from three to six feet nearer to first base than s the right hander. When a right hander takes his position he is on the far side of the plate; the left hander is on the near side. When the right hander hits the ball, the swing pulls him farther away from first, whereas, a swing actually sends a left hander nearer to the initial bag. "When you take into consideration how often during a season that a throw beats a man to first by just one stride, you can appreciate the great advantage there is in hitting left handed. "But this fact shouldn't influence a youngster who bats left handed normally nor-mally to shift to the other side unless he has as much or greater power in his left shc-lder as his right." As to Lajoie and Wagner. "How much better do you think those batting stars Lajoie and Wagner would have batted if they had Deen left-handed left-handed hitters and fast afoot?" "From 20 to 40 points each season during their prime," answered Robby. "Both men rank among the greatest sluggers the game has produced. They never scored fluke hits. When they made safeties they earned them by terrible ter-rible walloping. . "At least 25 times each season Lajoie La-joie and Wagner have been beaten out of hits to the infield because thsT arrived ar-rived at first just a fraction of a second sec-ond behind the ball. That means the stride. Batting from the left side would have put that stride in their favor fa-vor and those outs would have been hits. "But both those men are normal right handers. They have the real swinging power in their shoulders. Had they shifted to. the port side they would have gained that stride, but would have sacrificed their mighty slugging slug-ging ability. So in their case, as in the case of any normal right hander, it would be folly to' change to the left side." |