The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-05-16

|
oullar Ball.
Does the spit" ball injure pitch.
er's arm and will It continue to
| thrive?
There are some who insist that the
splitter" has seen its day and that the
pitchers will quit using It until It
passes out of the game. There are
others who insist that the splitter is
but in fits infancy and that all kinds
Of new tangled curves will result from
experiment with the saliva
That the spit" ball is hard on the
arm there is hardly a question If
the spit ball didn't injure Jack
Chesbros arm, why is he going into
retirement? He says that he be-
lleves years rest will bring him
back as good as ever. Chesbro is a
big, strong, healthy looking 200-pound
athlete, and IL his arm is good he
would hardly pass up a $4,000 con-
tract. If his arm is bad then the
spit ball put 1t on the bum.
BIZ Dineen, the famous pitcher of
the Boston Americans, once used the
spit ball with success. Now the
same Dineen Is one of the strongest
opponents of the splitter" Dineen
says himself that 1t has taken him
two years to recover from injuries his
arm was subjected to by the use OF
the spit" ball No big fellow, who
S right, ever needs to use the spit"
Oall to be successful, is the way
Dineen looks at Il. "Cy" Young and
lot OF other veterans, after having
used the spit" ball for short time,
passed II up and all Of them now de.
pend on their curves and speed to
win games.
That the spit" ball has been the
cause of number of pitchers to jump
into the llmelight is well known. Ed
Walsh, of the White Sox the sensa.
tion OF last year, used the spit" ball
almost entirely. Until last season
Walsh was regarded as only a fair
pitcher He Is a big, husky fellow,
and to date the splitter" hasn't af.
Iected his arm to any great extent, al.
though he was compelled to take
couple of weeks OF rest near the close
or last season. The other day he
struck out IL in seven innings In
game at indianapolis, which makes
his look pretty good.
It's peculiar feature, but few left.
handlers use the spit" ball. The ex.
peotorator seems to be the big stock
In trade with the right-handers, but
the southpaws are content TO use the
old time curves to get them through
Control Is usually the southpaw's
trouble. The splitter" Is an unusual
ly hard ball to control, and perhaps
this explains why few of the left.
handlers have taken up the Splitter"
Harry Howell, of the st. Louis
Browns, insists that the spit" ball
has no effect whatever on his arm.
Howell has an excellent curve ball
and good speed and was regarded as
a classy pitcher before the splitter"
was heard Of Howell is a great stu.
dent OF the game and he has developed
the wet ball to high degree
Howell simply loves to throw the
splitter" and tries his hardest to re.
tire. every batter on strikes. When
pitching Howell always has a mouth
full of slippery elm and he simply GOV.
ers the ball with saliva. When How.
ell is pitching the infelders always
e. about handling the ball. Bobby
Wallace. one of the most accurate
throwers in the business. made large
majority OF his errors last season with
Howell working. The ball when re-
celved by the infieder is In such.
slippery condition that to throw II is
quite feat.
Berger, with Columbus last year,
simply set the American association
batters on end. His spit" ball was
the most dreaded ball in the league
and his strikeout record was very
much "Rube Waddell." Akron fans
will never forget what Berger did to
their star team of two years ago. At
the close of the season an exhibition
game was played with Columbus.
Berger pitched for the Columbus team
and what happened to Akron was aw-
ful, The o. and p. leaguers were
blanked and just 10 went out on
strikes. Berger had his splitter"
working to perfection in that game
and had the minor leaguers swinging
everywhere in an effort to hit the ball