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

!
| Base ball has made such advances
! scientifically and the generalship ana
| team work have become SO involved and
/ complicated that even a lover or 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 to 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 a throw with intent to catch him.
If he throws it is to drive Clarke back
and keep him from getting too great a
start.
how certain men will make play and
turns his play accordingly. For instance,
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 a well
known fact that Leach, in other respects
good base runner, will come through
with the play.
as if to throw to second base and then
whips it to third" Leach will make a
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 a fast ball or not, whether or not
he hits a curve to left. He must know
! that Fred Clarke is the only left-handed
batter in the game who can hit left
handed pitchers curve ball hard-and a
thousand other points of similar nature.
Take :, the worlds char Champion Chicago HnO
of New York is coming to bat. Observe
the Kaleidoscope movement on the field.
Chance suddenly drops back ten feet and
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 or more that Donlin will pull it
hard toward right field.
Crack! The ball is driven fiercely down
the first base line. Chance dives over,
SCOOPS 1t, Brown races to first base, the
ball is, tossed to him, the umpire yells
'Out!'' and the crowd says Tough luck;
ha r.fol 1od hot nd i,,c% H.
ed to be there ..--...
Now watch the same team. the same
season. when Pfester. 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
Sheckard covers up" Steinfeldt and
Tinker both move back. ready for a dash
forward at Don1in'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 Piester for a
| fast ball. The whole team swings rapid
ly in the other direction-and SO for every
man on the 'team-every man except Hans
trust to luck, for he is likely to hit any,
thing pitched and in any direction.
~
The speed with which Egan's brain con-
volutions moved may be judged from the
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 four-fifths of second to three
seconds, depending upon the force with
which 1t 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 It left Van Haltren's bat
The entire play was made in less than
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
bounding and whether to back up or
come in on It," He knew Van Haltren
could reach first base in three and two
hfths 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.
>Eill turn ten feet around the base, hesi-
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 II 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 tue 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-
tion. 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 well as the Cincin-
| natl players what Camel was ordering.
Il \
| 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 tine three games he saved.
McCloskey of st. Louis, in game against
| New York. took out pitcher with two
strikes ma batter, sent Raymond in to
4 .&~l~t l~fI -f ~ l~