The Calumet news., 1911-12-15
IMPOSSIBLE TO
STEAL SIGNALS
CONNIE MACK DENIES THAT THE
ATHLETICS KNEW SIGNS
USED BY NEW YORK
PLAYERS.

Philadelphia, Nov. 15.-T usually
make it a practice to pay no attention
to baseball sayings in prlnt?,' says
Connie Mack, manager Of the worlds
champion Athletics. but there's just
one comment that has so far gone un-
oontradicted and l want to drive a
spike through il. 1t is that we are
in the habit of stealing the signs used
by rival teams. Persons who know
baseball as it really is, do not take
stock in such yarns, but others natural
ly believe them, and those are the fell
lows l want to reach.
1T is absolutely impossible for
man on the coaching line to detect
tho sign for a certain wind Of play
given by the pitcher or catcher and
at the same instant get word to the
batsman in time to wise him up. /
know that we have received credit for
doing this lightning trick, but we are
not entitled TO it, for we know 1t
can't be done If we attempted any
such scheme the chances are we
would confuse our batsmen so that
they couldn't hit at all. The ba sman
cannot watch the catcher, the pitcher
and the base runner at the same time,
so that anybody can see how utterly
absurd the statement is.
Study the Pitchers.
But Wen not deny that we study
We have a couple Of men that have
been watching pitchers for years. 1t
doesn't take them long to discover
little peculiarities in a mans delivery
that mean a lot. They can tell by
the way a pitcher grips the ball, or
by the positions his feet are i'm before
he delivers it, or by way he winds
up, throws his arm or uses his body,
just what he intends to serve to the
batsmen. To the Impractical eye
pitcher doesn't change his delivery
bit whether he pitches curve. a drop.
an inshoot, a fast jump or a slow ball
But any baseball man will tell you
that a pitcher who can use the same
identical delivery for each of these
balls is curiosity.
when a pitchers methods have
been learned by our men on the coach
ing lines the information is impaired
to the batsmen, who arc told to study
them carefully. In time they get the
hang of the pitchers delivery. and.
while of course they cannot guess cor
rectly every ball that comes their way.
they come pretty near picking out The
good ones. and that means hitting
safely. The first time we faced Ma
thewson in the recent worlds series
he puzzled us because we couldn't |
solve his methods. We began TO hit |
him the second time he pitched against |
us because we had line on what he /
intended TO serve. When we tackled |
him the third time we had his number, |
We didn't steal his signs, for we were
not foolish enough to try, but we
knew how he delivered different balls
md as he had been pitching that way
or years he didn't change his tactics.
Catching Fsdeaways.
why was it that Matty didn't use
lis fadeway' more? Because we
thew just how he delivered It and we
wouldn't hit at it. we outguessed
lin when he used his curve ball for
he same reason. our men studied
fatty uDtl tscy wc'o ais 20 Low
What TO expect and the rest w. sy.
the Giants had made similar study
I our pitchers they would have hit
nth better results. but as they were
Z up-to-date in that respect they
roved easy marks. The Giants didn't
ry to steal our signs because they
new IL couldn't be done"