Evening journal., 1910-03-12

/ own.
one day in the late fall Of 1876, when
| was returning from the State Capitol
IN Hartford. Conn, TO my office, l saw
ahead of me a tall, snewy. yet slender
man. carrying a paint pot ana brush
in one hand, and dressed in paint be-
| spattered overalls and jumper and
workingman's hat. Pretty soon he
stopped and looked doubtfully up and
down a street and as he was so occu-
pied l came up and recognized him
as none other than Arthur Cummings,
who, for several years, had been pitch
er Of the then famous Hartford base
ball nine, and had a country wide re-
putation as the discoverer of the curved
pitched ball.
We knew each other slightly, and so
stopped and asked him if he was
| looking for any street or house
"Yes." he said, with characteristic
modesty, and yet with that innate dig
nifty which also always distinguished
him on the ball field Il am looking for
the house OF a Mr.. WEIGH" Then,
doubtless having seen my look of sur
prise at finding him. the famous base
ball pitcher, I'm a painters outfit, he
added smiilngly. You know. ] am
a house painter by trade. I shan't
be able TO pitch very much longer, at
least with any big baseball nine so
I am getting my hand i'm at my trade,
and / am on my way to paint a Mr.
Welch's house"
We were walking along by this time
in the direction 81 Cummings job. Soon
we spied some boys playing ball upon
q vacant lot across the street. Cum
mings stopped and looked at them for
a moment. why" he exclaimed, that
youngster is trying to pitch a curved
ball I'll go over and show him how"
And suiting action to his words, he
went over and gave the youthful pitch
er a lesson I'm curved ball pitching,
much 20 the delight and amazement
OF all concerned when they had re-
cognized their idol in his strange uni
form.
At last we resumed our walk
MIR. Cummings" | said, Il have
heard that you were the first man ever
to pitch a ball with a curve Is that
so?"
mo 1 don't think l was the first
man to pitch a curved ball. was tho
reply. 81 think that Martin of the OLD
Eckfords had the curve, not mine
but a kind Of curve; and am sure thai
Zettlen, who was the great pitcher ol
the Atlantics when they were cham
pions, pitched a curved ball. and tha
Tabor, who IS now a policeman II
New Haven. pitched a curve when h'
was playing with the old Unions o
Mauretania with which George Wrigh
once played.
But none of these pitchers knew
that he had a curve, and l suppose i
is fair to say that I was the frs
to find out what a curve is and how i
is done.
Hicks was catcher and l was pitch
er of the professional Stars o
Brooklyn. I noticed that very fey
batsmen could hit me, and finally
saw that when I pitched the ball
swerved outward before it reached tn
batsman Then, when I had though
about this a little I said TO myself
That ball does not go in a straigh
line until Il begins 10 fal; It curve
outside of the horizontal line, and tina
is the reason why batsmen cannot hi
il.
We'll. I studied and experiments
until at last, I found that If I hel
the ball between my fingers and thum
tain twist of wrist just as I dellvere
It, then the resultant motion tina
the ball took produced a curve. I won
dered how that could be- and mad
up my mind that the rotary motion q
the ball created a vacuum on one sid'
the outside, and the pressure of tn
air on the other side caused II
swerve. I had found out the secrC
, of the curved ball. l afterwards taugh
It TO Tommy Bond, and he could max
ball curve either way
In this modest way the discover
OF the curved ball, which has mad
modern baseball possible, narrated I
me the story Of his great find.
Copyright, 1910, by e. ]. Edwards)
On Monday Mr.. Edwards will tell {
"A Chat with General Lonastreet."