Norwich bulletin., 1910-09-15
GREAT BATTERS NOT. GIANTS.
keenness of Eye and Quickness of
Motion Far SURPRISES Bullying Sin

The average layman-tte fan who
is unacquainted with the inner and
outer conditions of the game but
loves TO see it played-is OF the nat
1ral opinion that q champion bats
man. a slusger Of vast and virile Wig
or. must be a Hercules, the personsifi-
cation of muscled masculinity. A
heavy hitter. the man who drives out
the triples and the home runs, SO it
would logically seem, should be of gi-
gantic sinew. able to perform feats of
weight lifting and hammer throwing.
and a thin or weakly player should
not even be considered as a batting
possibility
And yet, strange as it may seem,
some of the burlieSt, huskiest. most
musuclar ball tossers in the land are
puerile marks at bat, utterly unable
to get their names in the elite circle
of the 800 hitters. while others, slim
and almost girlish in their lack of
corded SfnewS. are tren endous slug
gers, men who stand near the top of
the batting records year after year.
Wherefore such freakish defiance of
the laws governing natural strength
and the survival of the fittest? How
on earth can such things be?
keen sighted eye and a. quick
command of movement are superior
to all the elephantine muscles that
were ever assembled on a burly frame.
Of course, when a Hercules. such, for
example, as Hans Wagner is also
blessed with an accurate eye and a
lightning sweep of arm, that man be-
comes a batting king, but there is
nothing more ridiculous in baseball
than to see player with the strength
of Sandow making huge swipes
athwart the breeze while the ball goes
whizzing by and finally walking pom
derously back to the bench without
rOi1iTror q 1TOIfndoT
Wagner is g. big man and massive
" strong. So were Arson, Common,
Brouthers and many others of the
noble smuggling tribe. In these cases,
however, the sheer strength OF these
giants was guided and controlled by
the location of the ball.
In contrast to these bulky men was
Pete Browning, very tall. but with
skinny, bony frame not specially
strong in muscle. Pete Browning
could not have held his own against
Arson in wrestling match for forty
seconds, but he was Uncle's worthy
batting rival year after year. The old
gladiator could not only pick out the
ball to swing on and smash against
it with unerring judgment, but could
so neatly concentrate what power he
had that the longest sort of drives
went whirring off his bat just as An
SOil anu lIIC CtAlcI SidIiL "I1dIcS COuIO
bling them.
Willie Keller was a little bit of
man and not a specially strong one,
either. But this midget could chop
them out time after time. and when
he swung instead of bunting could belt
two baggers as neatly as men fifty
pounds his weight superior.
The only Cobb, lido! of the Tiger
fans. is not big man. He IS of good
stature. but rather slender. with soft,
long muscles, not hard or corded
ones Cobb is fer inferior physically
to Wagner or Lajoie, but how Ty Cobb
can drive that ball! The perfection of
the eye, the accuracy of the swing,
the concentra ton of the effort-these
qualities, united and tremendously
brought into play, make Cobb the
champion batsnaan of the American
league and make him the master of
the men who could mop him all over
the foo" IN a man 20 man encounter.
Great are muscles. and most pleas
ing things 70 have. but the frail man
who wants to play baseball need not
worry nor fear that his fragile frame
will bar him from renoWn. For the
eye is keener than the hand, and
quickness of motion far surpasses
bulky sinew. A queer game is base
ball and this perhaps is one of the
oldest features Of the game.