Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-26
MANY PLAYERS ARE
KNOWN IN PAIRS
Famous Batteries in Base
Ball Will Be Remembered
for Joint Work.

Tor JOINT work.
Certain ball players are or have been
| known to national game fame quite as
much from their association in pairs as
individually.
Naturally they are pitchers and CATCH
ers. deceivers and receivers. who have be-
come prominent as batteries.
The battery of Plank and Powers, of
the Athletics of the American League, is
! a case in point.
Before death dissolved the co-partne--
ship this summer, Dr. Maurice Powers
was as closely associated with the pitch
ing of Eddie Plank as the latter's left
| arm almost. Powers was in harness up
to short time before his death, and.
while Plank was too good pitcher not
| to be able to get along with another back
STOP Powers had caught and handled a d
coached him SO long and so we'll that the
two were as near perfect in their battery
team play as two men could come to be.
noted team of bygone days was COM
posed of Getzein and Camel; the pretzel
battery they were called when they
played for the Detroits in 1887.
The ALTERATION perhaps helped in keep
>
but of course only slightly as compared
to their usefulness. The DetroitS were
the champions that year, and Getzein won
more games for his team than any other
pitcher. tWenty-nine. Plank and Powers
also were OH a championship team, the
Athletics. when they won the American
League pennant in 1905.
Brainard and Atwater were leading
names forty years ago. They were the
pitcher and catcher of the Cincinnati Red
ctsNcly iy,orS
Another famous old-time battery was
Mcbride and Malone for the Athletic
in 1871, but of those early times the bat
terry with the greatest reputation was
Spalding and McVey of the Bostons of
1872. A year later Jim White was Spald-
ing's catcher.
Mccormick and Briody Great Pair.
Another alliterative pair were Bond
and Brown - Tommy Bond and Lew
Brown-who afterward caught Johnny
Ward.
One battery was all club could boast
at that time. Bond and Brown were both
big men. but their avoirdupois didn't af-
feet their skill. They played in Boston
in 1877.
Another weighty old-time battery Of
note had Jim Mccormick and Charlie
Briody in the points. Briody was one of
the biggest men that ever played pro-
fessional base ball. but he was a good
receiver. Mccormick was flrst-class
pitcher, an easy and powerful worker.
Cincinnati had another distinguished
pair. the italian battery. as they were
known Mexican and keenan, composed
the Italian battery, and the only thing
Italian about them was their dark skin.
They were both swarthy men. Mexican
being a little fellow and keenan, Il big
one. Both sported mustaches-this was
in 1885, before the vogue o. the clean
shaven player.
Everybody has heard of Clarkson and
Kelly, two of the best and brainiest ball
players the game has ever known.
Numerous pennants did they help bring
to Chicago under the Arson regime, and
when they were sold to Boston for what
at that time was a fabulous price the
deal was the biggest ever made in base
ball.
Both are dead, Garrison passing away
comparatively recently.
Carruthers and bushong and Foutz and
Bushong were renowned In the points for
the original st. Louis Browns, and their
pennant-winnng habit continued after
they had been sold to the Brooklyn club.
Batteries were not split up then as
much as now. Foutz and Bushong have
gone to their long sleep, and so has
Charlie Byrne. who owned the Brooklyn
club when they were there.
Nichols and Bennett were star battery
for the pennant-winning Bostons of the
veteran and Nichols a young man who
frankly conceded that much Of his early
success was due to the sagacious ham
ding he had from Bennett.
Baltimore. while winning three pen,
nants in succession in 1894. 1895 and
1885, owed not little of it's chain of
successes to the mastery battery work
of Mcmahon and Robinson. an accom-
plished couple. who played into each
others hands like clockwork
Meekin Speediest Pitcher.
Before Mathewson and Bresnahan went
to be New York's most famous battery.
Rusie and Buckley and Keefe and Ewing
We're the best known.
Ruse and Buckley went to New York
together from Indianapolis. and it was
big Buckley who was largely responsible
for Rusfe's acquiring control to increase
the effectiveness of his wonderful speed
and curves. keefe and Holbert, for the
old Nets. and then Keefe and Ewing
for the Giants, were great players sep
arately and in unison. Each was play
er of the highest class by himself,
Ewing to this day being rated the peer
of all catchers. What a team it would
make. could he be paired off with
Mathewson
When the New York team won the
Temple cup in 1894 the pitching hon
OFFS were shared between Amos RuSe
and Jouett Meekin. Meekin and Far
rell were great battery In their day.
They were bought by the New York
club then owned by E. b. Talcott, and
went there from Washington as bat
terry.
Farrell was Of the big, strapping type
of catcher. heady player and fine
handler of pitchers, and Meekin was
big. free-and-easy chap. who improved
immensely under Farrell's tutelage.
Farrell will tell you now that Meekin
had more speed than any pitcher he
ever caught. and he caught the whirl-
wind RuSie.
Philadelphia had two star batteries in
the eighties in Ferguson and Clements
and Casey and Clements. Ferguson was
a fine pitcher and fine all-around
player.
No less noted but of much later date.
was the Waddell-Schreck battery of the
Athletics.
Calvin and Miller of the Pittsburgs
in the eighties; Bretenstein and Petz of
st. Louis and Cincinnati: Rhnes and
Harm gton of Cincinnati and Seward and
Robinson of the Athletics, of the eighties
these were batteries with big reputa
lions in their day.
Brown and King made a battery for
the Chicago Cubs which was one of the
n ND >f