Evening star., 1909-01-10
TIME IS RIPE FOR
CLASSY CATCHERS
Backstopping Department Of
Clubs the One That Needs
Strengthening.

Young man, If you aspire to career
as professional base ball player, learn to
catch. II you want to get good job,
at a Eat salary, get mask and mitt and
try to pick 'em off behind the bat. There
are more catching jobs and fewer good
catchers floating around loose than any
position on the diamond.
The recent trade of Lou Criger for
Hippo" Spencer and $1,000 in real money
emphasizes the lack of really classy
catchers. Here is Criger, an old man as
base ball goes, not overly strong. man
so skinny he appears in imminent dan
ger Of breaking in two every time he
throws to second base, man with not
more than three or four years of base
ball service IN him at the most, COM
manding 5000 and a live young person
in trade. Why? Because he is real
catcher
Every ball club in either major league
has at least one top-notch pitcher who
can NOW down the opposition with con-
siderable ease and whose services would
command many dollars II he were put
on the market. How many good catchers
are there-that is, just catchers, with no
reference to hitting Or base-running abil-
ity?
Street the Goods.
st. Louis has Criger, Chicago has Billy
Sullivan and Washington has young Mr..
Street. a youth so far as major league
experience goes. Look over the list of
catchers owned by the other American
League clubs and see how many catch
ers there are in a relative class with
Young, Walsh. Johnson, White, WaddelI,
ovan and a half dozen other top-notch
pitchers.
The classy catcher is rare bird II
often looks as though the magnates spent
too much time and money trying to build
up a great pitching staff without seeking
good receivers. OF course these same
good receivers are few and far between.
Probabl the chances Of injury and the
thanklessness of the job make youthful
base ball aspirants steer clear of the
catching position. Go out and catch a
good game and you are credited with
doing what you were paid for. Have a
few pa ssed balls and make a wild throw
or two and the populace rises up and
hoWIS it's shame such good pitcher
can't get a little supDor;.
The catcher. rather t..@n lEe pitcher,
however. is the handspring of the base
ball machine. Being stationed behind the
than the pitcher for observing what a
certain batter can and cannot hit. Know
ing the man with whom he works he can
tell If his curves are breaking right can
make him work slowly when inclined to
hurry and can make him hustle when he
inclineS to sloWneSs.
Watcher Of Bases.
The catcher is the chief watcher Of the
bases when occupied. passes the signals
for the pitcher throwing to catch runners
too far from the bags and signals the
proper time for delivering the bali to the
bat.
Aside from all this mental effort he
must snatch off any sort OF curve the
pitcher let's loose, must dig up wild
pitches that go into the ground and must
chase the elusive foul fly. He must block
runners who slide into the plate and
must take his turn at bat These few
things are calculated to keep man of
average intellect and physical ability
quite busy.
Yet the catcher, so the fanatic thinks,
Is a mere machine to stop the curves the
pitcher throws and the batter misses.
Catching Is a difficult job in more ways
How often has it been observed that
many young pitchers go along as only
ordinary performers until some smooth.
heady catcher commences to work with
them, and then suddenly they blossom
out as stars.
Offer Billy Sullivan and Ed Walsh for
sale and it's dollars to little green peas
two clubs would break for Sullivan, while
one would go for Walsh. The pitcher
would be a good man with any catcher
who could hold him, but the catcher could
take a lot of ordinary pitchers and get
good work out OF them
How those Cincinnati scribes do love to
hurl the harpoon AS We have expected
eiD 10 q