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Show 14 x NOW IS ERA OF SWAT! IT PLEASES THE FANS, CAN IT BE OVERDONE? 'THTS" certainly is thr- era oi Bwal in baseball. .1, Those experts who cling to the belief thai brawn lias nol siip-( planted brains, in a certain extent, as a factor in basebafl n'-- 1 onlj to consult the batting records j Saturday. July 29, L922, will live long in the baseball annals as a mute testimonial to the part tluit slugging now plays in the modern game. On that dale l'1 home runs were made iii the American and National leagues, thereby piling up a new home-run record for on-day on-day in the majors, or any other league, for thai matter. The National league played the more prominent pari in the home run festivities, making 1 circuil drives, of which five were to the credit of the Pittsburgh team and an equal number to the Phillies, The American league was responsible for seven four-sackers. Nq single player in the American league contributed more than one home run. In the National, Hehline of the Phillies and Care of Pittsburgh chalked up a pair. Fifteen or 20 years ago 21 home! runs would have been the supply for, a couple of weeks. I TAKES CONSIDERABLE STCF'. For that number of home runs to be made in a day simply means thatj the ball Is lively and that the pitch-1 ers are not quite so good However, ' one must nol forget that the lively ball takes considerable st:jff from the pitcher Delving Into the dope, some inter- j eating datum Is uncovered, which' tends to show the strides that batting bat-ting has made In the last five yearn Hi At the close of the 101 7 season the' average team batting average of the American league was .it. in Is2 it was .292. In the National league It was 249 five years ago, while In 1921 M was .289. Five years ago there were 18 bats- m n In the American league batting for percentages of .300 or better. In! tills list of IS batsmen were Be in players that had koih to bat less than I 10a times. So In reality there were really only six regular .300 or better bet-ter hitters. Iast season j I American league players batted 300 or better. At the present time there are about 40 Ln the .300 class FANS LIKE SLUGGING. The lively ball Is of course partly 1 to blame, although the pitchers inioi bear some of the burden for the froo : hitting that Is now featuring major league baseball Plugging appears to have struck a' ponnlar chord with the fans. The attendance records prov they like It The big fear is that it will be overdone over-done nnd react |