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Show WEE WILLIE HEELER, MASTER BATSMAN AT BAT 700 TIMES BEFORE STRIKING OUT j 4 f r fe rZrf s' i Punous Baseball vt When I was playing baseball rcc- i ords didn't mean anything to me. The old Baltimore Orioles won ball games because of their good pitching and excellent teamwork, not individual individu-al play. When I was asked for some infor-matlon infor-matlon on tho record 1 made by my ability to keep pitchers from striking! mo out I really wasn't able to give any correct dope offhand. I knew that I had gon through one : entire season in tho National league. without striking out. I also know that I was generally credited with having gone to hat TOO times in the Natlonui league before any pitcher was ever able to strike mo out. I recall the number because the day after I struck out I remember one ot the sporting editors came out with a story in which he used the figures 700 In big. black type. As I said before. I never paid any attention to records. I never kept track, because naturally 1 had no idea how long I would go before striking out. As a matter of fact I was well ton my way to a record before I knew It Some sporting editor dug up the dope from the National league statistics, sta-tistics, i was as much surprised as anyone In going over my scrap books I find that 1 went a number of gamej In the fag end of 18'96i tho entire season of 1 8f8. and a number of gam l I In the spring of 1807 before I finally I w h If fed. The National league had some pretty pret-ty good pitchers In those days. Cleveland Cleve-land had Cy Young and Nig Cuppy a lis stars. Cincinnati had a fine staff in Frank Dwyer. Frank Foreman. Red BShret and Rhinc-s. Nichols, Btiv-etts Btiv-etts and Klobcdanz were Boston's best bets. I Chicago boasted of Clarke Griffith. Briggs. Friend and Thornton. At Pittsburg, Pitts-burg, Frank Klllen and lnk Haw ley wore the stars The rent of the cluo had staffs In keeping with the names I haVO mentioned. I When a player made i base hit against that bunch of stars he tfe-I tfe-I served it. 1 was a hard man to strike out be-1 be-1 cause I was a chop hitter. I never look a free swing at a ball. I was always al-ways choked up. It Is tho free swingers, fellows like Babe Ruth, who are easy to Strike out In addition I had a good eye and seldom hit at a bad ball, The pitchers had to get them over for me. and I always al-ways picked on the cripple. I also resorted to the bunt to great advantage. advant-age. I was what was known as a placn hitter In those days. I couldn't bit them over the fielder's' heads, so I tried to place them Where they weren't. |