Norwich bulletin., 1910-06-14

you to hit it; that's not your job" yell ed at a pitcher who has struck out with three men on bases, is more mad dening than consoling to the unfortu- nate man whose only value to his team lies in his ability to. put them over in su-sh a way that the other fellow whiifs or flies out. Have you ever noticed the desperate eagerness with which a pitcher fields !? He loves to get in the game. loves to figure in a putout. Many pitchers would rather help pull off a successful double than get a strikeout to their credit. The reason lies deeper than unWlllingness or lack of desire to hit. Moreover, to my mind, it is a, variation of the same reason which affects catchers and surely no one would ac- cuse catcher of loafing for fear a run around the bases would injure his ef- fectiveness! l believe that pitchers and catchers cannot hit because the vast majority of their time in the game is spent watching balls go from them or come toward them ---Sn full knowledge of what is going coming and watching these balls from an en- tirely different angle to that which they get on the ball when standing at the plate.
 The pitcher for instance, sees all the | fast and curve balls from behind. He can tell as soon as he lets a ball go | whether it is going over or not, al- though, of course, he hasn't any sure | idea what the umpire is going to say about it. When the pitcher comes to | the bat he begins to see balls coming at him instead of away from him; he has to judge their trueness-Whether a ball or a strike-by the looks and not | by the feel of it, and because his ex- perience is all in the other direction
 he fails at the plate to judge accurate 1 ly.
 Take my owne case. As far as I can see I do anything any one else does at | the plate. I have as good a swing am | as willing to stand close any one. V Q tlQf fIF7er fey lob T | think it ts because I am so accustomed | to seeing the ball travel from me, and | knowing what it is going to be, that | when find it coming at me, and don't know what 1t is, am unable to judge | it.
 | As for the catcher he is always look l ing at the bS1ls coming toward him. to be sure; but he is looking almost along l their line of flight, sinstead of down up- l on that line, as the batsman must look, | and he, too, knows so much what is | coming toward him that when you 1 change his point of view and make him | hit at a ball, the nature of which he | doesn't understand beforehand, he is | more or less helpless. And, of course, | you want to know how I reconcile with | this theory the pitchers and catchers who do hit-the Renders and the | Kings. I just don't attempt to recon | cile them any more than attempt to
 explain why, of two brothers one bats 300 and the other 200. One has a bet
 
 | other, and so it is with Bender and l Kling and other pitchers and catchers | who can hit; they have so good a nat | ural eye for the ball that they over come the handicap which their posi- | tfon gives them and bat well in spite l of it.
 But do believe that figures bear my theory out to this extent-that pitch | CTS or catchers who leave their posi-
 tions and play season in some other | poS'ti 70 always find their batting aver
 age improves. And I believe it is sim ply because, when playing other posi- tions. the only balls they see which they have to judge as ball or strikes are those which come at them when in
 their position at the plate, and not go- ing or coming to them as pitchers see them, or coming to them on a line with their eyes, as catchers see them. Most of all, they never know (unless they guess) what is being served to them. Consequently, their entire att tention while at bat is devoted to solving the problem of the balls pitch ed, with no distracting experience or knowledge of such balls from a differ ent angle or direction to confuse them.
 It should not be forgotten, either, that both pitchers and catchers have 1 more hard work to do than any other player, and are consequently more fla tigued when at bat than the rest of the team, and fatigue always affects ac-
 curacy, whether of throwing or bat
 ting eye. Again, a pitcher averag 8 four times at bat to about 26 of any l other member of the team. due to the pitchers working only every three or four days. Consequently, pitcher has
 so much less actual practice at the plate, which may also have something to do with his poor batting average. It is probable that there are other
 theories to account for light hitting by batteries. But I have never heard any which seemed more plausible than these of mine, which Ie express not at all as facts, but as beliefs. and with an
 entire openness to conviction to the contrary of any one who has better
 reasons to offer.