Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-26

BATTING GROl NpERS IN The CAGE.
ton by March Is or before, and at Yale,
Wesleyan, Brown, Amherst, Williams,
Harvard and Dartmouth as near that day
as Boreas will allow, as the Easter vacation
will begin March -. During this vacation
most of the college baseball teams will
play schedule games, and some will take
southern trips.
Indoor practice for would be college play
crs is as interesting to lay spectators as to
the best informed of ball "fends'-in fact,
the ordinary baseball enthusiast outside of
university towns knows little about such
practice. Such indoor training may be di-
vided into two classes-gymnasium eXer-
else and cage work. The gymnasium, strict
ly speaking, usually plays a comparatively
unimpOrtant part, for candidates are sup
posed to present themselves in good state
of physical development. 1t is necessary
that players climber up" their joints and
harden upper arm and back muscles. Aft
er these two cOnsummatiOns are attained
gymnasium work is liable to injure rather
than aid a candidate it may stiffen GER
tain unused muscles and take off fat which
would protect player when sliding to
bases.
Far more important and far more in pub
lie evidence than gymnasium work is the
cage practiCing. Yale was the first insti-
tuition to use a room solely for battery Win
ter practice, rs it also was the first to build
Il structure solely for baseball winter prac-
tice in general The old cage was but
shell bounded by two plain wooden walls
and two walls of strong wire netting. 1t
was dark, unfit place in the basement of
the old gymnasium building, but it was II
success and was at once initiated by other
colleges. After Il life of Is years it gave
tt b.A oh hut
porary, and will soon make place for
model. The present cage is 80 feet wide, &c
long and Is in height. Its roof is a skylight
of clear glass, protected by wire netting.
The sides are heavily padded, and the floor
is of compactly trodden earth. A room in
one end, fortified by netting, is an observa-
tory for visitors.
Cage practice in general consists of bat
terry work, fielding grouhders and sliding
to bases After battery candidates have
taken little preliminary work in the gym
nasium, often adding some exercise on the
parallel bars and the wrist pulleys to the
training of other candidates, they repair to
the cage. They begin with Is minutes of
easy work, i'll order to avoid any strain, and
gradually increase in time and energy.
Then the professional coacher takes them
in hand. The date of his arrival is usually
somewhere between Feb. Is and March |.
This year Tim keefe is the Coacher for Har-
ward, John Clarkson for Yale, Tom Dowd
and Woodcock for Brown, Arthur Irwin for
the University of Pennsylvania, O'Connor
for Dartmouth and Terry for the Wesleyan
boys.
The coacher instructs pitchers just how to
manipulate the ball and snap the wrist in
order to best throw the in and the out, and
the drop, and most of all the straight ball.
q = m tO he N nj at cd
a college pitcher as we'll as many profess
siOnal one has most trouble in delivering a
good straight. The arm must be brought
directly over, parallel with the body, the
pigskin leaving the hand in a peculiar way
without any snap whatsoever, and conse-
quently without any Jump or "shoot" as
tie ball comes abreast of the batsman.
Such delivery Is most difficult to acquire,
but when once mastered is wonderfully eff
fective if judiciously sandwiched in among
shoots and curves. Every tyro thinks that
he knows all about the straight, but an art
ist is rare indeed.
When the different shoots, curves and
straights are fairly mastered, a candidate
for pitcher is given a mark to work with.
\ batSman who is not allowed to hit the
ball toes the plate The aspirant for the
box, working under the direction of the
coacher, first tries to send a ball "around
the neck" then to work drop, then to de-
coy with ''coaXer," and so on through the
list of his accomplishments, always with
control" foremost in his purpose. After
securing as far as possible this control he
devOtes himself to studying the weakness
of each batsman. The first inkling of the
individual weakness shows in form" or
position at the plate. This is particularly
true of college players. To show the twirl-
or n q nj I'm lie nno
of the most interesting parts of a coach
er's duty. This studying and the memoriz-
ing of the batsman's weak and strong
points are the main factors in "headwork."
Few college pitchers have such control as
to make headwork any great factor. Stage
and Bowers of Yale and Bayne of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania had the reputation
Of carefully studying batsmen, while High
lands of Harvard, Carter Of Yale and Young
Of Princeton usually placed more reliance
on speed and size of curves The student
pitchers make only II fair showing in tn,
first game against strong nine, but in The
second they improve and in a third kccl
down the base hit total to two or three safe
hits. The pitcher who relies mainly on
speed very rarely improves in his second
season.
The brainy pitcher practices in the cage
10 gam COnUrOl OF Jne nelSnC OF the Dali as
well as to be able to curve or shoot over any
particular corner of the plate. A game fire.
quently turns on just this point. For eX-
ample, there are three men on bases and
two out, with one run to tie. A base hit
means victory for the other side. A good
hitter is up-a man who is formidable to
the best of them, but who has one vulner
able spot. Perhaps this spot is n low drop
on the inside corner, possibly high inshoot
around the neck" possibly fast straight
directly over the middle of the plate-not Il
few of the best batters in the country are
weak on this. If the man in the box has
found that weakness and has control, the
game is safe. If he trusts to luck chances
are against him. And to trust to hard
work and skill rather than to luck is what
the professional coach is hired to teach.
The cyclonic pitcher does good grand stand
work, but in the long run he is lost. He
fails if he relies on Drawn, while his oppos-
ing twirler is cultivating both Drawn and
brain.
Fielding grounders, the second of the spe-
cialties taught in the cage, is comparative
ly easy work. Quick eyes, quick muscles
and practice are the principal, requisites,
but they may be best acquired under the
and the