The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-02-07
HOW THE BASEBALL
STARS MAKE HITS

man, nine times out of ten. is an Irish
player An odd bit in this direction
look over the list of sacrifice hits
bunts mostly-made in each league. on
/ the past season, and see if the average
lrishman doesn't but three times oft
ener than the average German.
Gumbert's Power
| Possibly no man ever lived that hit a
ball harder than Ad Gumbert, now
sheriff of Pittsburg. Gumbert didn't
hit it as often as some of them, Trough
he raped from .253 up to way over
! 300 right along. but how he did maui
| it when he connected. Any time AID
landed the ball whirred like a bullet.
and woe be to the. man who tried to
pull it down. Most of Ads hits went
low, Declining along the sod near third
and those hits are awful things TO put
your fin against.
| Roy Thomas held his bat more ex-
{ tended than Keller, yet his hits were
! AAACoSiS oIAclA OllSS On IIle h0el6r pat
tern Delehanty simply walked into
the ball and put his shoulders into the
blow. HIS swing was not as open or
swooping as that of Wagner, but he
seemed to get more shoulder force upon
the drive
McGraw and Keister (who was a fine
hitter once) used to run up at the ball
and break the rules most fagrantly
by springing forward to whack be-
fine hitter twenty years ago, had trick
no man since him has acquired, and it
Hooked easy too. He waited for a ball
somewhere near his shoulder-just the
kind of round their necks'' shoots
the batsmen dead-and then, holding
the bat high with rigid wrists, pushed
steadily at the ball The result was a
short fly, passing just over the infield
and falling back of the diamond Bob
big league game.
Uncle Arson had two things In his
favor-he was as strong as a bull and
he had accustomed himself to WELD the
heaviest bat any man ever swung. The
combination was a bad one for the
opposition. Uncle hit them on a dead
line. either overhead Or past your knee,
and in the days when the gloves were
few or thin. it was case OF defying
death to stop them.
Other Sluseers.
Big Bill LANCE, like the other Ger
mans, swung freely and wildly, but
'put lots of feeb into the punch when
it landed Fred Pfeffer was deathly
, afraid of getting hit, Armed with a
long, thin bat, like q fishpole he sta
toned himself as far from the plate
as the box lines would allow, and then
plnked at the ball from afar-quite
; successfully, be it noted.
y Dan Brouthers and Roger Conner MI
, with a freer motion, than most of the
I Irish players, and drove the ball with
such terrible force that it was not wei
! to get in front of it. In fact Willie
t Hutchinson. when asked how he
D pitched to Big Dan, sized him UP in this
? fashion: L throw a straight one. right
D over Then l pray
Mike Mitchell and Larry Mclean, the
. elongated Reds. have a trick of raisins
= long flies, so vast in their arc that they
t fall behind the outfelds and are goot
r for two bases or more. Mclean once
g hit about the longest home-run fly
s on record if the height to which it rose
D no counted. It climbed up until it was
= a speck in the clouds, yet kept moving
:. onward all the time, and finally fell fnto
:, the left-field bleachers
. The deepest hit ever made was An
d sons last home run. 1t was grouhoe'
through center. and it fell into a pos
n hole. George Van Haltren, playing cen
n for for New York, fished heroically fol
t the ball. but would have needed al
n ice tongs. and Uncle came home all th'
e ,vav around. That hit was about hV'
y feet below the ground
: Tho very offer that may meal
g great advantage to you may De nel