Show speaking of sports Hitting Records show oldsters kings of su swat rat ay iy by ROBERT mcshane WHETHER HETHER or not present day batting averages mean as much as they did in the good old days 0 baseball e ball Is a question da cys tha that t can b be e argued endlessly the I 1 lively ball and more stringent rules regulating trick pitching deliveries are two factors entering into any discussion of 0 relative batting prowess A comparison of records established prior to the introduction of thi he rabbit ball with present day records leads one to believe that ave averages rago ire are made the easy way home run baker earned his bis na name ne back in 1913 and made it a by byword word by hammering out 12 home runs for or the philadelphia athletics that same year the eight teams of the Aine american rican 1 league eague scored the amazing total of home runs philadelphia accounted tor for 33 of the total new york trailed with eight t east last year hank greenberg playing with detroit scored 58 home runs and the american league teams produced a total of circuit clouts clonts the yanks alone tallied and chicago trailed with 67 cause and result this huge discrepancy Is 19 not due to the presence of more sluggers in game the fivelo five to one home hom e run ration Is the re result sult of a ball constructed for distance hitting when the he ball wai was introduced some onto 18 19 years ago it was was adi in anwer answer to the publics demand for or more home runs in those days babe ruth was was clouting out tour four base hits and the public loved lobed it 4 jj HANK BANK GREENBERG officials saw the handwriting on the wall and proceeded to satisfy the demand by introducing the lively or rabbit ball introducing the rabbit ball meant merely changing its core using a finer grade of yam more tightly wrapped and a thinner cover more tightly sewed on resiliency is produced in the ball by wrapping the yarn and thick cover more tightly A ball is made slower by the reverse process A smaller core and coarser yarn less tightly wrapped would be used the cover would be thicker and not as tightly sown sewn raised seams would make the ball still slower regardless of which type bill ball Is used use there will be objections the rabbit ball is a boon to batters and a handicap to pitchers the slow ball ball aids the he pitchers and handicaps the batter the lively ball has been blamed as the he cause of the be recent epidemic of sore pitching arms george etsler one of baseballs greatest players batted against the dead ball tor for five years and against the lively one in his last three years his five year batting average against the dead ball was in that same period his highest season average was and his largest total of hits was hits in 1922 his three year average against the lively ball was his largest number of hits was a record made with st louis in 1922 that same year he hit a record tied by ty cobb in 1911 cobb ruth and ethers others who batted against both balls bails said sald that the rabbit ball traveled 50 to 60 teet feet farther than the dead one what would some of his torys famous clug daggers gers have done had they been batting against the present ball its an interesting question but one that will never be answered chances are those records would have been phero phenomenal menal especially in view of their averages made swinging against the dead ball there has been and will continue to be talk of slowing down the baseball it may be that some slight change will come to pass such as using a slightly thicker cover but the change will be negligible major league owners know the public likes long hits and plenty of them and will see to it that those hits are supplied in abundance A change at the present time might be fatal customers arent exactly jamming the turnstiles turn stiles in most grandstands and a slowing up of the game might occasion still deeper inroads into club treasuries an increased attendance of more than in 1937 one of the heaviest hitting seasons in history Is il proof of the fans fondness for long range sluggers lone contender to gene tunney adheres ACCORDING thebes only one fighter today who has the slightest chance of de heavyweight champion joe louis and that lone contender is 1 bob pastor known more familiarly as six day pastor because of his 10 round bicycle race face with the brown bomber in 1937 at a recent banquet in detroit mich the former champ stated of all the fighters ivi ive seen lately id rate pastor as having the best bes chance ileks he Is ic the smartest fighter we have today kno knows ws all th the e m mechanics e of the game gam e v thinks fast feints and moves a round around its lo 10 lone ne weakness and that would prove hi his undoing Is the he fact fact that he lacks a punch tunney Is admit gene tunney gedly te a good student 0 of f boxing he worked hard to become a great fighter and learned more about the finer points of the game than many a natural slugger lugger who came up by an easier route his reason for picking pastor as the logical contender Is simple dimple in Tunney Tun ls own words pastors the only heavyweight around today who can think few people will argue with gentleman vern a n gene on that score it if any one of the present heavyweights heavy weights whips louis it will be the result of headwork the bomber many haws flaws he Is one of the hardest hitters the ring has ever seen punching as hard with either hand as any heavyweight and hes tough but he Is by no means a lightning fast thinker however pastors ability to think give him much of an edge in his previous fight with louis he was too busy back pedalling to get in his hid best mental licks ileks at that he was considerably more fortunate than most of the he title seekers who after a couple minutes of action did most of their thinking via the he dream route resting comfortably on their backs quite a few fighters who have laced faced louis during the past two years have found it much safer to do their thinking while in a prone p position ion theres little chance that a stick of dynamite will explode in the vicinity of their jaw disrupting their mental process and unnerving them to such an extent they are no longer able to carry on to some extent the national boxing association agrees with mr tunney but with reservations in recent ratings members of that group promoted pastor to the rank of no 2 challenger outranked out ranked at ai the time by galento pastor replaced lou nova in second place it Is a dubious honor even such has beens as maxie baer and tommy farr were given rankings in fourth and fifth places respectively nova recent conqueror of max baer is another of the current crop who has no place in the ring with louis according to tunney nova he be says is in no way equipped tor for a fight with the dusky king his legs are far from being good and they keep him off balance much of the time he much of a punch and his defense leaves almost everything ery thing to be desired hes easy to hit and that speak well tor for his Ws chances with louis after all it s seem berrt to make much difference by no measuring stick could any of the contenders be called great but they do furnish fodder tor for the champion sport shorts H ARRY GONDER michigan city ind golf pro drove a golf ball 1817 times in a vain attempt to score an ace on a yard hole on his home course odds against him were figured at 5 to I 1 gen abner doubleday called the father of baseball was among other things a founder of the theosophical society ted lyons is pitching his seventeenth season tor for the white sox canadian newspapers reter refer to softball as mush ball connie mack says the greatest player he has ever managed was eddie collins al schacht whose top salary lis as a player was expects to earn as a minor league clown this year bar on gottfried Gott tried von cramm once ger banys best tennis eddie collins player who had to do a stretch in a concentration camp has become a swedish subject paul derringer cincinnati ace walked only six men in his first 60 innings this year five american league players were born outside the united states pitcher carrasquil Carras quel of washington in venezuela outfielder estalella of the same caubin club in cuba geoffrey heath of cleveland and george selkirk of new york in canada and arndt jorgens of the yankees in norway in one inning this season the ninth the dodgers used four pitchers and the foes scored oni only y two runs the national open championship pion ship may net byron nelson around this year much of it depending on showmanship personality etc Coli compressed pressed air is being used to clean off home plate at wichita kan R jc d by western newspaper baio A |