The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-21

Left-handed pitchers all are eccentric.
Some years ago l evolved a theory tnaI
their left whips, working directly over
the heart, affect that organ and. through
the heart affect the brain.
That made me vastly unpopular with
left handlers, but the salient fact remains
that most Of them, in fact every one that
/ have known, from the time or PeSgy
Shaw down to Rube Waddell, have been
eccentric, to put 1t mildly.
Look them over for yourse4I ,,, Ian nGml
Noodles Hahn, RUDE Waddell, Jake WEI
mer, Billy McGill, Crazy schmidt ~
Seymour, Jerry NOyes, Jess Tannehill,
Eddie Doheney, and a host or others VINO
are renowned for their irregularity. one
day they are wonderful pitchers the
next day dubs. 80
1t is a strange thing mat oh5y ~ ~
left-handed pitchers, Tannehill and RuDe
WaddelI ever were winning p1tcherS
three years in succession. Most or them
are wonders for one season and aWIui
failures after that. Take the recOrdS Oh
the scribes for years and most OF the
stories of eCcentricity are stories OF the
Ieft-handers Most of them are MOODY
almost suicidal, directly after plIchlhg
hard game and they return to normal
conditions slowly. By the time they are
called upon to pitch again they are pack
into condition, but the day afterwards
they are either Historically Jubllant or
melancholy, depending on Ihe way IHe
game went -, =
There certainly is something that at
fects the left-handers, and whether my
theory is right or not, they all are queer
| The greatest of them all was Tom Ioao
Ramsey. Tom was a bricklayer before
he found out that he could pitch, anu
really it was bricklaying that mace MIN
He had gripped bricks in his left hand,
between the fingers and thumb, ana neld
them there while he broke them Win q
| troweI until the muscles of the fingers
| of his left hand were wonderfully deVel-
| oped so much so that he almost couId
/ twist the cover off baseball by sheer
| strength Besides this, his shoulder mo
/ ton was free and easy and, with IhaI
/ wonderful grip on the ball, All he mad TO
| do was to shoot the sphere over. FER
! haps some have been faster, but never
was there a man who could curve a oali
| as moor old Toad could. His drop ball
! broke a foot and a half, his in curve
! Jumped in two inches, and he pltched
| them both with the same motion.
| Toad didn't last Ball playing was so
much easier than bricklaying that ne
spoiled and went to the drink. L believe
/ not even Eddie Waddell approached
Toads strike-out records; He struck t.. 6ut
/ twelve to fifteen on all weak hit'iiiS
teams-like Cincinnati :,
handle that ever pitched. The only Sys-
tenn that ever won with nm was t+ tGT f to-
dav. After that you can go get drunk
and stay drunk until next THURSDAY
/ when you will pitch again
Then the great lWiElSi
glorious three-day jag. sober up, and
| pitch a wonderful game. But he only
was marvel for one year. After thai
the booze got him.
Danny Friend ought to have b4en-ano
never was the greatest Of them all Tie
had an arm that was like a piece OF zee
skin and he pitched without an effort
He had everything and he knew how &c
use his curves. But Danny was pecC'S1r
es specially when the manage" was pltch-
mo him hard Hes would De gay anC
happy one minute, mocose and sore the
next. - 7--;,,f
I remember one afternoon that rlSnC
,,as nitching ont on the west side in Chi