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Show i CHANCES WITH BASE STEALER Stealing second base In an important impor-tant ball came is a pretty difficult 'ask. but figure show- that the runner, run-ner, especially if a fast man like fobb. Rescher. Collins or Erers should bo able to beat out the ball in the major-! major-! Ity of cases According to accurate recording of the time taken b the pitrher In delivering de-livering the ball to the eatcher the catching of the sphere by the backstop back-stop and his throwing to seeond. the grabbing of the ball by th baseman tnd putting It on the runner, 'he stealer steal-er and ball shall arrive at the bag at exactly the same instant. But the piicher. catcher and second baseman j have to make an absolutely perfect play to keep up the best figures, and there are man chances of a slip up of a fraction of a second that is al-.vM6 al-.vM6 to ihr advantage of the runner. The pitcher has to throw the ball approximately 6S (ot. the catcher has to receive It and throw to the second baseman, a distance of 132 feet. The baseman ha? not only to get the ball securely in hie mitt, but he must put It on the runner, and when the pilfer- J er U coming in spikes first there has to be some slight amount of eautlon used In this While the pitcher, catcher and baseman base-man are performing their stunt, the runner has to cover about feet or less. With a clever pitcher and first baseman working together the chances1 are that the runner will get a lead off the bag of only five feet leaving him 85 feet to run while 'he ball Is being thrown about 200 feet. The 200 feet Is somewhat of an estimate, for allowance is made for the arching of the ball In the long throw to second base and the fact that the catcher stands behind the batsman The player must run the 85 feet In three and one third seconds to be sue eessful The average time of the play from the pitcher to catcher to batsman bats-man is shown to be two and three-quarter three-quarter seconds when a straight ball Is being used, three and three-quarter seconds on curve balls and on spit balls or slow balls three and a quarter quar-ter seconds Actual figures of the official records of the major league for three years show that nearly 60 per cent of the attempted steals of the fast men are successful, while some of the stars get away with at least 70 per cent of their attempted pilfers |