Evening journal., 1910-08-31
SACRIFICE FALLS
UPON EVIL TIMES
Baseball Managers Gradually
Cutting Down Its
Application
M'GRAW MADE START
ON THE GRAVE DIGGING

II is rather strange that Wade Kill
lifer should have made his record of
five straight sacrifice hits last Sat
urday just when the discussion of the
value of the play was attracting more
attention than for some years.
Sacrifice hitting has declined in
volume, and II has been argued that
this bit of baseball strategy was
gradually being discarded because the
managers found healthy swing at
the ball more efficacious in advancing
runner, and at the same time Civ
ing the batter a better chance to
reach first base. Ed Bang, in the
Cleveland News of Saturday, dug up
some interesting dope to show how
sacrifice business had declined in re-
cent years. He writes:
One can readily see the passing of
the sacrifice In comparing the figures
of to-day with those of yesteryear.
George Stovall, Of the Maps, is the
leading exponent of the fast depart
ing art. Brother George is credited
with twenty-six well-planned self
executions. Think of IT, twenty-s six
of them, and the season is more than
three-fourth gone, when in the old
days forty self-sacrifices I'm a sea
son was a common occurrence. Just
ten American League players have
made as many as twenty sacrifice
hits, Stovall, twenty-six; Hooper, of
Boston, twenty-four; Bush, of De
troit. twenty-three; Collins, of Phila-
delphia; Lewis. Of Boston, and T.
Jones, of Detroit, twenty-five: Barry.
of the Athletics, and Killifer, of
Washington, twenty-one, and Mcbride
of Washington. and Murphy, of the
Athletics, twenty.
Boston leads the league in sacrifice
hits, with l73 Philadelphia following.
with 172; Cleveland, 155, Washing
ton, 144; Detroit. 1879: New York, 1877:
Chicago, 1874. and St. Louis, 113 In
the days gone by il was not unusual
for a club that was making speci-
atty of the sacrifice game to come
to the front with $50 to 300 such hits.
but no team in the American League
will approach that figure this sea-,
son.
In 1909 there we're Twenty-Five
players who finished the season with
twenty or more sacrifices TO their
credit. Owen Bush. of Detroit, led
with 50, and was followed by Ganley,
81; Baker and Murphy. "a; Keeler,
3Si Harry Lord, Tom Jones, and
Austin, 30; Tannehill %; Barry and
Purtell, 2S; Mcbride, 81; Parent, 2e;
Crawford 25; Cobb. "a. Milan and
Conroy, %; Schmidt, %: Delehanty.
Collins, and Dougherty, 21:
Stovall, Isbell, and Bradley. 20.
The sacrifice was very popular in
1908, and Bill Bradley. then a Nap.
set the high-water mark at 60. He
was followed by Ganley, 81; Schafer,
AZ; Harry Lord, 36; Tom Jones. "a;
Stovall and Nichols. 81: George
Davis, Laioie, and Ferris, 80; Fielder
Jones, 2S; Shipke, 26; Altizer, "a:
Crawford, Murphy, and Hartzell. %
Williams and Conroy, %, Keeler,
Harry Davis. Wagner, Tannehill, and
Sullivan. o. Those twenty-three
men had within ten as many sacrifice
hits as the twenty-five leaders did in
1909, a total of 67S TO 6S3.
In 1908 the Cleveland Maps had 265
sacrifice hits, while if they continue
at the rate they have gone in us
games this season they will be credit
ed with only 1873 sacrifices, which
In itself proves the decadence of the
bunt game. The record of the Maps
does not begin to show how the
sacrifice is sinking into oblivion, as
the Cleveland team has used It more
often than several of the big league
clubs McGraw started to dig the
grave for the sacrifice hit and all of
the other big league managers are
glad to purchase flowers for the fu-
neral