The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-11-18

string men to pitch the next two
games.
To xiii Off Matty.v
we argued another way, too. We
inquired that ''Matty'' had a great
chance to win his first game, mas
much as it would be played on the
Poio grounds, before his home crowd.
connie Mack carried the undying
adulatlon of every Athletic player
when he announced that the best plan
would be to kill "Matty'' off. Connie
| decided to pitch a man against Mat
~ who could hold the Giants longer
imam Matty" could hold the Athletics,
and he announced Bender as his
choice
This move took nerve, for if Ben
DER lost we would also have lost one
or our best first string pitchers. Per
haps no one but one of us can realize
what it would have meant for us to
start the second game with the fact
! confronting US that we did not have
Bender and we were one game be-
hind.
Bender Should Have Won.
But the decision of Connie Mack
to kill off, Mathewson in the first
game worked better than we antici-
pated. We lost that game, and the
! worst Bender should have received
was tie game, but Bender pitched
I the heart out of Mathewson
Every player of our team who step
ped to the plate faced -'Matty'' with
the one idea in his head=to take the
tadeaway. We knew every ball
.'Matty'' would pitch. We learned that
from his motions. We knew when the
'fadeaway'' was coming, and I can
safely say that .'Matty'' never saw an
Athletic bat swing at his "fadeaway."
Heartbrealxing for Natty.
1t was heartbreaking for Marty"
Here he was pitching inning after
inning this famous ball, so deceptive
as to BATTLE almost any batSman, and
he saw our players watching them
all balls. Face to face with this sit
uation "Matty'' had then only two
balls to fall back upon. his drop curve
and his fast one, and when he began
to use these increasingly We began to
hit him, and we hit every ball hard as
all those who saw the game will tes-
tify.
Although we lost that game and
had done what we set out to accom-
plish, kill Matty' off, ''MAtty''
pitched himself out in that game and
we all felt that he could never beat
us again. Which he did not.
just Dope. says NIatty.
New York November 1S-Christy
MatheWson is back on Broadway for
the first time since the worlds series.
No sooner we're the broad shoulders of
the big fellow spotted than a dozen
fans began plying him with questions
about the article by ira Thomas. in
which the Athletic catcher claims that
the Giants were beaten because the
PhiladeIphians refused to strike at
Matty's famous fadeaWay curve.
4 guess Ira was Up against the same
thing I was when I was writing for the
paper" laughed Matty in reply. He
had to find some central idea on which
to base his story. and he didn't allow
a little thing like exact facts to stand
in the way.
The truth of it, declared Matty.
lis that my most effective ball against
the Athletics was my fadeaway. They
got one hit off the fadeaway during the
series. In one game I pitched it ten
times, and they hit it for one single,
five grouuders, and the others struck
out. l struck out both Collins and
Baker on the fadeaway twice.
Athletics Hit Curves.
The Athletics hit my curve ball
harder than anything else I pitched.
They did not keep away from the fade
away, as my friend Thomas has said.
On one occasion Baker stepped two
feet out of the box to strike at it
rs it a fact" Matty was asked, that
you have Il slight movement OF the foot
which indicates when you are going
to throw the fadeaway .
If / had" was the reply, 1.-THE bat
ters Of the National League would have