El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-05-28
INSIDE BASEBALL;
ITS Possibilities
Good Generalship Counts for
More Than Anything
Else in Game.
nv c. Il. Van LoanD

.i,oe the baltimore Orioles of amazing
,oe-,orv began to anticipate plays in
stead of merely waiting for them to
hammer. there has been lot OF talk
about inside bail"
II has been said that the Chicago
C,hs are the legitimate successors 10
that lightning fast outfit from the oys-
for town. and every once in while
sCme CHICAGO gent VIII arise 10 prove
that Frank Chance and his hired men
have all the inside BALI in the world
sewed ND in a sack, copyrighted, pat
ented and copper rivetted AZ ways rom
the home plate. This is not strictly
true but IL is true that the paseoalI
of TODAY is miles and miles ahead or the
baseball of Is years ago, when the main
fdea. was TO tear the trademark off the
hall and take a chance that the other
fellows wouldn't be able to hit quite so
hard.
There is no question about +. Leroy
Chance being quite a young strateglst.
He is all that and then some MachlaVei
on the side He doesn't sit down and
wait for something to happen: he knows
what ought to happen and then he lays
pIans to meet that happening q little
more than half way. Inside baseball as
practiced by Frank Chance, John NC
Graw, Hughey Jennings, and the Old 1oX
Clark Griffith, depends to a great de-
gree on forcing the hitter TO do GER
tain thing and out-guessing the opposl-
ton.
GeneraIshIp Counts.
A team of second rate performers
working together as one man, under
the guidance of a baseball general like
Chance or McGraw or Griffith VIII
worry any team in either league
C-ffFifh nnRnP7 the
other day and said a few very inter
estfng things about inside baseball.
Somebody had been trying to tell the
old boss that inside baseball was more
or less the bunk.
mot on your Paris panelr' said the
manager of the Reds. But you've got
TO have some regular pitchers before
Won can pull off much of the inside
stuff"
With a pitcher in the box who isn't
exactly sure when he lets the ball go
where it is going TO cross the plate,
If at all, It isn't much use to attempt
the fielding shifts practiced by the
Cubs and the Giants. With pitcher
who can cut the plate at will, or keep
the ball over either corner as he
chooses. the game becomes as soft as
q conIllrer's trick when the conJurer
forces the victim TO take the card out
of the deck which was selected for him
from the beginning
Suppose now that the eminent Mr.
Brown is pitching The Cubs are sig
nailed that he is going TO throw a fast
one on the outside Of the plate Inc
whole team swings over to meet a nit
toward right field. The action is re-
yersed for a curve on the inside. The
Cubs have about so percent the best Of
il before the batter swings his CLUB
A Pitchers Control.
.sI2,,+ saws Mr. Griffith. the Fox,
there isn't a thing doing when the
pitcher cannot control the ball. The
minute he loses control, all your in
side stuff is knocked into cooked hat
AS an evidence of this, give a look at
the pitching record Of Mordecai Brown
for this season The star tWlrler LOT
the Cubs has not been effective and
even with the great inside BALI of the
Cubs behind him, he has been trimmed
nearly every time he has stuck his
nose into the box If Mordecal had
ben able to hold that ball Of his and
put il sQuarely where he intended 10
throw it, he would have gone away in
his usual stride
Pitching control is the secret of the
defensive side Of inside baseball.
There is also offensive inside ball, as
well as defensive, and this makes runs
instead Of cutting them Off
Managers Ideas.
Every manager and team captain has
his own IDEAS about this sort OF play
Hal Chase believes that it is mighty
good thing to mix up the plays once in
a while For instance, it has become
the absolute rule in baseball. with a
man on first base and none out. to
rffice the runner to second base. The
opposing players lay for" a bunt be-
cause-fhey, know that the second man
" will try to lay one down with an
eye toward getting the man TO second,
even If il costs a life to the hitter
Chase believes that it is a clever thing
10 mix up the opposing team when con-
fronted with q situation of this sort.
That is why the Highlanders do not
always attempt TO sacrifice man.
Every little while the second man up
will try TO slam a single through the in
field.
Other managers refuse to allow their
players to do this. They count the
chance of the double play and believe
that it is good baseball TO advance the
runner to second rather than take a
chance on getting two men out
The Squeeze Play.
Some managers will not try the
squeeze play. The Highlanders revel in
that bit Of baseball strategy and if the
hitter can dump the bali any old place
inside the lines. the stands rise up and
say Bully. Immenser' But if the hit
ter happens to miss-7oi yoi. What a
rotten thing that squeeze play is.
When you come right down TO cases
on the proposition, inside baseball is
lovely when it works, and c. G.
Griffith, old he fox of the big league,
put his finger on the heart of the whole
thing when he said:
With the Mathewsons and Browns
working you can use signs, and shifts
and signals galore. When your pitch
ers have perfect control of the ball, you
can plug up the grooves, but if the
twirler is nsteady-Good Night,''