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Show I SPORTING NEWS INCONSISTENCIES OF BASEBALL SHOWN IN TY COBB'S RECORDS I Chicago, Nov. 18. Major league baseball players not only will be bar-1 bar-1 red from exhibition games, but are ! forbidden to increase their income after aft-er tho regular season by Indoor baseball, base-ball, basketball or football. This was tho answer of President Johnson, of the American league, to tho protests of David Jj. Fullr., president presi-dent of tho Basoball Players' fraternity frater-nity against fines Imposed on members mem-bers for their post season games. I Tho inconsistencies of basoball arc I shown in a comparison of Ty Cobb's batting records, for 1915 and 1916. I In 1915, when Cobb led tho league, he was credited with 208 hits during the season. But only once during the year did he make as many as four nits in one game. In 1916, Speaker finished first in batting and Cobb failed to pole out as many safe swats as he did during the previous year, although he counted count-ed four safe blows in as. many as seven sev-en games. Diamond greats who have played the sunfield year after year, taking part each season in seventy-seven or more games at home and twenty-two or more on other fields, say the fellows fel-lows who must go and get 'em while , looking Old Sol squarely in the face are bound to 'be handicapped in batting. bat-ting. The players who stand in the sun pasture, then have to go to the plate immediately, are especially handicapped handicap-ped gauging pitched balls. -Sunflelders who hit .265 would clout 25 points higher each year If assigned to other fields, veterans declare. "When I first tried tho sun Hold In 1909 I looked like a big boob," said Hooper. "I missed the first fly ball, batted my way by 20 fcot. Fred Lak, our manager, decided I wouldn't do and put me in loft field. "Later I mastered the sun field job, but about four years ago my eyes troubled me. An oculist said I had strained both optics by looking into tno sun, as uie muscies msuncuvoiy tugged to avoid the glare when I went after tho ball. "I wore glasses for a year while not on tho field, then discarded them. My eyes haven't troubled me, howover, since I adopted the sun-glasses invented invent-ed by Fred Clarke. Before I donned them I had to 'take' the first ball pitched whether I wanted to or not, after stepping directly from the outfield out-field to the plate. 1 could see 'em pretty well in 1911, when I hit. "My chief trouble from tho old stylo sun glasses was in seeing dark balls when they left tho bat or in throwing. Now am bothered only when running back for liners. "There's an element of danger, too, in wearing sun glasses. Once I slid after af-ter a ground ball in Washington, and it hit me on the chin. If the ball had hopped a little higher it would have smashed my specs and blinded me." The American league's most difficult diffi-cult sun fields are in the parks at Chicago, Chi-cago, Boston, St. Louis, Detroit and Philadelphia. How Sam Crawford, playing the garden In Detroit for ages, has managed to keep above tho .300 marit is one oi ine wonaers oi me na-Uonal na-Uonal pastime. , For years Mike Mitchell, playing the sun field in Cincinnati, was a terrific hitter the best at driving in runs on the Reds' club. Frank Schulte is an-' an-' other bright example of the sun fielder field-er who could, and still can, swat. He played the garden for years while a I cub, and now after thirteen campaigns in the majors is belting the apple around .300. All these players, it is argued, would hit even better under different fielding conditions. |