The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-14
WHY PITCHERS ARE
NOT GOOD HITTERS
Joss, Cleveland Twirler, Gives Two Good
Reasons on Much Discussed
Subject.

One of the oft-repeated questions that
arises In all baseball discussions is: WHY
can't pitchers hit?" This problem is one
that the students of the game have been
wrestling with for n good many years,
and, while there has been many reasons
given, still no one has ever been able to
make ii exactly clear. Addie Joss, the
Cleveland pitcher, has made an effort to
explain. He says;
"Of course, the rule doesn't hold good
In all cases, as there are a number of twiri-
ers who can pound the leather about as
hard as the men who are in the game every
day, but these cases are few and far be-
tween. After seeing such men as Killian,
Ortiz, Tannehill and Mullln, of the Ameri-
can League, who are rafting good stickers
at the bat, one wonders why it is that the
other men that make pitching an art don't
hit harder than they do; nevertheless, the
fact remains the same, that, as u rule, the
pitcher doesn't break up many games with
the stick.
ITO one who has never been connected
with the game, from the standpoint Of the
player, 1t would seem that he of all the
rest of the players should be able to hit.
Berg A twirler himself, it is conteIded
that he should be able to know about what
the opposing pitcher was going to pitch,
"Ahb ~ " a VI Aii4of oAhORA0 w Wv ~
hit 1t a mile. But here is where the fall
lacy in the reasoning begins. All pitchers
don't think alike. BY that I mean that
what may be one batter's weaknes with
a certain twirler, might be just what the
batter can nit when served by another
twirler.
'"The best two reasons that l know (from
actual experience, as the official batting
averages win show at the close of each
SEASON. are these:
"a pitcher when working on an average
of about two games a week don't get to
bat often enough to make himself familiar
with the art of meeting the ball, which is
the secret of coed hitting.
"a pitcher who is in the game about
twice a week, will, in the course of that
time. go to bat about seven times, while
the player who Is in the game every day
will face the barrier about % times. This
fact alone means quite a little to the man
who expects to hit with any degree of con-
sistency.
another good theory advanced, and one
hat seems very reasonable, is the one
that. while the twirler is on the slab serv-
ing up the benders to the opposition, he
is watching the ball as it goes away from
him, but when at the bat the conditions
are reversed and he has to look at the
ball as it is coming toward him.
ANY trapshooter VIII tell you that the
hardest way to break a clay pigeon is
when 1t is coming directly toward you,
and the same theory holds good as re-
CARDS batting.
Pitchers, as a rule, next to winning a
game, would rather make n base hit than
anything else, and their lack Of hitting
ability surely is not caused by the fact
that they don't practise.
ITO show how much they like to hit 1
have only to say that 1 overheard one
major league pitcher make the remark
that there was only two pleasures In the
game for him, one was hitting in practise
end the game and the nther naY-daY