Norwich bulletin., 1910-03-17
TOO MANY PITCHERS
 HANDICAP A TEAM.
Three or Four Dependable Fiingers Do
 the Work That Wins Penrants.

That long pitching strings are no longer necessary, and that four or hye dependabie men are worth two or three times that number of twirlers. is fact that the past season and the winning of the cham pionship by the Pittsburg Pirates have pretty well established in the minds of many close followers of the national game.
 Previously the necessity of having seven men. each one ready at all times to take his turn at box, was point that was emphasized by managers. And during last season, too, the major league manager that did not have at least six available men for the box figured that he was heavily handi- capped in the fight for the coveted bunting.
 Things have changed, however. The wonderful work of the Pittsburg pitch CTS, and the now very patent fact that four twiriers practically did the brunt of the work for the Pirates. have given managers and owners cause for be- lieying that too many pitchers are worth hardly as much as none at all.
 With CaInnitz, Willis, Maddox and Leifield performing in their turn, the Pirates were up in the race through out the entire season. and they finally drew away easily from all other com petitors at the end. In previous years it was the pitching of Mordecai Brown, Pfeister Overall and Reulbach that won for the Cubs, and everyone for years has realized that Christie Math-
 
 the Giants. With a couple of other pitchers to help out Matty and Wiltse, the Giants might have been up in the race this year. too. This only goes to a. team. With four dependable box men the ordinary manager should be reasonably well satisfied.
 The Red Sox had one of the largest strings of pitchers in the country last season. They had Hall, Karger, Wood, Cicotte, Matthews, AreHanes, Pape, Wolter and Schlitzer at the seasons end, while previously there were Ryan, Chech, Steele and Morgan as members of the pitching corps. And yet had Morgan pitched the ball for Boston that he did for the Athletics and Young had been retained these liable man to take his turn in the box, might easily have beaten out both the Athletics and Tigers and brought the pennant to Boston.
 The better part of the pitching for Connie Mack'S club was done by four men-Plank. Bender, Krause and Nor gan. And four or five regular men on any team would be worth double as much a string Of nine or 10 men with only one or two of them in first class pitching condition.
 Too many pitchers are a hindrance instead of a help. If Cicotte, Wood and Wolter had been in shape to help out AreIlanes the Red Sox would not have been the weakest in the Ameri- can league. But the wildness of Wood the injury to Cicotte and the bad start that Wolter got in the spring handi- capped the team so heavily that ArelIanes was forced to do pretty nearly half the pitching for his team
 With a bunch of bush leaguers as experiments, some eight or nine of them in fact, WOlter and others who might have done splendid work if given regular turn in the box, could nof keep in shape A good pitcher ought to be able to work every four days.
 Of course. there are exceptions. Wood, for instance, is a pitcher who depends mostly on speed for his ef- fectiveness. Once a week would be often enough to work the Ness City lad But Arellanes, Cicotte, Collins and Wolter are fully capable of per forming about three times in two weeks, and if these men get in shape, as expected next spring, the chances are that Manager Donovan will de- pend upon a much smaller pitching staff than the Red Sox boasted last season.
 Managers and owners both are be- ginning to realize the folly of keeping bench while the bulk of the work is left to couple of good men and a lot of second stringers. Travelling is ex pensive and salaries today are at pretty high figure. If the work could be got out of five men, the saving both in travelling expenses. salary and gen. eral efficiency would be considerable, and owners would be willing to tack a snug slice on the compensation of the five dependable men who could go in and do their regular stunts.
 On the whole, it is doubted if the Red Sox carry more than seven pit chers next season, five to work regu- larly and two others to be kept in case of emergency. More than this will do neither themselves nor the club any good, and it is believed that Manager Donovan recognizes this fact.
 Many of the clubs in both National and American leagues will reduce the size of their box staff next spring be- fore the bell clangs.