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Show STATZ CHANGES BATTING STYLE Chicago Beauty Smashing Ball Hard; Out of Game Temporarily I an fsoBBHKPiF ARNOLD STATZ. BY BILLY EVANS. EVEN" the speed of a reindeer cannot can-not change the course of nature. Arnold Statz. the $50,000 prize of the Chicago Cubs, gave it a trial and j discovered that It wasn't the advantage advan-tage of four feet or more, the dlf-I dlf-I ference of swinging from the loft i side of the plate and the right. vhl h created .300 batting averages In the National league. Statz came into the world a right hander. He balanced the milk bottle durlni.- his tender years slth the right mitt therefore he laced the glove on the left hand and batted from the rlfjht side when he entered his baseball base-ball career. Statz was a speed demon Entering Enter-ing the National league this spring 1 Arnuld Immediately was advised to turn over to the left side. TOOK THE TIP. "Tou'll beat out every Infield roller you hit." was the advice Arnold re-; re-; celved S hen he reported to the Cub.; , In tin spring. The result was that Statz accepted the tip and start d out un s left hand-I hand-I ed swinger with Bill Klllefer's club j when the season opened. However, statz soon discovered that , it was Impossible to steal first base. Likewise, he saw Milton Sock. Rog-j yi-rs Hornsby Rabbit Maranvllle, "Pie" lT.inor. Dav KaiicrolC. 1-rankle Krlsch, Sammy BohttS, ' Babe" Pl-nein Pl-nein Horace Ford Tony Boeckel, Jimmy Johnston. Ivan Olson, Art Fletcher "Goldle" Rapp and other Nati. .rial league Inflelders retire him by iiniiiN steps on his Infield rollers.; BATTING AVERAGE 2to Turning Into the early days of May, this hum. m reindeer was dragging his feet of speed along the circuit Withi a batting average of .210. c mtflelders belong to the fenco-' busting brigade and as Arnold Is an I outfielder be soon realised that to re-1 tain his jot), to live up to the repuia-l Hon of a 160,000 prize, he hud to got j .1- 1 1 as rlrst base In one out of every h 1 se trips to the plate. Th.n and there Statz decided that the speed of a reindeer could not' change the course of nature with the result that he went back to nature; went buck as a right-handed hitter. 19 CONSECUTIVE GAMES. What was the result? The first day he started a batting streak which saw hliu bit safely in in consecutive ganio.. Stopped hy Hugh McQuillan of the Braves, for a single day, Stat.: put on another spurt which carried him through I games as a base-hit author. Stats now sticks to the right-handed Style and does not shift according to tin- style of pitching. In the major ma-jor circuit there are batters who turn around with success, such as Max Caocy, Dave Bancroft, Goldle Rapp, Pep Young Lew Blue, Walter Holke. I'rankie Krlsch and others, but Arnold Ar-nold Stutz now is willing to sacrifice th. running advantage for ths power which nature gave him (Note Stats whs Injured at Chicago Chi-cago a few weeks ago and will be out of the game for at least another two weeks He was with the Los V11-gelefl V11-gelefl club of the Pacific Coast league VIM during the 1921 season.). |