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Show ; 1 ' J BY lilLLY MU1IPIIV. 'H Foxy Clark Griffith, whose raem- v ry runs back to the days of the '.IllSfC gant ftusie and the wonderful Rad- ' bourne, declares that Walter John-; John-; . . sop Is the greatest pitcher that ever ? ..' ) The new. Federal League's officers . ' evidently believe the same, for they " offered the great Washington hurler ' wf' ' a $100,000 salary for a three-year ; j . contract 'before they found out that mtr. lie had already signed with the ' Washington club for next season. B1 r., Cobb was rated at $45,000 Tor the ' Wt . Fanie term and Joe JacUsqn at $05.- . . OOOV Tris Speaker was thought to bo Mm " worth $50,000 to the outlaws for the V same period. So pn down the HsU I & but with Johnson far transcending any of the stars in value. f. . Not only .does Clark Griffith' de- '; ; clare that .Johnson is the greatest v twlrler that ever lived, but It seems' ift - that "there are others"- of tho same ' opinion. ' . . ? '" ? "Griffith, who kii ws more of the 1 ''big fellows titan any ' other man, ' recollects old Hoss Radbourne In the - t days when the lattcr's every day cf- 'i I- forts would have put the modern '-'Iron man'! to shame, Griffith says that for a day-aftcr-day hurJor. nobody ever approached " Jta'dbourne, but the game in those days required less of a pitcher 1-hs.n v ' .' the 'paBtlme as played at present. . ' Griffith declares that Radbourne i was a mighty man orr the mqurid.. ' . but he was not to be compared, with ; . Johnson on the score of Innate f pitching -power. '-'"". ' 'Mathewson, according-to Griff, Ms an artist ' ; Jt is not alono that Matty lias stuff, but also he exercises copious thought with his arm, and once ho linows a batter's weaknesses, ho never varies, from feeding that hitter the sort of -bajls he cannot -hit. But Johnson. Is even beyond Mat-f. Mat-f. ty, in the mind of. Griff. Rusie, the ' : former says, he has" pitched a5a.in.st I time and time again, and Griffith I corrects a,n'lmpressipn. regarding" the J- beefy Hoosler, It has always bpen supposed that speed was the greatest aBsetof Amos. Griff declares that "belief is not the truth. Rusio's prime pitching possession, declares tho Old Fox, waa his curve. It was not a drop, but a side-arm curve that broke sideways and was under the absolute control of its I master. ' "Believe me," said" tho Washlng- ton leader In a reminiscent vein, "I ! have seen, them all come and go, but !' Johnson is the greatest of the Iqt. I j don't say this merely because he happens to be a member of my X club". 1 I ' ( "I mean that from the bottom, of I my heart Radbourne, Rusle, Mat ty, all of them wero wonders, 'but i none of them was as good as John- son. i WONDERFUI WHITCTJER A PARAGON OF PITCHERS. "Walter has everything. You , i hear a lot of, wrlseacres talk about I I .his speed, as if that were the only I - thing he-possessed. This is a mis- 1 I - take. i'T I . "He has a splendid curve ball . ; . and- a change of 'pace. "And agaln ho uses hie head con-! con-! etantly. There is none of. them a bit wiser than Johnson and none of - who takes as good car of himself. I1 hasn't a - single .habit that would impair his ability or hurt lils I usefulness: He Is big and strong, II and 1 m certain that hp will be I; Pitching Just, as good fifteen years IK from now. 1 "For pitching as pitching is re- sarded in baseball, Walter ' John- . I -5,.n,'Ia 0 firrpatest'of them all." s Johnson, who waa presented with j a Chalmers car hecauso a com- , mission' of newspaper men declared J "I services to his team of greater value than, those of any other play- j or in the American League, was not 'of voting age "when ho pitched ; . his first gamp In fast company, t ". He w-- born In Humboldt. . Kan., ( n N'ovemhor 6. 1S87. and ho made J his dobut in tho American lioaguo I an; August 24 1907r Detroit being th. ?r8t team to get a chance to . ' bat - against tfie "Waho phenom." 1 ' Johnson dld" not twist the-Tjfgers' 1 ta. and. neither did the Tigers claw him so tha't-'he'-.had to seek medical aidi"' ' ' , Johnson ' pitched eight Innings against them;' limiting tho Tigers 'to two runs and six hits. His dls-coveror. dls-coveror. Cliff Blankonship, batted fpr him In .tho eighth and Tom Hughes -finished the game, which was a Detroit victory, score 3 tu 2. OS the "men who took part In that game',- only Johnson himself. San. Crawford 'and Ty Cobb remain in big league company. Though .he lost his first game, Johnson .had " ,thc satisfaction of knowing that hfs work had pleased Manager Joe- Gantillon, and Walter Wal-ter was imjnedlatcdly qonsldcred one of the regular Washington pitchers, and took" his turn in tho box alopg with Torn Hughes. Cy -Falkenborg, Charley Smith and Hank " G'ehrlrig, since dead. Johnson in tho fall of 1907 was never once hammered hard by any of his opponents and most of the games he dropped were by low scores. Facing the St. Louis Browns for the first time, he was returned a loser, 1 to 0,; Barney Pelty pitching against him. The first time Johnson John-son twlrlQd' against tho Athletics lie lost- his battle, 3 to 2. Eddie Plank opposing him; Johnson's .New York dobut was made .September 12, 1907. Then he blanked the Highlanders, which