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Show I HANDLING Ae BIG GUNS in BASEBALL I f ? st: 'SpWfj Ifll' Star Pitcher Has His Favorite Catcher and the "Inside" Work -. SWftSS Kf H Si WmPMWMm ! $$", . --1 ilk " annmBf ft $3 4 M "1 (Copyright, 1011, br the New Tort Ilcral.j Co. All rights rewreU.) s i ERTAIN names have; always been linked to- I'-. i A'cther. Damon and Pythias Paul and ir- I , frlnlQ, Klaw ancLTSrlanger, "Weber and Fields, ft Xi Mathewson and Meyers. Brown and Kllng, Ruekor and Bergen, Walsh and Sullivan and 2 Ford and Sweeney come in the same breath. Wouldn't ;F Damon and Meyers sound funny? Or Brown and Er-5 Er-5 I lunger or even Rucker and Sweeney V These comblna-T comblna-T if tions haven't the right ring to them. They grate on j i t the ear. They listen as bnd as a load quarter when ;"l dropped on the pavement or a split infinitive be- : tween the teeth of a college professor. 'I 3 ; "Mathewson and Kling for the Giants." shouts the i : umpire, and the fans t-lt up and stir about. "What is : wrong? A false note has been struck. The sensi-"V sensi-"V J tivc car of the baseball fan has detected the discord. It doesn't sound right. And then the fan realizes. i f "Kllng?" Why, the Ideal That name doesn't go witu i Mathewson. But -J ''Mathewson and Meyers for New York," sings the r umpire. 1' Ah' That's harmony, as Bert Williams might re- I ' mark. It is music to the car of the fan, carefully tuned to the pitch or pitcher. When this announcement is M wafted over the audience of thirty thousand there is 9 no stir It is received as a piece of music perfectly K rendered It rings right. "Why? I ; "Because Mathewson and Meyefb always work to- Sw gether, ' replies the fan. Moie. They are baseball af- ft I tinities. Listen to the resounnce in the combination l names., and the alliteration and the poetry when t)ey il win, which Is quite often. Separate them and it sounds t unnatural. i ' Hnndllng the big guns of baseball Is no easy job. g It takes a certain man to do it. as It takes a trained I , marksman -to make the guns of the navy effective. I ; P The pitchers get all the credit and the glorv. but tne ' catchers are the marksmen who direct the tire of -l these big uns and train them to do the most deadly i;f damage. Separate the bJg pitcher from his regular will catcher and It Is like taking away die negathe elec ft 'J trofle of a storage battery. It promptly loses Its powe- l' to produce electricity'. I V Look at the combinations that have been broken up ) and the results. Last season while Kling was catcL- jl a ing the far famed "Three Fingered" Brown he was the most effective pitcher in the National League He had confidence in jesting John, and he pitched. ; Then internal disorders developed, having their source In the world's serins with the Athletics, the set of games which was so disastrous to the Cubs No one knows exactly what the difficulties were ex- - cept the members of the Chlcngo team, and they make f,l the Sphinx seem garrulous compared to the freedom with which they talk about the trouble. Professional k secrets! Kling has been sent to Boston, aud see the W effect on the pitching of Brown. He has delivered f just about one Influential game this season, sealed and ready for mounting in the Cubs' percentage column. 11 There are those who will say thft he is going back just naturally declining, but nevertheless It Is prac- ( tically certain that he misses Kling, with his steadying ) manner and quiet assurance behind the bat. Rumor hints that the trouble started between the 51 old battery mates after the second game ef the tfy world's series in Philadelphia last fall. The three j! fingered one was chosen to pitch this game, sud it j , wa predicted that he would make the Athletics look j foolish. He had gathered lutdde data on their styles jj t and knew Just what each disliked. For the rest he 1 depended on Kllng. Now, if that game had gone as the cxiHjrts had forecast the famous old batterv might f ttovcr have been disrupted. Ejij, Brown was knocked out of the bos. and