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Show f llll 1 w TRICKS lpBL I L I jKl Magician of the Pitching Mound flr- : BY BFLLY MURPHY. In lt05, after the Giants had won Ihc world's championship from the Philadelphia Athletics, there was great Joy up and down old Broadway. Manhattan fans had great difficulty diffi-culty in settling down to work after the excitement Incidental to the scries finally died out. The newspapers' headlines proclaimed pro-claimed the New Yorks the greatest great-est club ever put together. President Brush WW especially Jubilant. Ho was reading all tho boosts his club was getting one morning when Manager John J. McGruw walked into his office. Mr. Brush congratulated McGraw k again upon his outcome of the se- I ries, and then said: "Well, John, 1 I we certainly have a great team, haven't we? Just read all the nice things they are saying about our winning the championship." After President Brush had delivered deliv-ered a few more eulogistic demarks, t similar to the ones quoted, Manager Mana-ger McGraw smiled faintly and said: "Here Is a piece of paper and it contains the names of seven players that I wish to get rid of immediately." 'What, do you mean to tear apart this great team that has just won the world's championship?" exclaimed ex-claimed Mr. Brush, after he could catch his breath. L "Certainly," replied McGraw. "But the newspapers arc saying that it is the greatest club over put together and is now at the ver zenith of Its power," replied -Mr. Brush. "Who's managing this club, the newspapers and the public or inc ."' asked McGraw. "You are, John, of course," replied re-plied Mr. Brush, weekly. "Then you start the machinery at once among tho other clubs in the National League and get mca proposition prop-osition for these men, and we will make the best trade we can. Math-ewson Math-ewson won that series and these men arc all getting beat a step to f.rst base and don't know It, but 1 do," The year 1915 finds Mathcwson, unless all signs go awry, as good as ever. You have to hand it to Mathew-Fon. Mathew-Fon. What other pitcher ever overcame over-came so many handicaps and yet remained at the top of the prof s-xion s-xion the way he has? OBSTACLES THAT MATTY HAS OVERCOME 124 BOX. Few of the fans perhaps few of the New York plavers, even stop to figure out all the obstacles that Matty has successfully overcome. Years ugo, his throwing arm , weakened under the strain of throwing fast ones. Matty promptly devised a pitching pitch-ing system which would bother the batsmen, yet require le.-s expenditure expendi-ture of speed and energy. He 1 1 5-sened 5-sened his strikeout record, but made up by fewer bases on balls, this development of control also cening up for a few extra hits. Ere long, this style of pitching proved wholly successful, it there wr. any sort of fielding back of it. The weight of advancing years niC the toll of many b&tUce m;,ht have been reasonably expected i" wear Matty clown under the n-ditions n-ditions of the time, but, aa if this wasn't enough, the bosses next put the livelier ball in in game Only tho fast strikeout pitchers could easily cope witn this change of conditions excepting MatbCTW-fon. MatbCTW-fon. ( A little extra carefulness; a ht- LHa added cralt, a. strikeout FROM left to ri.-lit Bi.cr Bill James, Rube Mar-quard, Mar-quard, Christy Mathewson, and Tesrcau. Below Walter Wal-ter Johnson. switched In here and there and Matty Mat-ty was trolling along, taking care of his game Just the same as ever. More handicaps, due to advancing advanc-ing age. have now added their burden. bur-den. Once activo as a cat in pouncing on bunts almost an extra ex-tra lnfielder in his skill Matty's legs are now all slowed up and ho can't get over the grass. To bunt on Matty Is a cinch, a pipe. But they seldom do It. He lling? a ball that Is apparently hard to bunt, or else tempts them irresistibly irre-sistibly to wallop madly and In vain. His slower flcldlns: makes but little difference in the perfection perfec-tion of his work. The same slowness of foct hag killed his batting. Formerly Matty's Mat-ty's own hitting would help win many a eiose battle, but nowadays-he nowadays-he bats like the general run of pitchers liko a perfectly respectable respect-able wash lady. In brief, Mathewson has lost youth, strength of arm, speed