ever since has been one of his favorite occupations, 2 to 0. Ho was particularly active In using us-ing the brush on them in Septem-ber, Septem-ber, 1908, blanking them, on Friday, Fri-day, September 4: Saturday, September Sep-tember 5, and Monday, September Septem-ber 7. BEATS NEW YORKS THREE GAMES CONSECUTIVELY. In those three games, the New York team acquired a dozen hits, making six In the first game, four in tho secpnd 'and-two in the third. The way that Johnson came to pitch three games in a row for Washington that year, yas that of ' tho fqur pitchers 'Manager CantU-lon' CantU-lon' took with him "to New York, all save Johnson were stricken with aliments- ' ' Tom Hughes ,a.nd Jesse Tannehlll both found they had sore arms, and Bert Keply.was felled with tonsil-' UIs. Johnson' undoubtedly would have Pitched all .four, games that series had ho not been hit with a pitched ball while ho was whitewashing the ISew Yorks for. tho third successive time, ... As a .kalsomner, Johnson is in a class b: himself,. No major league pitcher, ever has kept his adversaries advers-aries away from trie piate forty-four times In his first seven seasons. This is Johnson's achievement from, 1907rto:i913. inclusive, and In 1907 It must bo taken into consideration consid-eration tha,t he waa with the Senators Sena-tors only ono-thlrd of the campaign. cam-paign. ' 1 Johnson has specialized in strikeouts strike-outs as -well -as -in shut-outs. Hia greatest. year for -whiffing men wag i . L . 1 . 1 in 1910, when, he .claimed 313 victims vic-tims -in about. forty-two full games. In 1912 in 3GS innings, he struck out 303 men. Johnson's best achievement achieve-ment in 3trike-out3 in a nliie-fnnlng game took-place on August 31, 1910. when he fanned fourteen of the St. Louis Browns. Last year he retired sixteen of the Planters on strikes in eleven and two-thirds Innings, tho date he turned the trick being July '25. On July 12. 1910. Johnson John-son made thirteen of the Browns hit nothing but the air in a game that was only eight innings long. Johnson never has been able to pitch a no-hit game In fast company, com-pany, but he thrice has almost turned the trick. In the opening game of the campaign in 1910. he limited. tho Athletics to one safety, mado by J. Franklin Baker, and that same season he confined tho Browns to a single hit. poled by Ar-thurTruesdale. Ar-thurTruesdale. On- Juno .10 last j-ear Detroit was able to obtain only one hit off Johnson. SPKCBALL CAUSE OF FAILURES OF IIURLERS. When the spltball canio Into Prominence eight or nine years aSo, all of the star pitchers of that Period learned to pitch it in practice, prac-tice, but nearly all of them decided to have nothing to do with It for fear-that constant use of the spit-ball spit-ball would have a bad effect on their pitching arm. Only a very few of tho very best hurlers took up tho new faugled delivery. Cy Young was one. of those who would not use the splttcr. Christy Mathewson was another. Chief Bender and Mordecai Brown also turned it down. On the other hand the spltball "was the making of several pitchers who would have long ago been relegated rele-gated to the minors except that ITPPER left Joe Jackson. Upper right Walter Johnson. Second row, from left to right Ray Schalk, Tris Speaker and Walter Johnson. Below Wallie Schang. . they became very adept In using it and it proved so effective that they cut out all other deliveries .from their repertoire. Among these may be mentioned Big Ed Walsh of the hWlto Sox. and Russell Ford of the New York Americans. Now, however, good Judges say these two men have, ruined their "arms hy constant uso of the spltball. Walsh was of practically no use to the Chicago club last r season, while Ford, won very few game for Now: York. Johnson blames the spltball for the downfall, of these two great pitchers. He says: "The spltball is winner, I'll admit; ad-mit; but it ruin3 a . pitcher's -arm In time. If Ed Walsh, for Instance, had nover used the- spitball, ho would have had no trouble with hid wing. The same applied to Ruescll Ford, who lost his effectiveness last season. "The pitching of the world's series was devoid of new wrinkles. Bender Bend-er and Plank depended almo3t entirely en-tirely on speed and curves. Bonder mixed in a Blow one. how and then, whlqh had the Giants swinging at nothing. "Bush had a 'Jump ball which was nothing more than tho time-honored time-honored In8hoot. delivered so that it would pass close to the upper part of the body. Mathewspn's fadeaway, fade-away, so-called, was a drop ball with an oUt-curve, delivered so that It would shoot down past the waist . '' rT "You can puzzle the best bats--. men by sending up a different kind o'f ball each time. , Tlietifhe. doesn't know what to expect and cannot set himself for a healthy swing. '- "In the long, run, however, speed counts when you put the ball over the 'plate without delay and get the Batsman in the hole as quickly as possible." TyA'OBB GREATEST srAni slVirsi-JOHNSON. -.' Johnson believes that Ty Cobb Is the greatest ball player the game hag ever known. They tell me. that there were '..some'" old timers that could beat tho . Georgian at some tricks of the. game," biit "they will have to show me," said the great pitcher. "Just