The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-02-08
CHADWICK TALKS
ABOUT PITCHERS
Says Big Teams Garry Too Many
Slab Artists.
PlTTSBURG USES ONLY FIVE
SMALL CORPS DOES BETTER
WORK.

Last season was characterized by the
blunder of having too many pitchers
employed in the several club teams to
a greater extent than ever before re-
corded. wrote the veteran Henry Chad
wick recently. This fact was conspic-
uously apparent in the National and
American leagues, whose sixteen clubs
aggregated no less than 176 pitchers
during 1902, an average Of eleven pitch
ers to club; and yet not over four
pitchers of each clubs corps took part
in over ten games Of the clubs season.
1t was the same in 1901, but not to such
an extent as last year.
In 1902 the Pittsburg team won the
Dennant with a corps of but five pitch
ers. as the leading five men pitched in
an aggregate of ninety-nine victories
out of the 103 recorded; so that prac-
tically those OF the Pittsburg's pitch
ing corps of 1902 who did the effective
work in the bOx-which virtually won
the pennant for the club-numbered
but five pitchers, that being more, even,
than any club requires for its team
The Pittsburg club which won the
pennant race, had the smallest corps
of pitchers of any club in the league in
1902 On the other hand the tail-end
teen pitchers in its corps for 1902: and
yet but six of them did the brunt of
the box work; namely, in pitching in
forty-six Of the forty-eight games won
during the season, seven of the thirteen
pitching in but two victories of the
seasons total, and FIVE of the seven
did not pitch even in a single victory.
Can anything show the folly of using
so many pitchers on a team greater
than this fact?
In the American league, too, the
statistics of the pitching corps Of each
club of the league show similar results
as regards the utterly useless cost of
employing so many pitchers on a team.
But six of that clubs pitching corps of
1902 pitched in ten games and over dur
ing the season, and of these six but
four pitched in more victories than de-
feats. And, by the way, there was an
important difference between the work
ing of the two champion teams of the
two leagues. and that was, that the
pitching corps of the Pittsburg club
virtually won the pennant for the club,
while the success OF the Athletics was
mainly due to the remarkable team
work done by the field support of the
pitching corps.
A striking instance of the uselessness
of a large pitching corps was shown
III Lle case Ol the bOSlOn American
League club, which club has a corps of
eleven pitchers, and yet but three of
the eleven pitched in more victories
than defeats. these three pitching in an
aggregate of sixty-four victories out OF
the seasons total of seventy seven.
But the worst showing of an Ameri-
can League clubs pitching corps was
that of the Cleveland club, whose pitch
ing corps numbered twenty pitchers in
al ,sfrt,k
ries or defeats and two others in parts
of games. Out of the whole eighteen
pitchers who pitched in ten games and
over, but two exceeded the average
percentage of victories figures of 500
Three of the eighteen alone pitched in
fifty victories out of the seasons total
of sixty mine. Nine of the eighteen
pitched in more defeats than victories
and six did not pitch in a single vic
tory.