he b'nimqd I k Kllng, so rumor continues He charged thnf tho J! I backstop refused to consider hit? Judgment and In- kjtf Blsted on feeding certain bater- a kind of ball that rifi he (Brown) knew they would thrive upon. More. Jrf ; Brown asserted thnt Kllng was giving his sUcnuls In III' such a way thnt "Topsy" HarlKcI, who.so eagle oye & and keen scent for signs make the celebrated S & Holmes look like a blind man, was getting each flash t'. ivom the coaching lines and communicating it to the Jff ' batsman. The result was that the hitter knew exactr i I fy -what to exnrct. and the tri-digltal pitcher was ri working w'ith loaded dice. So said Brown in his lro ill afler he Avas knocked out of tho box. I Champions Kse hard. J. .7. Jeffries said thatfhe vas doped after meeting one dark list too often' at Reno on our national holiday. Perhaps Harteel way getting Klhig's slrms. He Is a genius at it. Tcrhap1-' Kllng was beinc outguessed by some of the fleer footed base rmiuers of the Athletics., whom it had hecn predicted he would out down with his arm a? If it were a scythe It is certain that Kling, way doing ills best. He alone of all the Cubs lacked the confidence of chestiness before the Series, The others' thought lhat they wi-ie meeting a team of kld.s. John Kling's Opinion. "Say for me if you want to quote me." urged Kling the night before the "first game, "thnt I don't feel at all sure. Mack ha.s grla great team." Then, after Brown Tiad disintegrated in that .second came. Chance came down on Kling with all the drive of speech of which he Incapable? and he is a very competent com-petent orator along some line5;. This team of kid's had stolen his signs. It is alwnys "signs," not "signals," among ball players. GEORGE GIBSON ISta . 4 Pirates if ffi SKSrafc "CHIEF" MEYERS Ciants "You gave your signs so that a blind man in the next county could have gotten them." giumbled Brown to Kling In the club house aftei that game. The Cubs were a'&Ilent, sullen group, methodically putting on their clothes, accompanied by none of the shower bath badinnge that follows a victory Kllng resented the slur. It is hi nature lie docs not forget "That curve ball of your lo-day would hae made Eve looked ovei dressed. It had so little on It. I couldn't Identify It from your straight one." replied Kllng, ror he has a keen tongue The two have separated, and what has become of Brown n. n pitcher? Perhaps he Is getting old but -ma.vbc he has lost the one catcher who could get the niWt out of him the marksmah' who could direct and train and stead v thi Bin dun. ir vrns nrrnwni it when Bresnahan was. sent to S"t. Louis by MfClrawN-there MfClrawN-there would never be a man who could handle Mathewson .and get the be.sl out of him. And for a time it t-eemed that these prophets of evil had called the turn "Matty" lias slipped and skidded along for mo time during the season following ,Bresna-buu'j ,Bresna-buu'j departure, and It was said lhat he had receded aud was In the hearse on the way to his baseball grave. Then along came John Meyers, alias "Cliier Meyer., an Indian About tills interesting inter-esting ball person there is a word to saj "They n I ways told me," said -Meyers, "that I wasn't a catcher. When I went frOm Butte to St. Paul they said I would never make a catcher Tin.v said the same thing when I was sold to the Giants. Yet I am sticking, so I must have something." "How about handling Mathewson?" The big Indian smiled until It looked as if he was going to crush his features around into the back of his neck. "That has been one of tho pleasures of my life." he answered, "I neer knew how easy it was to catch until I started to handle Matty We uudetstand each other -o well now that I .seldom give signs. We -have leen together so long that I know exactly what he . is going to pitch In certain .situations." Meyers tirst leaped into the scramble for fame, monev and glory packing raisins into boxes in Riverside. Cai. His talent was directed -towaid stamping the labels onto the boxes after they had been tilled, As he was . not in loveVwIth his art he began to play baseball on the side, lie found this to be more rcinUnorntlv'u. ' than stamping raisin boxes, so he went down to iDl Paso, Texas, where he was otfeied a Job as government govern-ment Interpreter and a nice opportunity to play baseball. base-ball. The Indian speaks Spanish as well as ho does English, and Webster's Dictionary Is his favorite book. It -was In one of the baseball tournaments In Texas that Ralph Glaze, of Dartmouth, found "Meyers and ' Induced him to go to college. JIc was tried at foot ball. It was found that he had the ability and power to disarrange the facial topography of opposing oppos-ing athletes with surprising eahc, and he was hailed as .a gridliou hero when opposing teams began to question his previous record, lie freely admitted that he hod played baseball for money aud this stopped his progress as a college athlete. Mayers had made an imprcssjon on the Dartmouth faculty aud was asked to remain and complete his course, but he went to Hnrrlsburg, Pa wheie he started to play professional ball in earnest. The manager man-ager of that club went to Butte, in life Northwestern League, and, while he did not think that Meyers had the ingredients of n c-atehei, he was short of material lhat season and sent for the Indian. He had not been asked to renew his contract with Harrisburg the year before, and he went to Butte with the inevitable tag ot Iik career attached to him: "He'll never make a catcher." ' That is a hard thiug to live down in baseball circles. It's like dragging a ball and chain into your profession after you. The sentence "He .will never make an .i' tcr" lias killed many a young man just trying to .hlsel his way Into that school of art. It is usuany tittered bv some mauager who would have declared chit Henry Irving would never make gooa. Tr r.r uo-t went t M Paul, a club in the Amert-i can Association, and with him went the Inbel, "He will never make a catcher" He stayed In Ft. Paul for one year and '-as sold to the Giants for SG.OOO. "He'll never make a catcher," said "Mike" Kelley, "CHRISTY" MATHEWSON Giants r i g7..v.-i JOHN A. KLING fjgffijg ' IRA THOMAS BoJon StaSBaiikxisA Athletics the manager of the St. Paul team, as he accepted the check for Meyers. "Chief" Meyers' Success. "I'm here yet," said Meyers one day this season while telling of his baseball career, "'so I must have something. But I have h.d a bird time making good Some day I am going to write a book and call It 'How 1 Made Good In the Big League." When I first started every one was out to gat me. and all the crabs playing ball would come Into me spikes first and call me nil the names that they had been accustomed to apply to the umpires. I couldn't get back, for what clunge-has an Indian? "What chance has one ever had? "Mathewson? There is the greatest nitcber who ever 'set foot Into the bdx. Is It hard to catch him? No. I never knew how easy catching was until I began to haudle his goods. He has a head and thinks for himself. 1 don't have to keep talking to him al! v(.lie time and relliuj: lilin to' steady down and not to mind the coaches- 1 It hard to handle the big ones? No. It Is tho pitcher. Jn'sr hrpnklpg into the league W'ho gives the ca teller trouble," And, do ypu know. I 'would rather make six errors myself than see 'Matty' knocked om of the box? "Mnrquard was the pitcher with Avhom I had the most trouble when he was breaking Into the lenguc. He had the most wonderful curves that I have ever ; looked at. and when he was pitching' against bush a league clubs the batters couldn't see the ball. Rut he v hadn't been in uiore than two games In the National f. League when the other teams had discovered his one '' weakness his inability to keep on the ground. As 'X soon as he would start to pitch both coaches and the batter would get after him. while two or three players ? on the bench would make a chorus if they thought j that they cpuld get away with it. I have heard Clarke -Grimth shout: "'Watch his foot.' f. "He would do this Just as Marquard was about to & pitch, and 'Rube' would forget and throw a ball, f Then Grlthth would go through an elaborate kick to the umpire, asserting that Marquard was pitching i without keeping one foot on the rubber. The umpire t would go out to Investigate, and by the time that the j' little one act drama was completed Marquard wouldn't 7 TOi --- ' A ( fe, ' WS "BILLY" SULLIVAN 'm Ifll Chicago White Sox . RUSSELL FORD 'Highlanders know whether he was pitching baseball or shooting Kelley pool " "Steady up. Rube,' I would say. 