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Show HIGH OR LOW BALL WAS ALL THE SAME ' Buffington Fooled Batters With His Big Drop. In the early eighties the batsmen had the privilege of calling for a high or low ball when at bat. The high ball had to pass the zone from the neck to the waistline. The low ball from the belt to the knees. The hurier who possessed a good drop ball was getting ,by with wonderful results. In the days of the 50-foot pitching distance dis-tance the down shoot was much more effective than it is todav for the rea- son that It didn't break until right on top of the batsman, so the man at but could not, tell much about the height It would pass the plate. . Charles Buffington, with the Boston and Philadelphia clubs from 18.83 until 1893, was considered one of the high-class high-class hurlers. Buffington had a drop ball that was a beauty and when he had It working right It was practically unhlt table. Buff wns tall ' and his height enabled him to start this delivery de-livery high and It would sweep down on the unsuspecting bat sin tin like a kingfisher diving nfter a trout. Buffington Buf-fington pitched the ball with a high overhand swing and in Us course toward the plate It would look to the batsman like a high ball, the kind he culled for. Its deceptlveness fooled him Into swinging and he invariably would miss the bull by a foot. , The batsman who called for a low ball would gnze at the evident high one started by Buff and let his bat settle over his shoulder, when the ball would suddenly duck down and pass over the plate at the height called for. In 1SS4, while pitching for the Boston Bos-ton club, Buffington fanned 402 batsmen, bats-men, which is the record for the National Na-tional league for a season. In a nlne-lnning nlne-lnning game against Cleveland, played In 1884, the big liurler fanned 17 men, which is the second best record to major league baseball. |