The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1905-05-09
HISTORY AND SECRET
OF THE "SPIT BALL
Jack chesbro Tells All About It :
Much Talked Of Pitching Device
Is Based on Principle of the
Returning Hoop.

What on earth is this hofrid spit
bali the papers are always talking
about Is there really any such thing
And il there is, can't some nice name be
found that viii do just as wellgs These
three queries, put forth in breathless
sequence the other day by young
woman have been repeated OF late with
sufficient rapidity and insistence to keep
all the baseball wiseacres busy coming
replies. Although many folks are tired
to death Of hearing about the spit
ball, information bureaus report no let
up in the demand for information.
So there are good reaons why one
of the popular out-of door journals
should devote page to an elucidation
of the spit baIl'' by no less a person
than that eminent curve artist of the
New York Americans, jack Chesbro
Here is what Chesbro says under The
caption History and secret Of the fam
Gus spit ballp:-
Some persons are inclined to ridicue
the so-called spit bal, with which my
name was so widely connected last year
They say it is an old curve revived, on
rather, an Anticipated delivery that
dropped into disuse quarter OF a cen
tury ago. But to my mind these crit,
les, could they actually pitch a spit bali
themselves, would probably form this
conclusion that they haze all along beer
wrong III their deductions
Tip to the development OF this new
tangled delivery, all pitchers handled
the bali in the same way. They grasped
it between the first two fingers aud the
thumb, and no matter whether they
let 90 an out-curve, an in-shoot, drol
or fast ball, they never failed tc
let the ball leave the two fingers last
That Is to say, the thumbs control OF
the ball was lost before the leather ac.
tnally left the hand. Under this proc.
ess no matter what kind Of curve
was delivered, the ball in its fight
toward the plate revolved rapidly, or
rather. spun around on its axis, always
toward the batsman. With a twisting
momentum of this sort a pitcher was
able to produce the ordinary curves
coupled with tremendous speed, or d
slow, tantalizing ball that went straight
over the plate as big as a balloon, but
o difficult thing TO bang into safe terri
tory.
s.The spit ball, Or as / call IT, the
thumb ball is simply the exact reverse
of the old method The pitcher holds
the ball between the first two fingers
and the thumb, but when he lets il
fly, the ball leaves the thumb last. BY
wetting the fingers it is possible to get
control, but it is mistake to say
that the use Of saliva makes the ball
perform such peculiar stunts, for it i
the thumb and the thumb only. As the
ball flies out Of the hand, therefore, il
revolves on its axis swiftly, but instead
of toward the batsman, it goes the re,
verse way or toward the pitcher Ii i
sort of reverse English such as bill.
liardists use, and that it the cause OF
all the trouble that catehers have ex-
perienced in trying to catch the spit
BALI when it is properly delivered.
"Children are fond of rolling hoops
One of the tricks they enjoy most is tc
throw the hoop straight out in front
Of them on the pavement with sort
Of reverse twist to it that makes it roll
away for a certain distance, then STOP
short and roll back to the hands. Elk.
perts with the hoops can so twist then
that they vii roll 10 or Is feet, theI
turn a complete circle and proceed il
the same direction until they fall te
the floor The spit BALI is based upon
the principle of the returning hoop. The
reverse English given to the ball By
the thumb causes il to gradually stoI
in mid air as it reaches the plate, ant
then quickly drop from it own weight
The most mysterious thing about thu
ball is that il comes up 70 the batsmar
looking as if it was possessed of terrific
speed, but when the bat is swung al
it, the ball has dropped, in some cases
foot under it,
1T was down in New Orleans, yeal
ago, that ! saw pitcher named Strick
let, now with Brooklyn, pitch spit
ball. | noticed how he wet his fingers
and then saw the ball break quickly
as It reached the batsman. The delivery
looked so puzzling that / learned all
| could about ii from Stricklet, and Their
began to practice it. ] soon found that
it was possible to do all sorts of queer
things with the ball pitched in this ode
way First, / mastered control of il
so that ] could make it drop straight
down in front of the plate from siN
inches to two feet Then got the knack
Of making the bah drop with sort
Of out-curve, later to be followed with
a kind Of dropping in-shoot. ! prac-
tieed constantly before and after games
and finally had enough confidence in
myself to use the spit BALI now and
then in the regular games.
1T was the most amusing thing to
see the big hitters fail to hit, and Their
wonder why. They did not learn the
secret for a long time and for that
reason was able to pitch winning ball
almost constantly. Even when the hit.
ters found out what the mystery was
they could not better themselves at all
It is fact that in the last 3s games
which / pitched for the New York Amer
leans I did not use more than dozen
OF the old curves and shoots. / de-