The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-07


 Some Uses of Accurate Batting
 Winged Fire for a Man Who Played
 Dirty Ball.
 Undoubtedly the first man to recog-
 nize the true value of placed hits, said the man with the crooked fingers as he
 banked the forge fire, was the mana ger of the team with which I made my
 first professional appearance. Our pro
 ficiency in that line was the result Of hours of practice, but it paid, and when
 think of it as the means of retiring
 from the game one of the greatest out felders and dirtiest players in the pro- fession, I consider it time well spent.
 'It was early in the eighties and had been playing for a season or two With emi-professional teams. l finally caught on with one of the clubs in a small league down in Pennsylvania, be- ing signed to catch. When the contract was sent to me there came an order with 1t to report about two months be- fore the opening of the season. That struck me as unusual, but l was anX- ious to break into the game profession ally and an eight dollar a week job wasn't such a big thing anyhow. So. about the first of March I reported. l was the last man on the ground, being the only newcomer and when l stepped off the train there was the manager waiting for me. Of course, l supposed that he was there merely to give the glad hand. But he wasn't. On the con- trary, 1t was a call for keeping him waiting I needed the money, or there would have been trouble, and when he saw that I didn't care to talk back he cooled down. As we walked up the street he asked whether I had brought uniform and, seeing that was sur prised he said:
 "'You might as well understand now that my team is run strictly on scienti- fic principles There is never play made that hasn't been all planned out, and that's why you were ordered to re- port here so early. All the other men are last years players We dropped the catcher because he slipped up on tri- ple play trick that we had practiced for three months. I just tell you this so that you will know wha's expected Of you. Hurry over to the hotel, get on unlIOTM Ol SOIl0 SoTl anu toiiiC dcWAA ~ the training quarters
 'Now, I'll leave it to you if that wasn't a pretty fierce game to steer a young player against, and l did whole lot of thinking while I changed my clothes The more I thought it over the poorer seemed my chances of holding down the job. But l was there, and l had no coin and little prospect of get ting any except from the manager ot the team I finally made up my mind that I was there to make pretty good bluff, at any rate, and when l came down to the hotel office and asked the clerk to direct me to the training grounds was beginning to recover my nerve The clerk looked me over, nod ded his head and then asked whether l was the new catcher for the team. I told him was, and he said:
 The managers queer sort of chap too blamed scientific to my way of thinking, but he took a lot of raws last season and made them pennant winners, and if man has the game in him why Mike'll bring it out. Can you hit?'
 q was strong at that game and when ' told him my average he allowed that l would be all right, if I followed instruc- tions and called science to my assist | ance. The training quarters were in a roller skating rink, giving plenty of room for batting practice, and when l walked in the team was at work with the stick. What I saw surprised me more than a foul tip on a split finger. Way down at the far end of the rink was half-dozen eighteen-inch squares ho1 al o,,t and the entrance was bunch of the players batting. It was three hundred feet, if | it was an inch, from where they stood to the squares. But they just laced the | ball into those squares, apparently with out an effort and as I was rubbing my eyes to make sure I was awake the | manager throws a fearful roast into | one of the men because he happens to 1 strike the line. Then he saw me and | walked over, shook hands, called the | rest of the gang over and introduced me | and then handed me club One of the i pitchers shot up nice one and copped | it square. The ball goes on a line near the top of the rink and pushes out window. I looked to see what the man. ager thought of the hit and saw him rubbing hic chin.
 "'You hit lem hard enough says he, but you need training. If that hit had been made by a scientific batter it would probably have gone further. And besides, it doesn't need to be a long hit to score. It's where the ball lands that even if it is just out of reach in stead of over the fence. But you'll learn, and I guess you can draw on the club for little money
 ''Well the rest of that morning I put in watching the other players at work. The way they dropped a ball just where they wanted was something wonderful. It dndnt make and difference whether they batted fungo or had the ball shot up to them by the pitchers. It was all the same. The ball dropped just where they said it would. Next morning my training began. For two hours I just practised swinging bat, and when we stopped work for the morning the man ager assured me that inside of a month would be an average place hitter That was encouraging, and in the after noon I worked like a Turk, so that when we stopped for the day I was assured that I should have crack at the ball next day. They did as they had prom sed and set me at trying to drive the oall into a space about the size of a pi- ano box. By noon l could set it there l1a++ | 1