The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1910-08-18
Base Running.

ond base, S2 feet away, In 912 sec
onds. A pitched ball will travel from
the pitchers slab 6S feet to the catch.
er's glove (fast ball with catcher
standing nine feet back of the plate,
timed from the start of the pitchers
notion, in seven-eighths of a second
The catcher, If ne handles the pitch
perfectly and gets the ball away fast,
will start the ball towards second in
~ seconds after II hits his hands
and his throw from nine feet back of
the plate, If perfect, ought to reach
the second baseman in one second,
and be caught and the ball be ready
to apply to the runner In one-quarter
of a second additional. Perfectly
handled in that time, the ball ought
TO beat the runner to second base by
from one.eighth to one-quarter Of
second. or by from az to 6A feet and
result in an easy out.
These are mathematical facts. Now
for actual conditions as proved by
what has been done. In one season
GS96) a complete record was kept Of
Lange's base running He stole ex-
actly 100 bases, stealing second base
6S times, third 81 and home once.
Eliminating hit-and-run plays entirely,
or steals spoiled by hits, he made 1A1
efforts to steal, and was successful In
100, or about 70.2 per cent. Of his
trials The returns (unofficiaD for the
season of 1909 show that Ty Cobb
stole 76 bases out of los attempts, OF
72.4 per cent While Cobb's total at
tempts are unofficial, they are close
enough to show that the 6rst.class
out Of ten efforts to steal second. The
figures really reveal more than that
They show that, while the runners
steal only about 81 out of every 100
times they try for second base, they
succeed nearly eight of ten (7S plus
out Of 100) times they start for third.
The conclusion Is clear that the
pitchers do not hold up runners close
ly; that the ball is pitched wide
large percentage Of times. and that
the catcher, for various reasons, Is
lucky to handle the ball perfectly
three times in ten in actual play.
A player reaches first base. looks
at the batter for hit-and-run signal,
looks toward the third-base coacher
to see II a signal to steal has been
flashed from the bench, takes his lead.
watches the batter, and anchors him
self. Two balls and no strikes are
pitched; he looks again for the sig
nails. Failing to get them, he knows
the batter is going to take a strike,
and anchors himself again-afraid to
risk the displeasure of the manager
by stealing Even should the pitcher
carelessly permit him TO get a big
running start, he trots back TO first
base, perhaps slides back as hard as
he would have had to slide to second.
He catches a hit-and-run signal on
the next ball, takes his lead, gets his
start The pitcher and catcher know
as well as he does that the stage OF
the game calls for an attempt to run
and hit; the pitcher pitches fast and
out; the catcher takes the ball per-
fectly, throws, and even II the runner
is a speedy man he is out by at least
three feet. The pitcher and catcher
did the thinking, the base runner
used steretoyped team ball" and was
caught. a-,l ]. 20 q. ~ f'''' ''''
Another cause for the decline In
base running is the vast improvement
OF pitchers in watching bases. The
average pitcher of today holds the
runners to the bases much more care
fully than did those OF 10 years ago
The hit-and.run and the bunt-and-
run games, of course, reduce the num-
ber OF opportunities to steal
Cobb Is one of the rare players who
can play inside ball" and individual
bail at the same time. He is brilliant,
thinks for himself and is not much
hampered by bench orders. He runs
mainly on his own judgment (or lack
OF judgment) but still he RUNS and
he wins pennants for Detroit by run
ming. The pitchers try harder to hold
him to the bases than they do any
other player in the league; the catch
ers give more pitch-out signs to catch
him, but they do not stop him. He is
a AANih6 PiOOl VI ioSN Nh"N
ball players could run bases with as
much effect as the old-timers could
II II were not for their lack of indi-
vidual thinking.
A few years ago, Frank Chance, al
ways a base-runner OF rare judgment,
coupled with great daring, started his
team working the delayed steal. His
runners started, stopped, and when
the catcher relaxed from his throwing
attitude and the man covering second
base started back to his position, the
base-runner made dash for second.
Mechanically figured out, the run
ner will beat the ball to second by
over two feet, on the basis Of Ia
seconds to run the distance.
One day In 1909 Chicago and Pitts
burg were playing, and a run meant
victory for either side. Evers was
on second base. with one out. He
made a bluff run towards third, put
ting down his head and sprinting al
top speed. Gibson whirled to throw
TO third. Evers stopped dead still
and lauQhad Gihaon inata ntlu x,oa a.