'He is Just doing that to get your goat' But Marquard could no more steady up than a debutante who has beeu proposed to for the tirst time. ' 'You're a busher and always will be.' jeered Lobert. tlvn with Cincinnati, after he had made a triple off him one day., and the 'Kube' was so anxious to make .m d tn if he to-1 liN nerve entirely for a week. r .. -. t,i I'U-f. i, !! lectures in the morning about not minding the small talk of the coaches and batters. ,- ' i it uin ui it. They called it baeball taught nt home, but i hated to see a pitcher with Jill clint ability go back to the minors He has hist becun to lind himself now, and he i going to ' make one of the greatest pitchers that the game has ever known. If you don't believe It sit behind home plate some day and watch liis? curve ball. He still needs steadying up occasionally, occa-sionally, but he is practically practic-ally over his stage fright, and now is the time that he is going to get revenge on all those players who tried to spoil him whOD he wn breaking in. "Louis Druckc Is another an-other pitcher who is hard to handle He has plenty of nerve, but he lacks life, lie gels Into a tight place. " "Ginger up, Louis,' I say. aud lie spits on his hands and rubs them together, to-gether, as if he was about to pick up a piece of knitting. knit-ting. But the Big Fellow! It's a pleasure to receive for him." Many catchers think that one of their duties is to talk to bntteft, espocH ny vnnii" and misO'ilii-Hcated hitters. Ibis will uiteu iJilMhe IS i?rou.l"l..B candidate. John Kllng was 'LokTi""VwS warn tne nervous hitter "This 'follow I've got out there to-day Is a wild one. and if he uwiuin hii U liiuj be the last thing that you oyer-know oyer-know lie hit a natter last week, and the poor Jay isn't out of the hospital yet." ,,-,... , Then Kling would signal for a high, last one iu- "Yqu ought to wear a rubber on that left foot." he would sav after the batter had stepped back, the cardinal car-dinal sin'of a batter. "You almost stepped Into tlie water pail over by tho bench there that time." A good catcher Is the corner stone of a good bnlt club. He must sternly the other players and think-all think-all the time. He must drop a word -to a pitcher as he wabbles or di.-courago a battex He must iu?ect ginger. Bresnahau. of St Louis. Is a wonder at In-hPlrlnc In-hPlrlnc his men. He must hide hi- signals aud watch the bases- closely. He carries tho burden UKiiallv, and the pitcher gets all the glory. In many Instances the catcher does- all the thinking for botn. That is why taking away a certain man so ofton !pi"s a '.'nod pitcher. v An opposing team steals bases on a catcher, and gwfHH. I littrf 1 mM-1'.- issss? ism ih-yw he is blamed when usually It Is the pitcher's faul 41 for taking too slow a wind up or not holding the mat lH close to the bag by "frequent throws. Then there JH Is alv is a guessing match on between a catcher ; tH and a base stealer. If it is thought that the man is- J !H geing to try to get an extra base the "sign for a l pitch out It given. That is when the pitchei hurls H the ball widcTso that the caU-her has a better chance H to throw. If the runner can lead the catcher to 0 .H think that he is going to steal and get him to sign H for a pitrth out and then holds his base, he can get H the pitcher into a hole and upset the nnachluery 'JH of the club. H A Guessing Match. . H The coach will yell. "There he goes:" as nearly I H like the ilrst baseman of the club as possible In an 6 J H etfort to get the catcher to signal for a