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Show 4- : . LEFT HANDED BATTERS CAN HIT SOUTHPAW v 1 BY BILLY EVANS. Is there considerable bunk to tho gonerally accepted theory that a majority ma-jority of the left-handed batters are weak against southpaw pitching'' I have always believed so, because the really great left-handed batters never experience any groat difficulty in bitting southpaws However, It is tradition in baseball that left-handed batters are weak against left-ha.nd.ed pitching Most major league mauagera work on that theory Some managers 1 von go to the extent ex-tent of having left and right handed shifts, which they use to meet the selections se-lections of the opposing manager. In some cases this stunt works out nicely because most rlghf handPd batters bat-ters do like to hit against southpaws I can name a dozen major leaguers who are right handed baiters and who are not In the .300 class, yet against left-handers they are dangerous batsmen bats-men The use of the shifi in baseball Is more or less modern. It was not prac 7f5K Art- .... ?Sg fK ' tlced to an) great extern 20 years ago. I This shift has been a bad feature for the leit-handed hitter who is not In j the Cohb-Slsler class It tend to de-jstro) de-jstro) confidence Knowing that he will probably be taken out when a left-hander is the pitching selection of , Ihe opposition, he loses his fight, and I succumbs to the generally accepted belief that most left handej-s cannot hit southpaws j During a recent aerlea that I umpired um-pired between the Washington and 1 Detroit clubs some very unusual feat-lures feat-lures of the theory that I have been expounding cropped out. Manager Milan of the Washington1 club very often uses a shift in his lineup, according to whether the opposing op-posing pitcher Ls a right or left- j handcr In one of the games, in order to I gain any possible advantage. Manager Cobb of Detroit and Ehmke, a right j bandar, work the flrsl inning against the Washington club. Colo, a left 1 homier, w armed up In secret under the I grandstand Milan, when be saw that Ehmke was to be the opposing pitcher, used all his left-handera In the lineup. At j aTVT'l " the start of the second inning Manager Mana-ger Cobb sent Cole, his left-hander, to tho mound If Milan elected to use his righthanders right-handers it mennt that the left-handers he had injected into the lineup would 1 have to be withdrawn, and be of no use during the rest of the game ; Posslbh Milan was peeved at Cobb's strategy. Anyway he made no change , in his lineup. In one inning Wash-I Wash-I ington made six runs off Cole am! won I the game by a lop-sidgd score. The following da Cobb selected Oldham, a left-hander, to work. Manager Man-ager Milan of Washington, because of the success his left-handers had against Cole, tempted fate and sent In the same lineup. Oldham was knocked out of the box in the early Innings. Dauss. a righthander, right-hander, succeeded him and had the Washlngtonlans at his mercy. All of which made me think there 1 was considerable bunk to the theory, that left-handed hitters are weak! against southpaw pitching. j |