Evening star., 1909-05-23
INTERESTING STUDY
OF INSIDE PLAYS
Science of Base Ball Big Fac
tor in Winning
Pennants.

] CIut0ItlSs
Base ball has made such advances
scientifically and the generalsnlp ana
team work have become SO involved and
complicated that even n lover OF the
game rarely understands the fine points
or knows how or why play is made.
Every catcher and pitcher in the big
leagues knows to an inch how far each
base runner may leave any base and get
back safely, says the American Maya
zine. A catcher will throw 10 catch
Miller Higgins Of Cincinnati, for instance
when he leaves first base over twelve feet
while he will let Fred Clarke of PittsburS
take sixteen even eighteen, feet without
making throw with intent to catch him.
If he throws it is to drive Clarke back
and keep him from getting too great a
start
Every infielder at least knows just
how certain men will make a play and
with Wagner on first and Tommy Leach
on third every catcher in the National
League throws to third If PittSburg at
tempts double steal, because it is well
known fact that Leach, in other respects
a good base runner, will ''come through
with the play
That is. If the catcher makes motion
as if to throw to second base and then
whips it to third Leach will make
false start for the plate and be caught
In the last season Chicago defeated Pitts
burg three times because, with either
Wagner or Clarke on first, Leach was
caught off third.
Each man must know whether Donlin
pulls fast ball or not, whether or not
he hits a curve to left. He must know
that Fred Clarke is the only left-handed
handed pitchers curve ball hard-and
thousand other points of similar nature.
Take the worlds champion Chicago
Cubs in game last year. Mike DQnlin
of New York is coming to bat. Observe
the kaleidoscope movement on the field
Chance suddenly drops back ten feet and
takes step nearer the first base line.
Evers edges twelve feet toward first base
and goes ten feet farther back, playing
deep.
Schultz retreats twenty-five feet or
more toward the stands and moves nearer
the foul line. Sheckard, in left field,
trots forty feet nearer to the diamond
and angles toward center field, while little
Slagle swings from center over into right
Tinker is playing down within ten feet
of second base.
Brown is pitching and any one in the
stands who knows the team well enough
knows that King has .signaled Brown to
pitch fast ball waist high and on the
inside corner Of the plate. and that il the
ball is pitched as ordered the chances are
20 to 1 or more that Donlin will pull it
hard toward right field.
Crack! The ball is driven f1ercely down
the first base line. Chance dives over
SCOOPS it, Brown races to first base, the
ball is tossed to him. the umpire yells
Out" and the crowd says Tough luck;
he picked that. and Chance just happen
ed to be there -.-...
Now watch the same team. the same
season. when Pf1ester, left handler
pitches to Donlin. King signals Pfester
to pitch a curve. Instantly the entire
team swings toward left field. Slagle
drops far back in left center. while
Tinker both move back. ready for a dash
forward at Doniin's first motion to bunt
They know If he hits the curve the ball
is going toward left or left center. A
moment later King signals Pfester for a
fast ball. The whole team swings ra pid-
ly in the other direction-and so for every
man on the 'team-every man except Hans
Wagner, and for him they play deep and
trust to luck. for he is likely to hit any,
The speed with which Egan's brain con-
fact that a batted ball hit toward a sec
ond baseman playing from 115 to 145 feet
from the home plate reaches his hands In
from four4ifths of second to three
seconds, depending upon the force with
which it is hit and the way it bounds
The ball hit to Egan was hard hit, bound
ed four times on solid turf and probably
struck his hands one and one-fifth seconds
after 1t left Van Haltren's bat
a Mo xxyoc nn@a to-
three seconds, and this is the process
through which Egan's brain went In that
time. His first thought was direction;
second, speed; third, how the ball was
come in on It," He knew Van Haltren
could reach first base In three and two
fifths seconds, and that to throw there he
would have to recover the ball, make a
half-turn and then throw. The moment
the ball bounded away from his hands he
knew Van Haltren could beat it to first
base.
Then, while springing after the ball he
thought: CLARK; who is going to third,
tkfll turn ten feet around the base, hest
tate, and look to see whether the ball has
rolled on to the outfield. and If / can get
the ball to Dahlen while Clark is hesitat-
ing we will catch him. So he made the
play, and IL Dahlen's brain had worked
at the same rate of speed Clark would
have been out and Chicago would have
won.
Each man on team has his private
signals with the batters who precede him.
and the batter. receiving orders from the
manager, signals the base runner exactly
what to do. In one game last year Evers
and King analyZed and discovered every
hit-and-run signal used by the Cincinnati
club merely by their powers of observa-
ton. Camel, then manager of the club.
Signaled entirely by words, and by close
attention and listening for every unnat-
uraI phrase or expression the Cubs Sc
cured the entire code used by their oppo-
nents and knew as we'll as the Cincin-
natl players what Camel was ordering.
The science OF signaling is but part OF
the generalship of the game, for dozen
times in each struggle, if it is close, the
manager must decide points, and his de-
cision each time may result in victory or
defeat. Taking men out OF the game,
knowing when to do 1t and when not, is
the hardest task. Fielder Jones, man
ager OF the Chicago White Stockings and
one of the finest generals in the world,
last summer used more pitchers and
changed players more frequently than any
other manager. In one game he changed
pitchers five times and won.
With the team badly crippled and only
one pitcher to rely upon, Jones, by using
that pitcher (Walsh) in every emergency.
came within one game Of winning the
pennant. Three times in the late season
he summoned Walsh to pitch just one ball
and two of the three games he saved.
| McCloskey of st. Louis, in game against
| New York, took out pitcher with two
I St N n Do t., x<,