Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-09
MINOR LEACUERS
BAT VERY POORLY
Pitchers Are Gaining Such
Power That Few Youngsters
Seem Able to Hit a
Little Bit. -

The minor lea que batting records. which,
are rapidly emerging from the desks or
the various minor league presidents. make
a dismal front in the most interesting.
department of the game-the battin-l
Judging from the tabs so far presented.
the minors were even weaker against
their second quality pitchers than the
Dig fellows against the stars of the curv-
ing game. Such being tho case. what
hope Is there that these minors will he
any addition to the ranks OF the nnajorsy
III a man can't hit over 10 against minor
league pitching. what will he do when lie
faces the Browns. Mathewsons and
ioungs? Moreover. most of the minor
leaguers who cat any ice in the figures
are old-timers. major league discards.
men who have been tried and found
wanting.
The outlook for fresh batting material
is therefore of the gloomiest kind. AZ
the veterans of the two big leagues are
fading away and the pitchers gaining
the upper hand against the majority Of
them what is the apparent futureo Weak
batting lists all round. for the older meu
are getting weaker and the new recruits
are lightweights all along the line.
Pitching Supremacy.
The whole trouble is, and has been for
many years, that the pitchers master
their art more quickly and more thor
oughly than the batters get the knack
of their own duties. The pitchers are
also by far the ceverer when IL comes
to overcoming obstacles raised by the
rule makers. 1t seems Impossible to put
any handicap on a pitcher and keep him
down. but when YOU put any handicap
on a batsman he curls up and his average
curls simultaneously.
The present batting averages would be
still more skinny if they were ged
according to the old-time scoring rules.
Nowadays, a batter gets a time off his
batting record for every sacrifice hunt
and sacrifice fy-and even with these
boosts they can't create .300-point hit
ters. In the old days the scorers were
also far more severe on errors than at
the present time. They used to count an
error whenever anything got by fielder.
no matter how severe the chance. That
meant that a hit was one horrible biff
or unholy smite, and not a little chance
that some infielder fused and fooled
over.
of our most eminent hitsmitlls wouidn'e
have achieved a record Of DO, and that's
no jolly, either.
The Real sluggers.
Cobb and Wagner arc real hitters oc
the old-time brand, but there aren't many
Of them surviving When Cobb, WaS-
ner. Crawford. Lajoie. Doyle Of the
Giants and few others crash against
the ball. IL goes forth to assuage it's
bruises. but il isn't SO with most Of our
diamond heroes. Their averages are
patched-up makeshifts, and In the old
days they wouldn't have been one-tNo-
seventeen.
1t is said, of course, that the old bat
tiers didn't have any foul-strike rule to
hurt them. No. but they had pitchers
just as husky as those of today. driy-
ing in the ball from q shorter distance,
and not tied to the slab. lbut free To
move around large outlined box. Fur
thermore. a caught foul tip was an out.
And yet, thus handicapped and with
scorers who gave errors where we now
give hits. these old boys could kick tho
eternal corrugations out of that old
leather. What's the reason for the diff
ference Of today?