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Show B m BY BILLY MURPHY. The practice of intentionally talking a batter who happens to come up at a time when a base hit meRns victory is not a popular one with a majority of the fans, though, of courBe. the pitcher must be glen credit for employing strategy when he resorts to this plan to help himself him-self out of a hole. It has been a question of how the rules could be changed to prevent pre-vent a pitcher from purposely walking a batter. He could surely do this without making it apparent that this was hlb purpose. The latest suggestion for a rule which would give the batter a chance under such conditions comes from the veteran Jack Doyle, one of the greatest players the game has ever known. Doyle would force the pitcher to put at least one ball over the plato before he could be allowed to walk f a batter. He claims that such a rule would give the batter a chance to show his prowess, The Idea Is a novel one, but it would not help matters much, for it would be neither fair to tho batter nor pitcher. If the batsman did happen to hit the one rood ball the pitcher would lose out just the same, and if the batsman did not chance to connect on the ball he would be in the same DOBttton as before. It Is not likely that the rule makers will make any changes covering cov-ering this point because It Is not an May matter to adjust in a satisfactory satisfac-tory manner. But what will the new rule do to the overworked hurlers, If it does ro into effect? Two redoubtable workmen of the box are probably out of tho game forever right ' now because they found the demand for toi efficiency too onerous, r0 Theae atari f the national game are "Big Ed" Walsh of the Chicago "White Sox and Jack Coomba of the Philadelphia Athletics. Never did tho Mackmen cross a Held that big Jack Coombs was not the first man signaled out for the favor of the fans. In the opinion of Connie Slack he was the greatest of the modern pitchers In a pinch. JACK COOMBS PLANA HURLING BIG OPENER. Singularly enough Big Ed Walsh, whom Jimmy Callahan, the boss of the Chicago White Sox, declared the reateit pitcher who ever lived in a pinch, broke down the same year aa Coombs. The latter pitched the first game of last season against the world's champion Boston Red Sox In a rainstorm. rain-storm. It was in the city of the Hub that he took the cold that finally I I turned Into tphoid fever at Washington. Wash-ington. Game to the core. Coombs battled bat-tled against the ravages of nls disease. dis-ease. Pronounced cured in September, Sep-tember, he reported to Mack, but broke down again. He is now out and plucklly says he will be In the box opening day of the 1914 season, The Mack Men won a pennant without Coombs, but the White Sox were not so lucky. Nearly everyone admits that If the Chicago club had the services of Walsh, they would come exceedingly exceed-ingly close to winning the pennant in spite of their weak offense. There may be considerable truth in this contention, too. for the White Sox of last season appeared every bit as strong as that team of 1906 which won a world's championship, cham-pionship, although designated as the "Hitlers Wonders." Whether or not Walsh could have bridged the gap between the Callahanltc-s and the Macks is not a part of this story, but a whole lot of tho fans throughout the country seemed to consider It a raw deal from the hand of fate that the White Sox did not have the services of the Big Moose. But there ts an old superstition that you cannot have the cake and eat It. Certain it was that Walsh could not go on forever working the way he worked for the past eight years. Even his magnificent physique was bound to show the effects of the load he was willing to carry. Only In one of the campaigns previous to that of last season had ho been out for more than a brief time. That was in 1909 when ho listened lis-tened to bad advice and held out for bigger money than his contract called for. He reported without any spring training and did not get Into real shape until well into the season. Walsh is indeed a wonderful specimen of a man. He stands over six feet in his stockings and is considered by many as the handsomest player that ever graced a diamond. ED WALSH BORN IN PENNSY MOUNTAINS. He was born in the Pennsylvania mountolns and grew tall and straight and vigorous as the pines of the hills he climbed when a boy. He was S3 years of ago when President Charley Comlskey biw him playing with tho Newark. N. J., team of the Eastern League. Almost at 6lght of Walsh, Comla-key Comla-key put in a claim for hie services. But Die Chicago president had quite a battle trying to land him In hla camp, as Walter Burnham, manager man-ager of the Newark club, claimed ho was exempt from being drafted as his club hud a prior contract to play in Newark in 1904. The big player was finally awarded award-ed to Chicago. While with tho Eastern League prior to Joining the Sox. Walsh was considered the speediest pitcher in tho game. He was e"tn then not only a great hurler. but a good all-around player, play-er, as he could play well both tho Infield and outfield positions and frequently did so. Walsh weighed 215 pounds In shape, btu notwithstanding all this flnew and muscle was exceedingly fast. Walsh started his career as a professional in 1902 with tho Meri-den Meri-den Conn., team of the New Eng- ITPPER left, Ed Walsh. Upper center, the Athletics Ath-letics arriving on the baseball