The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-13

the rule does not apply. Hundreds Of
spectators have marveled over the ap-
parent injustice of this exception In
the same game they have seen bats
man trot to base because a pitched
ball graZed his shirt without even
making It's force felt, and have seen
another players hand, wrist or fore
arm badly bruised without the penalty
attaching therefor. Anybody who has
knowledge of the nerve distribution in
the human body need not be told
that bruise on the hand or wrist
is more painful and will cripple man
quicker and for greater length Of
time than a similar bruise on the up
per arm or other parts Of the body.
James Stafford, left fielder of the New
York team, has just resumed his place
on the nine after an enforced absence
of two months caused by one of the
small bones in his right forearm being
fractured in two places by a pitched
ball. Yet for that blow he didn't get
base because of the strange excep-
ton to the rule which exempts the
forearm from the penalty For that
exception Curtis WEIGH was RESPONSE
BILE.
When the rule was first adopted
which gave batsman a base on balls
for being hit with a pitched ball, it's
intent was to check a dangerous habit
which some pitchers had Of intimidat-
Ing batsmen by purposely trying to hit
them or by seeing how nearly to it
they could come. Mullane was a chief
offender in that method, and he soon
had imitators. Hence the rule was
made to penalize the practice and pro-
tect batsmen, and when the first rule
was drawn up and adopted there was
no exception of any part Of the bats
mans body. But Curtis WEIGH. then
one of the brightest stars of Comiskey's
famous four times winners, the st.
Louis Browns, invented a system of
beating the rule" He would stand.
leaning well over the plate, as If ready
to bunt the ball and then, as If trying
to get his arms out of the way of the
ball, would let 1t Craze his wrist or the
sleeve of his shirt He had this practice
down so fine" that his calculations
seldom missed it by the smallest frac-
ton of an inch and nothing more
serious than slight external bruise,
and seldom that, even came from his
practice. But many a close game was
won for the Browns by the trick. Then
the lawmakers Of the American asso-
citation got together and by this bit Of
special legislation put quietus on the
WEIGH wrist trick The National
league adopted the amendment for the
sake Of uniformity and there it stood
even after WEIGH, the only player who
ever used the practice, retired from
the profession, and there 1t stands to-
day.
That was one Of three special rules
aimed at what one might call super
scientific playing. One of the other
two Is the rule which makes an at
tempt to bunt a strike, when the ball
goes foul. Before this rule was adopted
several players could always get base
on balls by simply fouling off every
good ball which were put across the
plate till four wide ones were sure to
come. Here also Comiskey's famous
Brown Stockings were again the Of
tenders in beating the rule. Latham
invented the trick and Comiskey was
close imitator.
I remember seeing Latham foul 10
balls which VIII White put over the
plate for him while he took one turn
at bat" in a game at Cincinnati It
was grand struggle between a pitcher
with good control and player with
wonderfully good eye. Latham won
out, for after the thirteenth foul
ball was pitched which went wide, and
it gave him the hard earned base The
rule was adopted, and the Latham
practice was killed
Only a few years ago the National
league adopted new rule, which pro-
yides that whenever a runner is on first
base, with not more than one out, any
fly ball batted to the infield shall put
the batsman out whether it be caught or
not caught. This was the death war
rant of the trapped ball play invented
and so successfully made by McPhee,
second baseman of the Cincinnatis
Several other infie1ders initiated him,
but none ever succeeded in making
it so sure as did McPhee. 1t gave him
such an advantage that the magnates
Of the other clubs enacted this special
bit of personal legislation to destroy
his superscientific trick.
The McPhee trap ball trick was so
perfect that he had base runners
"cinched'' no matter what they would
do. II there were runners on second and
first and not more than one out, fly
ball to McPhee meant a double play,