pitch out. ' JM The man behind the bat is fooled, jumps aside for . H a pitch oqt and the pitcher has wasted a ball, if jH ho can do this twice then the pitcher lias to put It , H over, and the runner has a much better chance of H stealing. j H "Watch his arm!" shouts Clarke Griffith, and a H base runner starts for second. I H It Is a signal. The catcher will listen for it jH Griffith repeats, and the pitcher wastes a bull. But H the runner stands this time as if he had grown fast. H .John Kling is one of tho wiliest catchers that ever H wore a big mitt He was outguessed In the world's (H series last fall by "Cddie" Collins, the second base- H man of the Athletics, who stole bases on him a I- H most at will. That Is one thing which led the. Cubs H to believe thnt the Athletics were getting their sign H for a pitch our. Kling worked an old trick In a H pinch once, and a serious crush It was. too. which M did a great deal toward turning the tide of the most I jH Important game ever played in baseball, and Is worth H recalling. H It was the play off contest in 100S between the UM Giants and the Cubs. In one of the early Innings 1 M llerzog, then young and ambitious was on tlrt i . H base. Tho Giants .apparently had gotten after i iH Pfeister and a rally had started. Kllng dropped a .WB strike, on purpose aud Hei.og fell lor the old trick .jH lie started for second base and was thrown out by t H a city block. The rally waned and later the Cubs ( IH won the game. f il Gibson, of Pittsburg, rated by mauy to be the best fH catcher -in the game to-day. is a constant chatterer iH to, batters, trying to worry them with his small tail;. J jjH Tiomas, of the Athletics, is a type of the mauufac- J jH tured catcher. When he was with the Yankees ' JjM siiverai'seasous ago he was slow, a poor thrower ami ) rl everything that a catcher should not be. Cornelius'" t 'H McGillicuddy "Connie"' Mack took hold of him JM and has made a catcher out of the man. It was - jH prophesied befoie the world's series last fall that H Chance's tleet ciew would steal as many, bases as . H tliey cared to on Ira Thomas and his leaden wing, j jH but he threw them out again and agaiu, and com- H pletolv outguessed the Cubs. It developed afler- . JH ward that "Billy" Sullivan, of the Chicago White rH Sox. who had the experience of one world's series fH with the Cubs., had coached Thomas diligently be- lH tore the coutests. jH There Is one gnind old catcher. William Sullivan. H Wlihont him "Ed" Walsh, with the spit ball. Is -not . 'H himself. . In a recent game with the Yankees this (!H .was shown. Walsh unci neen pitching groat ball unt 1 iH Rull'ivan was removed to niaKe room for a pinch . j'jH hitter, and the big l wirier lost in the tenth Inning. ' H -Sph ball iltehurs aiv tne lurdcsir fr oatehei-s-to Jm handle. Without Sweeney. Russell Ford, of the New m ork Ameriqtn League ilub. oses his value. 1 nis IH was the case In the post-season series with the Giants m last fall. Swi-enev n.ul his tingor slit during the .lrst H game and Ford pitched without comldfcncc U the hH miDberrng Mitchell aud lost. This pitcher bos the M niot eccyutrlc spit ball ot the lot and it is the most H dlUlcult to" haudlp. It breaks two ways and Ford lH alone. knows how he achieves this result. He liasnot M told bweoney this. It is his secret. IJI All these catcjiei-s admire their star pitchers wltn iH an admiration that approaches close on to udoratloii. "Those tliree that Matty put over In the seventh rH inning," said Movers, after "Big Six" had fanned some tH one m a crisis hi one of tho post-season games last jH fall, "wore the fastest three balls ever thrown by a M Pitehor 1 thought that they were going to bore a m hole through my glove." H 'Ua's got something to-day," says Thomas to a m newapaiier frienrt In the press stand, with an elabo- , -aH rate wink, meaning Coombs, of the Athletics. i jjH "How Is he?" Clarke asks Gibson, aftei" warming Tl ui) "Babe" Adams. ,7 j IH "The old Jump's on the ball," answers tho blgj Fll catcher, with n pleased smile. ,H |