base-ball field. Upper right, Jack Coombs. Lower left, Connie Mack. Lower right, Jimmy Callahan. land League. He was reserved for the season of 190J by that team. I lis phenomenal work attracted attention, at-tention, and after the Fourth of July he was sold to Newark, where he finished the season, winning over 70 per cent of his games. While in the Eastern he won double-headers for his club on four different occasions. Walsh was born in Plains, Pa,, May 22, 1882. He was a coal miner In his boyhood days and It was while following that work that he first showed excellence as a ball tosser. Walsh's great effectiveness as a pitcher was due to his spltball and It Is tho practically unanimous opinion opin-ion that his continued use of this shoot put him out of the game. Walsh, In hurling his fooler, always al-ways used a trifle of slippery elm-bark elm-bark In his mouth and moistened an inch square between the seams of the ball. His thumb he clinched lengthwise, tightly on tho opposite Walsh and ij Tnr .r Coombs WiThriil . ; - - v seam and, swinging his arm straight Overhead, with terrific force ho drove the ball straight at the plate. The American League - during the early life of tho spltter was referred to by Charley Dryden as consisting of "Ban Johnson, the spit ball and the Wabash Railroad." Walsh was the Radbourne ol modern days. Radbourne never ) . knew the meaning of the word "quit." Neither did Walsh. Other pitchers would insist upon a rest of four or five das between games. Walsh asked for no moro than twentv-four hours' rest. WONDERFUL DROP BALL OF ATHLETICS' PRIDE. A famous feat of Walsh's was turned in 1908, when ho pitched fifty-five games. He lost but fifteen of that number. Defending the lightest hitting team in the American League, Big Ed carried the Sox through the year. He practically bore them on his shoulders and when he set them down, they were tied with the Detroit De-troit Tigers for the pennant. He had to w in most of his games by holding his opponents down to one, two or no runs. Last year he broke down early in the season at St. Joe and was never himself afterwards, pitching few gams throughout the season. Of Coombs, Malachy Kittredge once said: "Coombs was one of the greatest pitchers who over lived, because ho mastered the greatest of all twirling assets, the drop ball that does not break from the right-handed batter. bat-ter. "I don't mean one of those out-drops out-drops but a ball that comes up to the plate squarely In the center and falls from one to two feet without changing its lateral direction. "Amos Rusle had the same ball and he threw it with tremendous speed. Rusle pitched that drop and mixed It up with a fast one In eless nnd the batter who could soive him consistently never lived. "They tell me that Ramsey and Other old-timers depended upon It extensively, but they never had the f speed of Rusie or Coombs. I It Is a wonderful thing to bo a great twlrler. ; Batting Is the soul of baseball. It is what the keynote of a nn- tlonal convention 3 to politics; I what the knockout Is to pugilism; what Hour Is to bread; what roast beef Is to England, and corn beef and cabbage to tho Irishman. It la the big punch and it takes a j wonderful slabster to stop tho big guns of the game when they are hitting or any other time, for that A .300 batting average has kept j many an Ivory skull in baseball. It causes managers to overlook errors of omission and commission. The Athletics defeated the Giants In two world's series by everlastingly everlasting-ly whaling the whey out of the ball, but they would not have done that If MeGraw had possessed Walsh, for the big Chicago Iron Man always al-ways found the Mack Men easy ED WALSH TWIRLED IS SIXTY-EIGHT BATTLES. Walsh's last season on the mound j when he performed In a big number of games was In 1912. He twirled In sixty-eight battles. Sixty-two of these were American League games and six of them were against the Chicago Cubs In the city In these latter games W ilsh failed to get Into only three of the nine that were played for at least an The 1912 records give Walsh twenty-seven victories and seventeen defeats, with a team that finished fourth. There a no doubt but if the White Sox marvel had been pitching for a contending team in all of hla eight years, as he was In 1 906, 1907 and 1908. ho would have made a showing in tho official records that would never have been equaled In the his-tory his-tory of baseball But. when the fans of the next decade look over past dope, they may wonder why Walsh gained such a reputation, unless they total up the number of games In which he performed- If the new sstem of ranking pitchers had been In use during the last nine years. Walsh would have been on top, or thereaboutB, every It was just his luck to he out of commission las' -r-aon. in which the American League pitchers were for the first time tested for actual ef- Several times Waish tried to come back last His attempt were pitiful. It was Sorrowful t" .-ee that once wizard of H the diamond try to exercise his old sway and potency when his waning H strength would not fortify his nat-ural nat-ural ability and cunning. The Chicago Iron man was broken and smashed, and with him went H down the whole White Sox' machine. Walsh believes he has regained his H Strength of arm. oombs Is recupor- H at'.ng In the Maine woods. That they may both come back and bring still groater honor and glory to the national game, is tho j Wish of every true fan- I |