Show LEFT HANDERS WITH WilLOW DISPLAY CLASS Increasing Number of Southpaw Batters Listed In Game BY fly GEORGE SpecIal Correspondent of Tho Stand Stanel- ard Examiner Copyright 1923 IS 22 by Th The Standard Examiner Standard Standard- Examiner NEW YORK YORI Jan Left hand 27 Left batters are ara Increasing out of All ali pro pro- proportion proportion pro proportion portion as compared with the th In- In Increase increase In Increase crease of left hand pitchers accord accord- accordIng accordIng accord Ing to President John Heydler of the National league leafu Furthermore the biggest and most brilliant drawing cards of tho the game tamo today are ar those thos who perform sensationally with the stick rather than In the th pitchers box boC figures ures Just glance glanco at the th facts and fig fig- fig ures said laid Heydler today and YOU will find that the most promInent batsmen of today are arc with very few exceptions Of course Rogers Hornsby 1 Is the big bit exception It Is a a debatAble question why we have had this tendency to left hand batters left left Many believe the th left left-hander Is generally better because he h is 15 to first base has and therefore should get there more quickly Then some folks add that a left-hander left al- al al always ways nays ays has been able to bunt better than a right hand batter Records will show that more left left-handers bunt successfully year In and year out than do th right hand batters National Now some somo have said that the th Na- Na Na league could be called the school of I light hand batter battery and the American league the th school of ot the thel left hander This Thia theory started ove over the long Ions rivalry that existed between Wagner agner TyCobb a right hand batter and Ty Cobb who as we wo all know stAnds on the th opposite side sido of the th plate plat when he swings In Itt my opinion Wagner was the th greatest fr test right hand hitter of them all although many fans fan believe POp Anson the th greatest I am proud of the th reputation that has been ben given riven the tho National league for Its great right hand hitters but ne that league is today recognizing that left handers are do- do de developing eloping faster fast r than handers right It If BC no follow the tho list of National league batters batter after who tops them all 1111 we w find that many of our prominent batters botters are or left hand ers ors and again acain it makes maltes me mo doubt that we w are ar developing hand left left pitchers In proportion Which brings brines us to tho the second as- as as assertion that baseballs baseball's spotlight has shifted from pitchers box to the plate Everybody has been talking about the theay nay ay iv ay that batting has picked up The pitchers have talked about it until the tears ran down their cheek There was nas a time timo when the th great groat pitcher stood higher In the th baseball world than the leading batsman lb the old days the th first thing thine the at 0 aver ago or- or ago age boy tried to do nas as T to emulate Clarkson or Keete or Mickey lIckey Welch Velch or Goldsmith or Radbourne or Mat Mat- Matthewson Matthewson Mat or some other man who ha had l made himself famous by pitching Almost everybody thought some sometime sometime time he would make mako a home run like or George Gore but that a as secondary to the hope of becom- becom becomIng becoming ine Ing a great pitcher Now It is differ differ- different different ent The pitchers are losing their grip as heroes and the boys are thinking ot of becoming Ruths Cobbs Speakers and ond It If left hand pitchers pitcher were de eloped In proportion to left hand left batters would it not be b likely ts 18 President Heydler Intimates that there would bo be fewer fetter fe er batters batter s hitting abnormally well Everybody the tho left hand pitcher is a check on most left hand batters It is perfect perfect- perfectly perfectly Iy ly natural that he h should be To the th boy of to today it may bo be news that there ther was a time tim in baseball 1 whon the th left-hand left pla pia er was looked do don donn n upon It If a man batted left left- left handed handed volunteer teachers attempted att to Instruct him how to bat right right- handed handed If It a 0 beginner pitched left left- l handed t-handed handed moro more than often two-thirds two of the tho players and fans tans began beean to yell to change chango pitchers especially K It he h were a 0 little wild A right hand pitcher could be b wild and it would be b looked but ne neter er in tho the case cs of a left left- lefthand left left hand hand pitcher Now it Is suggested su and not with with- without without without out good reason that It would not be bad medicine If It there thore could bo be b found some high class left hand pitchers to stop the tho on of somo some slug slug- slugging slur slur-cinc gins ging left-hand left batters batter ba rs |