The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-05-09
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TL peuhdhCs Tor Detroit by running
to the bases than they do anv other
player IN the league: the catchers give
more pltch-out signs to catch him, but
they DO not stop HIM He is a living
proof Of the fact that modern bali
payers could run bases with as much
enect as the old-timers could-if il
Mere not for their lack of Individual
:, The moro one studies the situation
fhe moro convinced he must become
that, despite the vaunted advances of
,ne game, there is less brain work es-
hlbited on the bases than there was
twenty years ago. This is not to claim
that the players of today are not AS
dinat diEneittlgent' tas but that they haye subor-
olnated their intelligence to the brains
OF the manager, and allow one man,
or, rather, insist upon one man, doing
the thinking for the entire team, which
is an impossibility.
lt is so seldom that one who watches
couple of hundred games of baseball
esery season sees anything new in the
is refreshing. That the baseball-lov-
ing public sees it the same way is
proved by the wild applause that greets
unexpected steals. and by the public
admiration for Cobb, Wagner, Bush,
Collins. Evers and Chance. Philadel-
phia went wild over Collins, who ran
VIII. Win exnec1rable Judgment, but got re
talking by Just such running, and led
the National league one season in base
stealing. He ran wild, ran at the
wrong time, ran all the tlme-and the
showing that he and Collins made
proves the wisdom of the old order to
keep the other fellows throwing -
The other fellows tell Chow lucky such
nd
rors.
A few years ago Frank Chance, al
ways a baserunner 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 atti.
tude and the man covering second base
started back to his position, the base
runner made dash for second Mathe
matlcally figured out. the runner Will
beat the ball TO second by over two
feet. on the basis of 3 1-3 seconds to
run the distance, Really, the runner
gains more. as the baseman usually is
Slow getting up to cover the base, and
a slide in front of him causes him to
ward to touch the player, after catch
ing the ball.
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
bluff run towards third, putting down
m ms head and sprinting at top speed
stopped dead still-and laughed Glib
son instantly made perfect throw to
second, and, like a fash, Evers dashed
for third and slid safely He scored
on fly ball and won the game. The
play, magniicentlY executed as it was
set the crowd wild, and Evers deserved
the. tribute. The play had not been
was common in the old days, and the
catcher had to watch every runner and
calculate his distance between the
bases before making a throw, else be
would be trapped
Figures prove positively that the
runner can go 80 feet up the line to
wards third, and. if he starts back
back to second. IF he goes the other
way, he has IS feet to run and slide
only % feet farther, and the ball must
travel almost twice as far and be re-
layed perfectly to catch him. If he
makes the play correctly, the fastest
possible handling of the ball will only
catch him by three feet, unless he is
allows for the second baseman com
ing ten feet inside the base to meet
the catcher's throw.
The play can be made every time by
fast man if he can draw the throw
TO second, yet Evers was applauded as
a hero because he thought it out.
One of the cleverest bits of base
running Ty Cobb ever did was in one
Of the games of the first world s cham.
pionship series between Chicago and
Detroit. Cobb was on first base, when
Crawford drove n single to short right
center, making Slagle cut in towards
Schultz TO reach the ball. When Cobb
reached second base Hoffman had
thrown and the ball was coming in to
meet it, Without hesitation, Cobb
turned second and raced for third He
had figured the play in An instant, He
knew that Slagle was a weak thrower,
that Evers's back was to the diamond
that he would have TO catch the bali
and swing entirely around before ne
knew what was going, on. He caleu-
stop at second, and. therefore: look
at second base first and so lose enoug
time to allow him Cobb TO reach
third Evers looked at second, looked
at third. saw Cobb already within ten
feet of the base, and he made wild,
hurried throw that went into the
crowd and almost gave Detroit the
Cobb to do that, and because 80 out
Of every 100 base runners would have
stopped at second to await orders, they
would not have made the play.
Baseball has been reduced 10 sci
ence, and is IN danger of becoming me
chanical unless few base runners like
Cobb Collins, Evers and Clarke, ex
ponents of the unexpected, convince
managers that base running pays, and
that remaining anchored to bases is
il poor policy.
The two glaring examples Of the diff
ferent schools of baseball playing APP
peared in 1909, one in Biston on the
American league grounds and the
other in ST. Louis on Hedges s park.
The st. Louis Browns Of 1909 was the
historical stationary team of baseball
Never again will there be another. II
could make fewer runs on more hits
than any team eXtant, IL n player
reached the plate on less than four hits,
his fellows accused him of showing
them up,
The Boston team went to the other