The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1910-08-23
SAFE HITS
ALL LUCK,
SAYS HANS

Philadelphia, Aug. 20. -Johf n.
t"Hans') Wagner, last year premier
swatsmah OF the National league, at
the Aldne hotel a lew days ago, while
the pirates were playing here. char
acterized his slump in batting in the
beginning OF the season and the SUB
sequent Improvement as sinp.y base.
ball luck"
If you hi the ball where they
aren't you're all right, and II you hit
them where they are you're out said
Hans, and It's n whole lot easier to
hit them where they are. only luch
puts them any place else. Any base
ball player will have good year and
thea bad year and that's what has
happened 10 me this season. For a
long time | couldn't seem to hit them
safe and that's the reason my per.
centagn slumped.
you'll find that 1t isn't only In bat.
ting TINT baseball luck holds sway.
up against him simply because that
element Of luHk caused maybe his
spikes 10 slip. matbe the ban TO take
tricky bounce. III fact, l0i different
ways OF making the stop difficult
There are mighty few errors made
now that are the players fault Very
seldom when the bill is Knocked TO
a man along the ground does he Miss
II because he misiudged II. The Ia
fleders' eyes are all good. and It's .
20-to-l shot that'the ball was deflect
ed In some manner just as the man
was going after it.
Did Not Think Of Quitting. e
NO, wasn't thinking of quitting
baseball at the beginning of the sea-
SON. answered Hans. in response to
a question to that effect. That has
been all false rumor. II wanted to
quit ia quit and that would be all
to IL. ! won't know. though. when
get too poor to play with the, pitts.
burg team unless the team tells me,
I'm ready to play with them until they
decide that I'm worthless. You know
how it is. A young player has lots
of vim and he's pushing right along,
while we older ones sort OF lose our
dash
Baseball luck got In against our
team In the beginning OF the season
with twenty straight days of nothing
but rain, and that has been disad-
vantage to lis ever since. We have
more than dozen double headers 10
play off, and we arr going TO try to
win them. Whether we will or not
| can't say.
Here's another incident OF baseball
luck. Every time we strike the Phil
lies they are playing at their very
best. and generally take the major
ity of the games from US. 1t is a
clear case OF hoodoo We simply cant
defeat The Phillies, although we eau
trim other teams that put Il all over
them. II that isn't baseball luck
what Is it,
Hans was told about Bill Foxen 81
idea about a pitcher being good one
only il he didn't put ball over the
plate.
We'll. would say mat vas a foot
ish opinion. There isn't a man In
the National league today who can
be fooled on -four balls. or course
you will find few who will bite al
wide one now and then; in fact, we
all do it, but to fool batter after bat
ter every trip to the plate-well, that's
beyond me.
Forced to Put it Over.
You can't even just cut corners in
I ~ ..tl
wait the limit. and II the pitcher in
sists upon putting them wide, Will
walk. have hatted against Foxen
and he struck me as good one II
may be that he has haa three Dad sea-
sons and may yet break gool | have
known incidents where such cases
happened
Charles b.. alias Babe" Adams. said
that Bill Foxen's tactics OF neVel
putting a ball over the plate. but fool
ing the batsmen into striking at wide
ones. was hummer--ii II worked, =
Sure, that's the aim OF every pitch
er to make the batsmen swing at the
kind that YOU know he cant reach,
declared Babe. but you can't keer
them wide all the time There are
batters IN every league that wifi al
ways walk when YOU try thai on then
the kind of batters that aren't Otter
fooled. You know YOU can fool part
of the hatsmea part Of the time, but
YOU can't fool all OF them all OF the
time.
u find that you simply have to put
them over, even II only across the col
ners. There's on use trying to strike
out every man that faces you but dc
pend on the eight men behind you tt
help along. Foxens theory Is a peaci
II he can work 1t out, but | don't SEE
how no can -