to show you how fnst Cobb thinks." said Johnson, "1 remember seeing him In a game where he was running for third base. "The third sackcr had muffed the ball and as Cobb was speeding into the. base, he saw where the ball had fallen. Quick ns a flash, ho slid Into1 In-to1 ,the base in such a way as to kick the ball away from the diamond and ' before tho baseman knew what had happened Mr. Cobb had scored. "Cobb Is always puliing the unexpected un-expected and never seems to overlook over-look a bet. He Is not well-llkcd by the various players. Naturally. Cobb is a very "sensitive fellow ana sort of suffers from the sentiments the players seem to manifest toward him. There Is no better fellow at heart than Cobb. He Is clean and honest, but his peculiar temperament tempera-ment holds him aloof from people whom he really likes. These people peo-ple believe Cobb Is suffering from exaggerated ego. when the man really real-ly Is sighing for company and good fellowship. Thero are lots of fine--grained fellows-liko Cobb, who don't know how to assimilate with their fellows, much as they Would like to," Managers don't always treat tholr players right according to , the Washington Star, but Conn'e Mack is not one of them. ' "There's one prince of a fellow.", declares Johnson. "Why, there isn't a manager anywhere who treats his players better. He doesn't always say he's giving them 'hlg salaries., but one thing they always get what lie says they do. T ' "And he never sticks si fine 011 his men unless the offense is very grievous." griev-ous." "Johnson's opinion was Interesting, now read what the great Georgia cracker thinks of Mr. Johnscjn: ''"There Is one pitcher I would rato above all others," said Cobb only the other day. "Right off-hand, T do not think of a single club against which he Is weak, or single big league batter, in fact. Of course, spme men hit him harder than others, but this can be laid more to the individual jibllity of tho batters bat-ters than to the Idea that thoy have nnythlng on hlni. The pitcher I refer to is Walter Johnson, of the Washington team, and I consider him the greatest In the world. ' "He combines everything that a. successful twlrler needs. He .tins a 'line, fast-breaking curve, ancl ho is famous for his speed. T do not exaggerate when I say that his fast one has been so good on a dark day that I. have never seen the ball pass me and am l ) v only . aware of the fact becauae I, -have lieard .-it'strlke the catcher's 5 glove.-.? ,He als.o has the smootlV ,cveii. unexcitabre temperament" found in all the best' pitchers. N0U1-, lug worries or irritates llm. Ha is afraid of no team or no hitter. He' knows he has the stuff, and ho goes . In the -box to win. His opponents make little difference to him. Johnson John-son also hqs very sound sense. "LikoTrnp'st ying.. pitchers wjicn lie .Ijrst came tovthu AVas'hlngtoa . chib..he was eager to make a gceat .record .and. sensational 3tart jfor himself, and he knew he had tha stuff. He used to put all he had on everyt ball hoi.pitched. and would go through 'tliegariics 'right along' with the hits against him totaling less than five. His club got to figuring j that one run was enouyh to win 1 . for them with Johnson pitching and, j with this margin, they would ouit ( hustling for runs. Pitches on op- i ' posing teams would duck the as- ( signmcnt to go into the box against the Washington wonder, pleadfng j sore arm, or some other alibi, but , really foreseeing defeat a condition condi-tion which helped to beat them before be-fore they started and not being anxious to have an almost positive , cavity put Into their records with- , out even the chance of a run for j their money. Even now, when a pitcher beats Johnson it is hard to ' convince him that he is not thM wonder of the world. AMBITIOUS TO SET A A RECORD FOR AJ,D TIALE. But Johnson has changed his tactics tac-tics recently and is saving himself. He Is ambitious to last a record length of time at his chosen profes- slon and continue to draw down his , record salary for some years to j come. A few seasons ago. he roust- ed some of the players for not hupt- 1 ling harder to get runs behind him when he was in the box. Ho was j talking" to mc about this one day last summer. j " 'I used to hand thorn everything j I carried all the time, no matter what the situation was.' he told me. ; 'But. taking a tip from Griffith and other wise pitchers like Bender, Mathewson and Plank. I have laid ' ofT giving them both barrels at all , tstages. If 1 have a comfortable lead( I slow up. They make runs for the other twlrlers, why shouldn't the for mc?' ' 1 "When he slows up, ho is better than most of them at top speed. There has been a lot of talk about the Athletics stealing battery sis, but if they want to get signs agalns.f Johnson and take a chance, they are welcome to the information. 1 w0"' j not take signs against him if they , offered me double the salary 1 g j for doing It. What good would tho money do mc if I was only ill for tho ; undertaker? I don't want to W ' tipped off to a curve and be up there set for it. only to be greeted by a j fast one from which there Is no ( opportunity to get away with John- j son throwing the bojl. I'd hale w; , have him 'bean' mc." ; - . t |