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Show TO BASEBALL WORLD Boston. Oct. 31. George Stalllhgs has contributed quite a bit to the science of baseball this year and it is to he anticipated that his lessons will be taken io heart by other managers before the grass grows green again. The outstanding feature of Stalllngs methods are the outfield shift and thi three pitcher system. The latter Is not entirely new. of course. Staliiugs finished the season with seven experienced outfielders and one other who could play either infield or outfield. Such a flock of garden talent tal-ent is entirely new in baseball, although al-though some clubs, like the Giants, carry extra outfielders who are being groomed for regular duty later The P.oston outfielders were not of this type, barring Dugey. who is being developed de-veloped for future work in either Infield In-field or outfield The others were .etained to be put into the gaine when the pitching of the opposition was susceptible to some particular kind of attack Other managers said last spring when Stalltngs uncovered his all left handed and all right handed outfields that the plan would soon be abandoned. But It lasted all through the world's series and there Is no questioning the success which the club gained while it was being worked. There is little likelihood of any riiit hand batsmen chasing Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker' out of the line-up, but from now on the outfielder who hits irom the left side of the plate and has only a fair batting average is likely to spend considerable time on the bench while a right hander Is batting against southpaws As the plan has proved a success when applied ap-plied to InfieldefB. An up to date team of the near future may contain full shifts for both infield and outfield out-field to increase the hatting strength. Some major league clubs are very much handicapped by the numbers of southpaw batsmen who are next to heieiess when facing a left hand pitcher. The plan of working three pitchers in regular order until double headers come fast in the ideal one. but it is necessary to have three star boxmen if it is to be a success. With only one star pitcher on a club, possibly two. and the others of the mediocre kind. B manager would not get very far with the three pitcher system. A three day rest, increased now and then by an idle Sunday, is regarded by most managers as more conducive to good control than rests of longer duration But the trouble has been in most instances that the pitchers were not good enough to keep on winning as the Boston pitchers have done. |