The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-14
THE TROUBLES OF
 THE SLAB ARTIST Some New Tricks of the Pitch
 ing Fiend NEW VARIETY OF SHOOTS Pitchers Are Constantly lnventing New Turns With the Ball To Fool the Man Who Stands Be-
 hind the Bat.
NEW VARIETY OF SHOOTS
York World.

From the New York World
 MT. Pitcher still has shade of the batsman in the seemingly endless battle that has been going on for more than 30 years between the twirler and the man with the stick. That is, if the batting results of the season, so far as it has gone, mean anything.
 It was as early as 1876, when the Ma tonal league was organized, that the baseball authorities had in mind the curb ing of the pitcher. At intervals it was found necessary to allow the twirler more latitude. then to check him once more.
 Finally came the adoption of the foul strike rule that has kept many pitcher In the game who would have been has been" without it. Then Elmer Stricklett discovered the spit ball" Jack Ches- bro made the splitter famous, and gave at least dozen slabmen the cue that has kept them in the business fooling bats men and drawing big salaries.
 few years ago a 300 per cent batting average the standard set before a player could get into the select class of batsmen. Today a man who can main tain an average of .275 per cent is a valuable asset to a club.
 
 This season the pitchers are adding the knuckle ball to their repertoires, and there is more trouble ahead for the bats men. While the evolution of the 'knckle' ball is claimed for Nap Fucker of Brook 1yn, Lew Moren of the Philadelphia Ma tons, and Cicotte of Boston, it is serted that the 'knckTe'' is nothing more or less than the old "foater," or ice cream ball, that melted before 1t reached the plate, used by Tim Keefe, the famous pitcher of the Giants in 1888 and 1889, and Billy Reidy, the ex-Brooklyn pitcher, the only twrler who was in the busi- ness for 16 years with nothing but d slow ball, claims that Keefe taught him the possibility of the "foater.''
 My slow ball." says Reidy, fooled some of the best batters in the country. Others drove me to the woods. Against the teams known As suggers l was gen orally most successful
 It has even been claimed that Christy Mathewson's famous fade-away ball was pitched 30 years ago. Whether it was or not Mathewson is given universal credit for having brought to it's highest develop ment the ball that just 1t reaches the batter appears to take a sudden drop or fade away; hence it's name
 Cicotte's "knuckle ball. or ''hoater," is described as follows: Its breaks aud shoots seem endless. Sometimes it will take an up-over drop, sometimes it will come straight in and sometimes it will start to whrl and make big drop. Just where it is going nobody but kind Prov idence seems to know The ball strikes the catcher's init with a thud in spite of the fact tha. it is not speedy, and, hay ing no revolving motion, it comes in much like cobblestone or a brick"
 Dusty Rhoades of the Cleveland Maps sprang a new one on the St. Louis fans last week. It has been dubbed the Out terhy ball." because it foated over the plate like a butterfly, and when the bat ter hit at it the ball seemed to duck away, also like a butterfly. One critic thus described Dusty's fioater: "Rhoades never had anything like it before. Speed and curves had hitherto been his stock in trade. So when he began in the first inning to unship this new thing in the shape of pitched ball he had the Browns gasping. It was an eerie sort of a fooler. It was thrown with all the pyrations the part of the pitcher that attended the delivery of fast curve, hut instead of showing speed it drifted up to the batsman like a puff ball on summer zephyr and with the same ap- parent uncertainty as to ultimate direc- tion only to drop peacefully into the catcher's mitt at the end, leaving he lat ter puzzled and discomfited."
 
 Several pitchers have made the asser- tion that the ball with the roughed cover now used in the National and Amer ;can leagues will further handicap the batsmen in their battle with the twirlers. ..yt may affect sptball pitchers" says Harry Howell of the St. Louis Browns, until we devise some method of over coming the handicap, which we certainly will I know I can get my sea grass curve working on it. Ire wet ball is my Prince Albert When I get it working right it is almost impossible to hit it. l Ike to have it break around the bat ter's waist and drop sharply. That ball when it curves just the way l want 1t to will make the best sticker in the game look foolish.
 "On the other hand, the new idea may produce a wngy ball, and if it does watch the batting figures drop still lower ana zee the increased difficulty in fielding. All baseball players know that a new, glossy ball hit squarcly on the nose Will 20 at least 50 feet further than winsW CT erassed-up ball. It may be that the rulemakers will discover that one year cf the roughened ball will cause a re- turn to the old style
 While even the youngsters on the lots hold learned discussions on the spitpaii' the fadeaway, the knucl1le ball, the mik tall. the fioater and other varieties that spring up mostly during spring training, the question. "Why does a curve ball ourve?" has not yet been decided to the satisfaction of the scientists. Back In 1867, when Arthur Cummings first used the curve ball on the opponents of the Stars of Brooklyn. it was claimed that the ball did not curve and that it was impossible. But when Cummings and Bill Tyng. the Hartford pitcher, curved inc ball around pole the center one of tf.ree. the skeptical professors were con- .t,ood Rut why the ball curves is still ,,, doubt. The most accepted theory is that. according to the twist given it by the pitcher, one side of the ball travels faster than the other and consequently there is most resistance to the air on that side, Hence the curve.