Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1911-11-02
RIGHTS OF A RUNNER
Cobb Declares Spikings Are Re-
 suits of Attempt to Block.
Greatest of Baseball Players Says He Would Not Intentionally Injure Fellow PIayer-FootbaII Tac-
 tics Are Used.

"I hate to be referred to as a
 brute" says Tyrus Cobb, greatest of
 ball players, and now in the zenith of his grand career. Tt isn't very pleas ant for a fellow to be called a rough performer and deliberate crippler of his fellowmen. l wouldn't intentional ly hurt another player for twice my salary, and yet, whenever somebody bumps up against these spikes of nI1ne. they ail say 1 do 1t intention ally and discuss which would be the better way-to eliminate the spike or to eliminate T. Raymond Cobb.
 Let's have a little understanding about this thing and, also, let's go back into baseball history a little way Long ago there were players, some of them much slower and heavier than myself, so am told by veterans who knew them, players who, despite this bulk and slowness, stole more bases to the season than do nowadays. 1 find from the old guides that there were dozens of men who made good baserunning records, say from thirty to seventy a season, and that this wasn't considered at all remarkable. And yet I fail to find in the old news papers mention of many collisions, or many cases where basemen were spiked by the sliding runners.
 What does all that mean? Simply this: that in those days everybody recognized the right of the base run her to a clear field and a fair chance to steal the next cushion if he had the speed and skill. Nowadays the in- fieIders think that the way to stop a runner is to use football tactics; to step way over on the side of the base nearest to the approaching stealer and block him off from reaching the bag They receive you on their shins or feet, they strive to check your slide so that it will be a physical impos- sibility for you to arrive at the base, and then they bring down the ball for the putout
 It's worst of all at the home plate, for there the armored catcher, with big body protector and shinguards, meets you as you come in and squats on you or on the base path, so that you can't butt through or squirm past his huge bulk. As a result of these tactics nobody dares to slide head first nowadays. Duff and Mccarthy, who were great base runners Tn the olden times, have told me that in their day the acme of perfection was the head-first slide, twisting the body l to one side and reaching out a hand | to touch the base. The man who tried l that now would get his hand spiked or his neck broken.
 Now, under all baseball law and | the logic of common sense, the base 1 runner has right to try for his base blocking. l believe that, and 1 insist | upon it. Furthermore, 1 don't want to | play hog. Half that base is mine, and | claim that half whenever l go after | 1t.
 q don't slide past the bag, nor even over the boundary of the half that's | mine. If the baseman stands where | he belongs, on the half-base that is i his, or on the farther side, he won't get spiked, and he has fair, even chance, if he is active with his hands, to touch me out. That's square enough, isn't it?
 If the baseman deliberately comes