Show A FEW old timers were talking a day or two ago about the best combination pitching staffs including two stars it all began on a visit to detroit where naturally they were talking about and trout W who 0 came close to winning the pennant t for the tigers last tall fall I 1 could take them back to the days of mathewson and mcginnity a pretty fair two man combination there were others including jack chesbro who were just as good dizzy trout or just as effective anyway but those were times far away and long ago few modern tans recall their names but this is ia getting away from allstar all star pitching strength where two men are concerned on one team several requests have come in from servicemen especially those overseas to hear more about and trout the winning tiger combination we put this problem up to E A batchelor the detroit expert who came through promptly with the following had threatened to be a fine pitcher ever since he joined the tigers at the age of 18 with a very limited minor league experience he had plenty of swift and an excellent curve but he also had two serious defects he never could get the ball over the plate without easing up on his stuff and he sulked and pouted whenever things went wrong for him it used to be said that harold was licked as soon as an error was made behind him that he was a rank quitter if he get all the breaks stand defeat the trouble seemed to be that he get over the idea that he should hould win every game he pitched no matter how good his performance it if the other team outscored ont out scored the tigers he felt that fate had kicked him right in the seat of the pants there may be better ways of acquiring unlimited unpopularity with ones teammates than a chronic martyr complex but we dont recall any of them at the moment was cordially disliked by the entire tiger squad when men he pitched the whole team tightened up and played its worst bau ball paul richards probably is deserving of a great deal of the credit for sers development from a problem child into a real pitcher this veteran kack backstop stop was acquired by the tigers from atlanta where he had been manager to help flit fill the hole left by the departure of george birdie tebbetts for the army he conveyed the idea that a successful pitcher works on the batters weaknesses and does not merely try to throw the ball past them by main strength and so in one year he developed all the latent talent of the young southpaw and helped to earn for him the award of most valuable player in the american league gay cay eccentric trout trout in many respects is the exact opposite of in mental makeup make up instead of being a ing self centered athlete he was always the good fellow he worked all his waking hours at his trade of being a charming eccentric nothing seemed to worry him not even the necessity for winning an occasional ball game it was the feeling of the tans fans that he was more I 1 i interested n te in clowning than in pitching that he would rather get a laugh than a digit in the win column a inn everybody liked him and everybody wanted to see him win everybody ery body except it seemed himself then all of a sudden paul seemed to tumble to the idea that his extra curricular activities as the life of the party could be reconciled with doing a 2 serious job on the mound just about the time he was ready to receive one of those long green railroad tickets to the minors he settled down to work ile he won 20 games in 1943 with a club that going anywhere in particular and he liked the idea of being a winner so well that he kept it up in 1944 with 27 victories it that paul suddenly uncovered some new stuff he a bit more on the ball now than he had when he was struggling to break even he always has had a fine curve ball and exceptional control to say nothing of poise that even an earthquake disturb he just naturally grew up at long last one characteristic that these two pitchers have in common is is their willingness to work one or the other was in over half of the games that the tigers played last year in hi almost 70 games of record d even when they were starting ga games mes far oftener than is customary in the major leagues they were doing relief work for faltering associates and their associates last season had a positive genius for faltering in fact all the rest of the tiger pitchers combined won only 32 games or a little over half as many as the tw two stars |