Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1893-04-06

- d
hll playing everywhere, whether it be
Dur OF professional. Therefore the
q changes made by the League in its
lg rules will affect games universally
rs.
most important of these changes is
Which puts the pitcher farther back
he diamond. The experiment is dar-
ne, and the most conservative among
1seball observers await the result with
misgivings. The increased distance
ually five feet. Heretofore a line 30
Gom the home plate has been the ne
Ultra of the pitcher-the limit of his
ach to the batter in delivering the
va He dared not get so much as the toe
shoe over this line in stepping forward
tch. Under the new rule his boundary
Is put behind him-60 feet 6 inches
4 the outer edge Of the home plate. One
70 feet must be on this line when he be-
TO deliver the ball, and in delivering it
ID take but single step-not a jump
bout five feet. A long legged pitcher
be in demand, whereas duck legged
lrler" ought to labor under heavier
Leap.
Il he new rule makes it much easier for the
~ suffering and much abused umpire
need not now watch where the pitcher
rs with his forward foot, but need
observe that one of his feet is on the
cribed line when the delivery begins.
b the superficial student of the game
change in pitching distance may ap-
: less important than it really is. When
I'D remembered that pitchers like Null
}, Hecker and Morris in their day &C
red winning superiority by stepping
b half their advanced foot over the line,
ne idea will be had Of the difference
<0ich five feet more will make to the batter.
- Players league in 1890 put their pitchers
|rek only foot and half, yet the batting
80 30 much heavier on their fields than it
- on the diamonds of the National league
St they were compelled to return to the
Dot mark SO that their pitchers might
appear inferior.
he impression is widespread that the new
20 will remove the crown from the pitch
king; that hereafter he will be no moro
Iportant than other members of the team.
- several years the public has clamored
d hungered for more batting" Now
Dy'u get it. There may be surfeit after
D famine In base hits. Too much of q
5ange would be unpopular. And yet the
|lmmer's' batting promises to be of the
q, bang, electromagnetic kind My mod
q opinion is that one season, or maybe q
he new rule to make the baseball public
ne for few feet nearer relationship be-
ween the lordly pitcher and the vengeful
litter.
The pitcher has been the personification
trouble to baseball legislators ever since
be game became professionalism. He has
lowly and insidiously overridden the re-
trictions set up by r,lleto curb his prowess.
b the early seventies the rules required
hat he deliver the ball with the arm swing
hg almost parallel with the body. That
Fas the pure pitch" and in this delivery
lisa Brainerd was king. Gradually the
pitchers began to raise the arm and swing
o with an angle at the shoulder, which
grew more and more obtuse. That made it
Necessary to adopt a rule declaring the ball
10 be illegally delivered If the hand passed
through plane higher than that which
,left the pitchers belt. Immediately the
fashion among pitchers in wearing belts
became SO changed that some of them wore
uniforms after the style of the empire gown.
To save trouble the Legislators retreated
md set up another barrier-rallied, as it
were-at the height of the shoulder. Here
trouble among the umpires became so gen
eral that the powers threw down the bars,
all restriction and permitted the
pitchers to throw from any plane within
their reach.
During my experience as a magnate l
conceived the idea Of having plate of
arnooth marhle IN 'front.' IF the pitcho~,o
box which should split him up the middle
f he offended against the rule by overstep-
ping the limit. Instead of fooling him he
fooled me- In less than a month after the
marble slab was laid down as a snare for
bis offending feet he was universally wear
Ing rubber soled lawn tennis shoe, and
the marble slab was nothing but tomb
stone over an idea that met an early death.
This time l can't figure out how the
nitaher Is going to escape the handicap