The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1910-08-12

Wa 80 S~AA S~AS
exactly where the batter is not ex-
pecting 1t.
Spectators are not aware that one
of the greatest and most effective
balls pitched is the bean ball"
Bean" is baseball for head" and
pitching at the batter's head, not to
hit it, but to drive him out of posi-
ton and perhaps cause him to get
panic-stricken and swing at the ball in
self-defense is an art. Even hitting
batters is advocated by many pitchers.
Tony Mullane, in his day n Of the
greatest pitchers, owed much of his
success to the fact that he hit batters
who tried to crowd the plate. One Of
the Chicago pitchers, at the start of
his career, was timid, and the batters
kept ~encroaching upon the plate and
hitting his curve ball. Chance in
structed the pitcher to hit n batter
in the first inning of every game he
pitched until the batters were driven
back. The pitcher followed orders
and after he had pitched once against
each opposing team the batters were
driven back until he became a sue
cess.
Possibly the most intricate part Of
the catcher's work, as we'll as the
most important, is throwing to catch
runners, not when they are stealing.
but while they are leading of the
bases. The number Of inner actu-
ally caught matters little, but the
throwing has for it's principal object
the prevention Of stealing, and hold
ing the runners close to their bases.
The catcher watches the runner
edging away from first base. He
knows to an inch how far the runner
a go and return in safety. The
The catcher signals, by turning his
mitt owe and back rapidly, that on the
next pitched ball he will throw to first.
AS the ball is pitched the first base
man dashes behind the runner to the
base, the pitcher throws shoulder
high and outside the plate, and
the catcher, without looking. grabs
the sphere and hurls it at first
base, where the baseman meets it on
the run. If the runne has hesitated
an eighth of a second in diving back
h. is blocked off the base and put out.
Catchers like Archer, who throw
with a snap of the arm while standing
fiat footed, catch scores of runners
each season, and practically stop the
stealing of second base by preventing
the runners from getting a flying start.
After a catcher once establishes a
reputation for throwing, he has few
throws to make.
A throw of that kind made by King
that caught Herzog off first base in
the famous game between New York
and Chicago when they played OF
their tie for the championship gave
Chicago the pennant in 1908. Two
men were on bases, Bresnahan was
striving to bunt. Killing caught the
bunt signal, the ball was pitched out
and like a flash King hurled the ball
to Chance. Herzog was caught. hest
tating eight feet from the bag and
New York was stopped in the midst
of a rally that ought to have netted
half a dozen runs.
SA0o WI AOu q Va SAS
same play with great success one
season until Evers was sent to hos
pital by It. The play was planned to
kill the sacrifice hunt. With a run
ner on first base, and the intent Of
the batter to sacrifice self-evident,
the pitcher curved the ball far outside
the plate. Chance would desert his
position and dash forward az If to
field the bunt, giving the base runner
freedom to move away from the base.
Evers than came at top speed behind
the unsuspecting runner and Killing
threw to first base, Evsrs taking the
hall and catching the runner. The play
proved effective until one of Kings
throws went wild. Evers attempted
to block the ball, and Blankenship of
Cincinnati, who was the runner, col
lided with Evers and sent him TO hos
pital for six weeks.
There always has been much argu.
ment and contention regarding the rel.
alive abilities Of the great %catcners.
The best authorities agree that Mike
Kelly. Buck Ewing and John Killing
were the best of their respective eras.
but conditions have changed 80 much
ns between them are fmpos-
sible. Ewing and Killing were men Of
much the same type-quiet. cool aid
calculating; Kelly was different, being
= volatile, brainy, inventive lrishman.
How much Chicago's wonderful intield
helped in making Killing a great catch
er is hard to calculate. One eastern
remarked:
II would catch for half the salary
| am getting If I had that inield to
throw to and work with"
Killing is a past master of the art of
working umpires on balls and strikes.
is one of the duties of a catch.
er that is not suspected by the spec
tators. Kings method was to be
with all umpires. siding with
telling them they were right,