Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-04
HAL CHASE HAS A
REMARKABLE ARM
Specialist Says Yankees
Manager Is a Freak in
This Respect. !

NEW YORK, July AFTER carefully
watching Hal Chase play a number OF
games the learned doctor had something
to say. His instructions had been to take
a few hours In the genial sunshine and
give his opinion as to why Chase has a
little on some other first basemen as q
physical machine.
1t is more than probable that the
learned doctor never would have entered
upon such an errand had IT not been that
another, doctor insisted that Chase had .
'.lcosening of the elbow joint or some
thing OF the sort-the phrase being well
disguised with polychromic Latin words
which gave him an advantage over his
fellows.
The learned doctor scoffed when he
heard 1t and pleaded for time TO study
the subject.
Its as easy as rolling eggs down the
White House HILL" said the learned doc
tor when he sat down to talk about 1t.
There isn't any freak exhibit of muscles
in Chase's throwing arm. The other chap
may have thought so, but he was travel
ing further into science than the subject
warrants. Chase throws with his FORE
arm. That's all there is to 1t. How
their forearm"
Some of the first basemen. in fact.
most of Them" said the speaker .'use
their forearm a little. but do all OF the
pushing with their shoulder muscles. II
costs them seconds more to throw than 1t
does Chase He picks up the ball from
the ground, tits II over with his fore
arm, and the first thing that the runner
knows near third base the ball Is on
him. If it happens TO be fairly fast
runner he may wonder how IL came over
so rapidly. but il was due TO the fact that
Chase did not have to hoist the ball over
his head before he could get 4 started.
In other words. it's Just like running an
elevator up three stories instead OF six
stories to accomplish the same result"
If there are any fans who have won
dered why the ball happens to nit around
so expeditiously when Chase Is trying 10
make an infield play. perhaps they VIII
understand IL better after reading the
theory of the learned doctor.
Now what I would like TO find out,
said the Inqu'sitive Bookworm. is
whether 1t would be possible for other
first basemen than Chase to acquire this
same skill il we are to call IL Skill.
We'll said the learned doctor. with
deliberation and some hesitsncy. Il
reckon that I would better answer that
with a mightn't. All elbow joints are not
built alike All ball players do not crook
not possess the same muscular power,
and there are those who have To put a
heap of swing into their motion TO be
sure that the ball will carry rs far as
they would like TO have IL. Probably It
would not do any hurt to all ball players
to try TO throw like Chase. but while the
general pattern of the arm has been we'll
defined by nature there are varieties OF
arms Just as there are OF noses. Chase
could hold the upper part OF his arm
rigid and throw farther than the average
ball player who attempted the same
thing AT least that is my theory of the
matter, taking an offhand look. The spec
tator who sits In the stand and watches
the professionals play growis because one
man doesn't play the came a. another
man, or doesn't play the same way as
another. I wonder II he ever stops 10
think that no two men eat the same way
and that no two sign their names the
same way. Nature favors athletes, and if
she didn't your old game OF base ball
wouldn't be worth the powder to blow IL
up, for II would be so mechanically precise
that even the umpires wouldn't be pam
ned by the crowds or the players"