OCR Text |
Show eddie mm HAS GOOD YEAR DETROIT, Mich., June 9. Eddio Cicotte, who is having a remarkably good year, owes his success to another now trick in pitching, according to playors of teams that ha,ve opposed him. According to tho athletes, Cicotte is pulling tho old Matty McHalo trick of going on the slab with one leg of his knickers thoroughly saturated with water. He rubs the seam of the ball with this, then grinds tho dampened seam into soil that he has picked up in his glove, and thus develops a mud ball. Tho theory is that the small amount of mud that the pitcher can drive fnto the seam makes the ball heavier on one side than on the other, and thus causes it to indulge In mysterious moves on tho way to the plate, just as the spitter, because the ball does not rotate as does one that has had English put on it, falls away in peculiar manner. Somo of the eastern clubs that havo opposed Cicotte havo entered vigorous protests and have tried to prove that his methods violate the rules, but without any success. |