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Show , I PECULIAR STYLES OF DELIVERY j WIN FAME FOR BALL PITCHERS By BrLTA" EVANS UNUSUAL deliveries are the exception excep-tion In baseball. Most pitchers are content to stick to the fast ball, curve and a i hfl n g of i When some pitcher springs a new I on, on the unsuspecting fun.s and play-era play-era It is only natural that his efforts should be widely exploited Elmer Stricklett and Jack Chesbro lw-on fame and columns of publicity I years ago with the spit hail delivery. I l'hls style of delivery, because of Its i great effectiveness been tn very pop-! pop-! ular. The great Christy Mathewson was known throughout the sporting world 'for hia "fadeaway." other pitchers have used the fadeaway but nphe evei seemed to put it over with the success of "Matty." j Russell Ford, on his entry into the American league, was the most talked about man In baseball At first Ford was credited with using a spltball that he could make break as he desired Ford was the sensation of the American Amer-ican league for several years. Then it d'" . loped that Ford was meeting with great success not through the spltball. but rather the emery ball, an Illegal method. Ford carried a piece of emery paper In the pocket of his glove which had a good slre.i opening Ford would roughen the ball on the tnerj paper, Then, according to the way he deliv ered the ball, would get the break de-Sired. de-Sired. Ne-ft appeared on the scene Eddie Cleptte. The former White So- player play-er conceived the ides of loading the seams, This enabled the pitcher to get a firmer grip on the ball and also caused It to carry a trifle more weight on one sldo. This added uclght, through forcing dirt or other substances In the seam I made it possible for Cicotte to do freak things with the ball. Cicotte was also the inventor of the shine ball, and the black and White ball In using the shine ball Cicotte used a foreign substance which, when applied ap-plied to the ball and then rubbed on the uniform, caused u spot as t ig as a half dollar to take on a high polish or shine. This spot lessened friction, and with it, Cicotte could get a better break on the ball than with a spltter. The black and white ball wa-s merely mere-ly an optical Illusion. Cicotte woul. discolor about half the ball. Then as he delivered the ball to the plate and It rotated In the air, It would greatly great-ly confuse the baiter, as he would lose sight of the ball momentarily as the black side came toward him. Carl Mays Is a much talked about pitcher because no other twlrler In either mnjor league resorts to the underhand un-derhand delivery that is peculiar to Mays I The mastery of the pitcher became ,so great that the ispithall and all ottl-er ottl-er freak deliveries, made possible by doctoring the ball, were legislated out of the game The" Intest pitcher to make a hid for 7j I fame with a peculiar style ball is Herb iPruett of the si Louie Browns, i I'ructt throws a fadeaway that In J ninny ways Is similar to the one Math-.ewson Math-.ewson used The fact Pruett is a lft-Ihandcr, lft-Ihandcr, makes the ball all the more puzzling. j Pruett's fadeaway has only a slight j curve to it as It fades away from the ! baiter, so to speak. Rather it acts more like a slow spltball. although It has proved much harder to time. It i breaks rather sharply downward. |