The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-08-16

into Mikes head. Donovan needs a utilit,
outielder. and Donovan could not go fal
| wrong In giving to him a trial as fl,
| chaser.
The days when the batsman who swings
hard at the ball6lands a position among the
top-notchers in the batting average has
| long since passed. The late Ed Delehanty
was perhaps the last Of the hard swingers
who inquired as batting star. The up-tO-
He merely snaps at the ball with his bat
and hnds that mode of batting very sue
cessful. There was time when ali bats
men took good. long swing at the ball.
, When the pitchers mastered the change
OF pace which is now in vogue, and is. Incl
dentally, more successful than curves or
speed. the long swing had to be abandoned.
The player who sets himself and keeps his
bat far back of the plate in order to get a
long swing at the ball has little q no
change-of-pace delivery. That slow ball
sent after a fast one has been pushed over
is bound to fool the batsman. That slow
ball may be easy enough to detect from the
grand stand. but from the plate. looking d.
:ectly at the ball. 1t cannot be detected
oatsman is of his stride.
A weak grounder or a little pop fly usu--
My results. If the ball IS hit at all. and
very often it is missed mile. Let bats
nan be caught on that ball few times
md. grows nervous. and he finds himself
unable to hit either fast or slow balls with
mat long swing: The batsman with the
and when he hits it it travels just as far as
II he had taken wide swing at it.
II is not the intention Of the. Cincinnati
Club to load itself down with lot of cast
k of and worn-out. ball players. Though
the policy Of the club is most liberal one.
t Is by no means the Intention to make
the local team a sort OF old mems home for
ball players.
President Hermann is more than anxious
10. get a winning team for this city, but
q ho Yrn xntH ire
every ball player who may apply, though
he have reputation. Judging from what
mas been done within the past few weeks
local club intends to do its strengthening
Tor next season with minor-league material.
The club evidently prefers to take chance
with youngsters who have room to ,im-
prove. rather than engage lot of high
salaried people with regulations as stars
The fact that the local club has treated its
players fairly and has paid them good sala-
ries has become noised about in both
leagues. and consequently there are a great
many man. PLAYERS anxious to secure berth
Among these are quite number Of the
st. Louis American League team. The fact
that the local club made efforts to secure
several members Of that team last fall evil
IDENTIFY led them to believe that they are
still in demand here, OF the players who
ere said to offer their services to Manager
hof and Powell. They are all good ball
players but before the Cincinnati club
could negotiate with these players 1t would
have to purchase the consent of the st,
Louis club. This would require quite an
outlay of money: and. while money has
never been considered when the Cincinnati
club started out to strengthen, 1t cannot
be considered good policy to make an out
lay of quite bunch Of money to buy a lot
OF seasoned material.
None Of the players mentioned will ever
be better than they are at the present. time.
There Is no chance for them to improve,
but every chance that they will begin TO de-
teriorate. The local club is not likely to at
tempt to strengthen its team with PLAYERS
of this class, preferring to take a Chance
on some promising minor leaguers.