Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-13
PITCHERS SHOULD
PREVENT SQUEEZE
TWIRLERS MAY EMPLOY MANY
METHODS
When Runner Starts from Third Base
Slab Man Has Opportunity
to Thwart Scoring
Operation

A well-known baseball expert writ
ing of the squeeze play says:
How would 1 break UP the squeeze
play? This question has been put by
score or more of readers In football
it's an old saying, and true one, too,
that there never yet has been an at
tack invented by the offense that can
not be met and stopped by the defense.
So it is in baseball. My contention
all along has been that no right-hand-
ed pitcher has any business to permit
the squeeze play to be worked on him.
He can thwart it nine times out OF ten
If he is wideawake and has his wits
about him.
To make the play the runner n; third
must be on the jump and start running
while the pitcher is winding up to de-
liver the ball, before he delivers 1T.
There is then plenty of time left for
the pitcher to change his pitch and
keep the ball away from the man at
bat if he had intended to drive 1t over
the plate. There are two ways to pre-
vent the man at bat from blocking the
ball and thus break UP the play.
One is to pitch it out far enough SO
he cannot reach it with his bat. That
will enable the catcher to get the run
ner coming in without any trouble,
Throw at Batsman's Head
The other, and perhaps more effective
and safer way, is for the pitcher, when
he sees the man at third start to run
in, to aim the pitch straight at the
batsman's head. The latter will not
even try to hit the ball then. but dodge
and get out of it's way, thus giving the
catcher all the time in the world to
meet the runner coming.
A batsman has no chance to dodge in
time to change his position so he can
block the ball pitched at his head. If
he tried the result would be miss, a
foul or a pop out. Either way it would
be an out or a strike. But in most in
stances the batsman would drop to es-
cape being hit and then the runner
from third would run into trap from
which he could not escape.
If, perchance, the batsman were fool
ish enough to take chances of having
his skull cracked or his face disfig-
wouldn't try it a second time, and, in
that event, the runner would have to re-
turn to third.
It's safe bet to make that the next
man to bat would not take such
chances. OF course, in such emergen-
cies the catcher must also be wide
awake and on the alert for change
of pitch after he has signed for the next
ball.
Catcher Must Be Awake
AS it happens only occasionally that
there is an opportunity to work the
squeeze play with runner on third and
no one or only one out the catcher
can afford taking chances of being
crossed in the signs them and not risk
injury.
Whether the ball is pitched wide on
the outside of the plate or straight at
batsman's head he has no business to
miss 1t so long as there is no curve to
it.
He can see the ball coming all the
way in, and If he sees it come wide,
or toward the batter's head, he can
take it as cue from the pitcher that
1t is straight ball and that the
squeeze play is being tried so that he
will be on the lookout for the runner
coming in.
at have always contended that no
right-handed pitcher has any business
to let an opposing team successfully
pull off this squeeze play against his
ei5aD