The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-03-20
Pitching Stars Are Usually Very
Poor Batters.
Are in Farce Comedy When at
the Bat.
CAUSED BY WEAKNESS
Become Tired i'm the Box and
Are Listless.
Hardest Hitting Pitchers Those
With Most Drawn.

For twenty years and more it has
been a recognized fact that the
pitcher of any professional club is a
farce-comedy as a batsman- once in
a while a slabman is found who can
walk up to the plate and cork them
out as we'll as any other fellow. but
IN about seven cases out of ten the
pitchers efforts at the bat are pro-
ductive of great hilarity upon the
bIeachers.
Students of the game have mar
veIed that this should be SO and have
offered a dozen explanations and a
hundred remedies. The casual spec
tator of a game would imagine that
the pitcher ought to be the heaviest
hitter-that the producer of curves
ought to know Just how to swat them.
But the slabman keeps right on fool
ing others and getting fooled in turn,
and pitchers who hit Jas continue to
be vastly more numerous than pltch-
ers hitting PTS.
OF the Chicago White Sox, Smith
is a timely hitter and a man who
makes his few swats count at the
proper moment. Smith can hit around
$50 right along. and that is great for
g pitcher Walsh is thought to have
the makings of good batter, but
was hardly seen enough last season to
judge. AltroCk has spasms when he
hits like a fiend, and other spasms
when he can't hit a haystack Pat
<erson is a very weak batSman. Dr.
White can hit tolerably we'll and gets
them in ever and anon when needed.
owen is a light batter. but shows
signs Of Improvement Fiene, the new
pitcher. can hit -240 in little leagues
and may do as well in the majors
OF the Cubs. Carl Lundgren, who
was very weak in 1903. showed quite
good form last season. Briggs is a
batting joke. Brown can hit a little.
and if played as an outfelder would
develop into a slugger. Wicker is
medium batsman, ana. like Brown,
can hit when played regularly
Weimer is about a .20O-point batter.
Many critics think the pitcher is so
weak at the bat because he practices
nothing but pitching and pays no at
fention to stick work. This is prob
ably true for 1t is hardly likely that
any man who has the arduous strain
of pitching on his hands would de-
vote extra time to batting practice
Another reason, however, and one
which kills off the batting power of
even a hard-hitting pitcher, is the
temporary WEAKNESS of the curyer
when he comes in from the slab. As
Joe Murphy. once a pitcher now
horse Judge, once said to The writer;
you have been sendTng them in as
hard as you know how. and you come
into bat with your breath gasping.
your heart trfp-hammering. your
arm and shoulder tingling. What
chance have you got to hit anything ?
What show have you to either bat or
run the bases -
The hard-hitting pitchers have usu-
ally been men OF the brawniest order
men whose ox-like frames could
stand the pitching strain and still
have vitality remaining for the bat
ting work. Jack Luby. Ad Gumbert
and Amos Rusie could hit heavily.
Tim Keefe, Jim Calvin. and other
great boxmen were jokes when it
came to a batting performance. Old
timers claim that the weakest batter
in history was Will White. White. a
good pitcher of twenty years and
more ago. had weak eyes and wore
glasses. Any time VIII hit the ball,
it was by pure accident. and his ap-
pearance at the plate was always the
signal for yells of good-natured. de-
rision. W. A. WHELON.