of foot, skill in fielding, skill In halting hal-ting and has had a livelier ball shoved into the deck as an added weight. And yet there he Is, victor over ''very handicap, still pitching and :till winning. The seerets of thix old master are interesting. "It isn't the iron in tho arm that makes a plteher." Mathewson, "because lots of longshoremen could snap a pitcher's pitch-er's arm in two with a single twist. It's the combination of brain ami body, the perfect co-oper-Ulon of mind and muscle, that make a man a successful major leagu? pitcher. "Control is tho secret of all pitching. pitch-ing. With control, a pitcher nn make fooling them a great art. Curves are a secondary consideration. considera-tion. Many of the greatest masters of tho game who ever lived, had nothing but control and n straight ball. GREATEST STRENGTH OF PITC HER is "MIXTURE." "The greatest strenglh of a pitcher pitch-er aside from hie control, is what plajers call his "mixture." That means no more nor less than what the word Imples his variety of fast ami slow balls, his serving of this or that curve. "What we call the 'change of pace," the delivering of a fast and then a slow ball with the same preliminary pre-liminary motions, and the mixing of a high fast ball and a slow curve. :re the uccessful pitcher's best artels, ar-tels, but. It must be remembered, that all the tlm the bombardment Is going ou, the pitcher b In a duel of wils with the man up there at the plate, and that there Is as much mixture of brain flashes as thero is of delivery. "A plteher can throw the same ball three times m a row to a nlm-ble-witted batsman and still be "mixing 'om up," paradoxical as it may seem. "To Illustrate, Cy Seymour, when he was with Cincinnati, struck out three times in one game I pitched in 1905. "Cy was a mighty batsman In those days, one of the best ever. "I fooled him by giving tho same Blow curve, knowing that he, being b shrewd and seasoned batsman, would be expecting a fast ball for a change. The hango never came. "Had I literally mixed them.' Cy would hac been In Mne for a mighty hit, perhaps, but wllile he was at the plote trying to outguess me, I was foi lunate enough to outguess him, as above Indicated." Only a season or so ago someono circulated a story that Mathewson got the "goat" of Hani Wagner by watohlng the big Teuton's feet. W igner took igorou3 objection to this statement. "Say," he declared, "when a man Isn't hitting, the pitcher doesn't hn e t.j watch his feet. "He i puld w -ilk up to within ten feet of tho plate and toss a dewdrop and tho changes are that the batsman bats-man would miss It or pop up an easy one. "I've been in the game a good while and I've fat ed a lot of pitch-ers, pitch-ers, but I never saw any that had any reason to fear me when I was In a flump. And I've never seen any I was afraid of when I was In a clouting mood. "Malty may hae watched my n-iTtin ! "no were in toe hotel I J feet in the gomes at the Polo Grounds, but that didn't make me strike oot. I was simply In a slump and I could not hit a balloon. "There Is no doubt that Christy studies opposing batsmen very closely, I'll give him all the credit iii tin world. He's a wise pitcher and no mistake. The batter w ho gets Just what he wants from Mahewson is a lucky fellow." That's some tribute coming from one of the greatest hitters baseball has ever known. MAX CARET OI P1TTSV HAS HIS OWN THEORY. Max Carey, the famous outfielder of the Pittsburg Pirates, has his own theory to account tor Mathewson."? Mathew-son."? effe tiveness. "Mathewson has the stability and all that," says Carey, "but I believe the main factor that has held him up so long has been his love of the game Thirteen years is a long time to be undci fire. I'm no veteran vet-eran myself only a youngster it the game but. there are times when I'm tired out and would give a farm to break away for a long rest. "But I've watched Mathewson ClOB ly and I've never seen luin plt h a ball game In Which he dldQ't look as if he were having lots of fun. He always look.i as if he had rather be out there pitching pitch-ing than doin- anything else. It doesn't look to be rk with him, but only pure sport an afternoon's romp, as a business man might go out to play golf or tennis. "Man) in baseball." i ontinued Care. "slow up physically, but I believe . lot of others