Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1894-02-22

ton by March Is or before, and at Yale,
Wesleyan, Brown, Amherst williams,
Harvard and Dartmouth as near that day
as Borsas 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
ers 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 Gage work. The gymnasium, strict
ly speaking, usually plays comparatively
unimportant part, for candidates are sup
posed TO present themselves in good state
OF physical development. II Is necessary
that players climber up" their joints and
harden upper arm and back muscles. Aft
er these two communications are attained
gymnasium work is liable to injure rather
than aid candidate. as 1t may stiffen GER
tain unused muscles and take off fat which
would protect a player when sliding TO
bases.
Far more important and far more in pub
lilo evidsnos than gymnasium work II the
SdSV PIucSiOiu4. ol0 Weo tuo uTbt ulBti-
tuition to use q room solely for battery win
ter practice, as IL also was the first TO build
a structure solely for baseball winter prac-
tice In general. The old cage was but a
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 II was a
success and was at once initiated by other
colleges. After a life of Is years It gave
way to the present one. which is but tenn
porary, and will soon make place for a
model. The present cage IL 30 feet wide, 70
long and 10 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
tery work, fielding grounders 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. In order to avoid any strain. and
gradually increase In time and energy.
Then the professional ooacher takes them
In hand. The date of his arrival Is usually
somewhere between Feb. Is and March I.
This year Tim keefe Is the ooscher 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.
Strange as II may appear to the uninitiated,
college pitcher as well as many profes-
sional one has most trouble In delivering
good straight. The arm must be brought
directly over. parallel with the body, the
pigskin leaving the hand in peculiar way
without any snap whatsoever, and conse-
quently without any lump" or "shootp a.
the ball comes abreast OF the batsman.
Such delivery Is most difficult to acquire,
but when once mastered Is wonderfully ef-
fective II 1udioiously sandwiched in among
shoots and curves. Every tyro thinks that
he knows all about the straight, but an art
ist IL rare indeed.
When the different shoots, curves and
straights are fairly mastered, a candidate
for pitcher Is given mark to work with.
batsman who Is not allowed TO hit the
ball toss the plate. The aspirant for the
box, working under the direction of the
coacher, first tries to send ball around
the neck" then to work drop, then to de-
coy with "coaxer," and 80 on through the
list Of his accomplishments, always with
control" foremost In his purpose. After
securing as far a. 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-
er how to study players weakness Is one
OF the most interesting parts Of coach.
er's duty. This studying and the memorir-
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. Stagg
and Bowers Of Yale and Bayne Of the Uni
verxity Of Pennsylvania had the reputation
Of carefully studying batsmen, while High.
lands Of Harvard, Carter Of Yale and Young
Of Princston usually placed more reliance
on speed and size Of curves The student
pitchers make only fair showing In the
hrst game against a strong nine, but in the
second they improve and In q third keep
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
to gain coptrol of ths hsLxls.1s the Lau a.