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Show SAM JONES' NERVE, NOT HIS HURLING ARM, LACKS STRENGTH'! j "GREATEST PITCHER IN EITHER OF MA JOR LEAGUES" IS AFRAID OF BLOWOFF j A . 1 . 1 . . I i T ltV BSLL1 I ANs. Sam Jones of the New fork Yankees Yan-kees Is one of the greatest pitchers in wither ol th major leagues That mav sound like a rather funn statement when you consider that, since early In the year Jones has been the least effective member of tho I I New York pitching Staff Sam has a great fust ball, a ork-' j ing curve, a tantalising slow ball and I a deceptive change of pace. in ad-; ad-; dltlon he is a smart pitcher and 0 I great fielder. Despite all this ho ban not been able to win with any dogroe of consistency con-sistency since the Bgason upended, as n matter of fact it h;n been a very1 dilflcult matter of lat for hbn to finish a game. Somethln always seems to happen to ran;.- M.mager Iiugglns to remove hlhi from the lineup. How come that Sam Jones, wilh all' this stuff, cannot win? Just another of 'hns peculiar! phases of baseball. Meroty another case of Old Man PsycholOfrv e:rtlng his Influence over Sam Jones. DOESN'T TRUST HIMSELF. Jones Isn't winning because he has' lost confidence In hlnuelf. Whenever he enters the box lie feeld certain SAM JONES that at some time durln ; the gatllC the opposition Will break loose and lrle him to cover. Th? dread of what he bele,.s Is the Inevitable is constantly with him If hr doesn't falter In his pitching to start the trouble some of his teammates team-mates start Is by making a couple of errors I have worked several gam. is back of Jones this year In which he had everything whn suddenly the oppo-sltn oppo-sltn wtild sturt hitting him all over the lot Recently Bill Dinec-n and I umpired a series at New York. The Chicago club was the opposing team For five or six Innings Jones went along beautifully, beau-tifully, then the Sox staged a rally netting a half dozn runs, and Jones J went to the showers. EXCHANGE ol VIEWS. , After the game on the way to the . dressing room I was thinking about I Jones und his inability to win. I wondered at It because he had all j his old time stuff that once made him j one of the. hardest pitchers In tho I American league to beat. Evidently Bill Dineen was thlnlc-, thlnlc-, ing about the same thing. As he ! came into the umpires quarters at the Polo Grounds he remarked to me: 'Never saw a pitcher with so much stuff get hit as hard as Jones did today." He had expressed my sentimenr.3 exactly. "He Isn't pitching naturally." added add-ed Dineen, himself a great pitcher In his day. "He's working too carefully. care-fully. He shQUld loosen up and cut 'em loose. 11 should let the batter do the worrying." KNEW IflS WEAKNESS. The next day we talked to Jon ;s along the lines of our conversation. He diagnosed his own trouble when ! he simply said : ' When I start a game I am wondering won-dering what Inning the blow-off will happen in " In a recent series at Detroit the ! Timers got to Jones for three runs in the first inning. He held Detroit I scoreless the rest of the wayv finally winning, 4 to 3. Often a game of that sort restores the much needed confidence It may prove so in the case of the Tanjcee : star The failure of Jones to win ! onsistentlj has iinn'iie-jpped tho Am-! Am-! erlcan league champs greatly. If ii? gets going lk out, watch the Yan-' Yan-' kees' dust. |