so back because be-cause they get stale on the game ret tired of it get worn out and in a rut, and they are no longer able to go to it with any sort of relish "And when this happens it Is drudgorj, and no man can do good work But after thirteen years baseball it. still Matheuson's favorite favor-ite sport. "lie either likes- It immensely or he Is the Kieatest actor I ever saw. II never has to drag himself out of the lot and for ;e himself to play. "The game appeals to him and he finds a lot of new things to study and work over all the time. He doesn't take It for granted that he has learned all there Is to learn and go piking on mechanically. He refuses to get Into a mental rut." Carey's dope is undoubtedly to the point. Mathewson is a hard student and a close observer, whatever what-ever hla undertaking. The physical side of baseball might tire one In a few years, but there are a million kinks to the K.iiiio and new developments at every tui-. To Mathewson It In an eternal science. It is his specialty and he finds enough Interest to keep him studying and working without a break. Naturally this holds his Interest. In-terest. In each game he looks forward for-ward to some unexpected turn, or to trying out a batting weakness which ho believes he has disco r-ered. r-ered. Another point in Mathewson's favor fa-vor Is the fact that he has never had a sore arm to work with. There are any number of pitchers who attempt to keep In shape, but who by nature, are what is known as "sore-arm workers, and who. therefore, there-fore, are handicapped sadly. There's no great appeal In pitching pitch-ing a ball game where every throw n ball is like the injection of a knlfe-blado knlfe-blado into one's shoulder or elbow CONSERVATION OF HIS ARM HELPS MATHEWSON. But in his entro career Matty has never drawn a sore arm. His arm has ben tired and worn down from overwork, left without any snap !u elbow .,r wrist, but a -short i . 1 1 rest has put him bark in form. Much of which is due to the fact that he works easily with little strain and that he wastes no great amount of effort. Conservation of his pitching arm is tho slogan of his administration and there is no telling how many years he may continue con-tinue to move along with tho elect- They tell a good story of McGraw P and Mathewson. Both have considerable consid-erable pride in their ability as three-cushion billlardlsts. They w ere engaged in a hard-fought game with the ivories down In Norfolk Nor-folk A great crowd of fans, eager to see these baseball celebrities, packed the billiard room. A citizen with a white goatee dropped In and watched the pro- eedingB with a puzzled look "Who are these fellows?" he asked. "Why, that it Mathewson and McGraw,'' answered a fan, In an Impressive whisper. "Who are they"' asked the old 1 fellow, still puzzled. "Didn't you ever hear of Mathewson Mathew-son and McGraw 7 They are the most fai.-.ous ball players in the world on the N;w York Giants." "Humph!" grunted the old uninformed un-informed Virginian. ' Well, if they don't know any more about playing baseball than they do about billiards. bil-liards. I guess they don't amount to much." Studying batters and finding their weakness, then feeding them with balls that hit their weak places, spells great success in the major leagues. This is well Illustrated by an experience ex-perience of Mathewson's. After "Bis six" twirled the Giants to the world's championship In 1905 he and his catcher. Frank Bower-man, Bower-man, worked as the batterv for the Romeo, Mich., team. Borneo was Bowerman's home own Romeo played a neighboring town team Immediately after the 1 -losr of the world's series. Mattj and Bowtrman admit they were rigr.t on edge. Big Six- 6ays he had as much but the Romeo team, with the hero Of the world's series in the box. J be. i ten, , to 0. Mathewson was born in Factory. Pa., August 12. 1880. The 1 "ne. in Factoryvii e. The fumilv im the first one in the town " It took Christy, however to :-Quaint :-Quaint the world at large ha, fh. cvs ass Pitcher that ever lived sreateit le T?.!2 Ja,nC5' Rub Marquard. Matheon nBaml h'S Squash Making. When James a. Garfiejd was or entrance as a student SUeVSS&J" wished a "The h?J an the Wular one. sums z&z m onk He takes a Z 5 to make an V He omIv ta es tuo bllt W squash " months to 'ake d Date Pub i -M |
