Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-27
MANY STAR PITCHERS
IN GOOD OLD DAYS
Modern Base Ball Has No
Corner on. SkiIIfuI and
Brainy TWirIers.

During the last few years some remark
able pitching records have been establish
ed. which will not easily be forgotten by
the present generation of fans. IL was I'm
1908 that Walter johnson shut out New
York three days. pitching twenty-seven
innings without allowing a run In the
same year. Reulbach of the Chicago Ma
tionals pitched a double header against
Brooklyn and shut out the latter in both
games.
In 1906 Christy Mathewson's feat OF
shutting out the Athletics three times in
the worlds series is still remembered.
Those were all great performances. but
there were pitchers in the semi-forgotten
past who performed as capably and who
can point to records equally noteworthy.
Back in 1886 George Washington
Bradley was the star pitcher of the St
Louis team. He had a great name as a
Whitewater and shutout artist. and on
one occasion blanked the Hartford club
three times in row.
Every one, OF course, knows the achieve
ments OF A. g. Spaldfng, who practically
won the championship in 1872 1873, 1874
and 1875 for Boston. In 1875 Spalding
pitched in every one of the games played
on the Boston grounds and won them all.
using the old underhand delivery and
foolng the hard hitters with a slow raise
ball.
Thomas Bond was a star twirler from
1873 to 1883. He was with the Atlantics.
Hartfords and Bostons, pitching nearly 30
per cent of all games played by his team.
Bond for eight years had no curves. de-
pending largely on speed and headwork
Charley Sweeney of the fast Providence
club Of 1884 could we'll be compared to
Fo<H Syua ia a spT
his time as to clevernesS and skill and
had a preliminary movement much like
that of the peerless Christy. The keynote of
his work was a 'fade-away' identical with
| that which has made the New York twirl-
| er'S work so puZZling. Sweeney establish
ed a record of nineteen strikeouts in one
game 1t will be remembered that this
| feat was accomplished without the aid OF
| the foul strike rule, and although the
pitchers box was but forty-fve feet from
| the plate. his performance was the talk
| Of the country.
.Old Hoss'' Radbourne was Sweeneys
| running mate on the Providence team.
and Rad was not far behind Charley
| in pitching. He had terrific speed and
| was q master at change of pace. After
Sweeney had deserted the Grays, Rad
bourne pitched as many as twenty games
4 in q string.
It was about 1883 that Boston had two
pitching marvels in Jim Whitney and
| Charley Burlington. Burlington had the
best drop ball ever seen up to that time
| while Whitney, taking advantage of the
| hop, skip and jump which was allowed To
pitchers in those days, had terrific speed
and used I'D several catchers in one year.
John NJ. Ward, who started with Provi-
dence in 1879. was one of the early box
| men to use the curved ball. He handed
out the whitewash literally that year and
| succeeded in shutting out one team with
| out a hit.
There were many other great pitchers
| in the old days. among them being Amos
/ Rusie, who was pronounced in 1894 the
greatest pitcher who ever lived; kid
| Nichols, Lady Baldwin and others.
! 1t is a matter of conjecture what Rusie
would do in the way of establishing rec
| ords IL the foul strike rule had been IN
| vogue when he was working, but it is
! generally conceded that had Mathew
/ son been I'm harness then he would have
1 had difficulty in duplicating the records
made by Amos on the mound.