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Show OLD TIME BATTERS WERE REAL HEROES The talk about the advancement "i scientific butting, add the beautiful playing of loday doe-; not fool those who have seen the great players conio and go through JO vHld baseball base-ball year. Not much. As compared with the hitting of long ago, the bat-ting bat-ting of todav Is but a hollow shell, a Entering fraud. Wagner, Lajole and Sam Crawford stiil typify the terrific sluggers who romped U,on int. iiehlsof 2U years ago, but they loom up like hum's in a desert. Tjrua Cobb lu a brilliant Mieelmen of dashing baiter and sparkling spark-ling bane runner, but Cobb was no more effective In any of this vnrlon.i departments than was William Lange. .Most of the mighty batsmen of the ' ast were plants phyf.eally. men of ! past were giants physically, men of such height and buik that tho ma-pigmies ma-pigmies In comparison These old boys, as a rule, wore large, fierce mustaches. They had a thickness at the waist Hint lobj (,f good living and their halting averages had a thickness thick-ness that told of solid smashing When one of these old gazaboos strode toward thn plate the pitcher shlered anil the stands brayed In exultant anticipation. an-ticipation. A hero-glamour surrounded surround-ed those warriors thai only a few mtn possess today, and the enthusiasm enthus-iasm that followed them was richer and more Intensely personal than is given any of the modern stars. Pitching Distance Shorter, Some of the latter-day .rillc9 maintain main-tain that those old boys were not handicapped han-dicapped by the foul-strike rule, and that the fielders did nl have the Mrong gloves that help them break down many drives today This Is true; but remember this to counter-balance counter-balance great pitchers of tremendous i speed were sending in tho ball from a much shorter distance, and a caught foul tip In those times was an immediate im-mediate out. As to the holding there was nothing the matter with the gentlemen gen-tlemen of 20 years ago. These sturdy old fellows were real, natural-horn sluggers, that's all When they walked Into a pitcher's offerings of-ferings the ball wont away from them with a scream 01 surprise and pain. It went forth like a bullet, and when the outfielders overtook It their tongues were hanging out. They feared fear-ed neither the speed nor curve, those grim old saw-horses, and kept right on biffing that ball until they grew too aged for the game. |
