The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-09-18

MIMI. UIIllu
Good Form, Poor Form and no
Form at All Are Equally
Effective
New York, Sept. 18.-Similar re-
suits in batting-good results, that is
are obtained from many different
styles. Good form, poor form and
no form at all all get there with the
bat, and each contributes its quota
to the 300 division. The thing of
form" at the bat is largely a shib-
boleth based on nothing. In other
sports form" may be more or less
OF a necessity, at any rate certain
branches of sport lay much stress on
FORM" possibly laying more on the
nfceties of physical poise than there
is occasion for. Maybe there is
form" in baseball, but il many differ
ent opponents of hard hitting go
about getting good results in quite
different ways as to adjustment of
body, feet, arms and SO forth, it is
not clear just where any regulation
form comes in.
No two batters handle themselves
exactly alike at the place, Of course,
but methods differ SO widely as to
make each mans form" his own.
Styles can be corrected to advantage;
that is, faults overcome and changes
made suitable to the individual, but
even then there is no approach to a
standard. A few cases will serve to
show how different batters maintain
q sway among the batting elect, the
300 class, with a wide dissimilarity
of method.
Hal Gets There Anyway.
Take Hal Chase, for instance. Many
is the spectator who says he doesn't
see how Chase hits the ball. Yet he
does hit 1t, keeps on hitting it, and al
ways has been a first-class batter.
The batter who steps away from the
plate is VIGOROUSLY a poor hitter, but
while Chase doesn't step or pull
away he is fidgety with his feet and
suggests that he is about to step
away.
Seemingly careless and Indifferent,
he really is watching the pitchers ev-
cry movement al we'll as the whole
layout, and no man a hit better
with a base runner. His attitude is
anything but menacing, indeed con-
tains a hint of timidity, which really
doesn't exist, but with loose wrist and
arm action he can adapt himself to
any sort of a pitched ball hittable.
He used to be weak on q low curve
outside the plate, but got over that
and now is a free hitter. If he wants
to hit he'll hit at anything, like La
Joie and Wagner, and he's liable to
hit anything. He doesn't swing hard
In the sense Of having a long swing,
but swings with a good deal Of snap.
His eye and arm do the work with
out much 8 of the body in adding
force to the drive.
Entirely different styles Of hitters
are Schultz and Hartzell, of which
manner Of hitters was Ginger Beau
mont. Theirs more nearly represent
the golf swing, a long, easy sweep,
gathering speed at is nears the ball
and with a distinctive follow through.
They drive the ball long distances,
but 80 do batters who haven't that
sweep and follow through Larry
Doyle, a slugger, is a snap hitter with
a sharp but not sweeping swing, with
more tensity and less looseness than
Schultz. Doyle brings his bat for
ward on a lateral plane, more stiff
armed than some, but not with the
body swinging the arms with that Pc
culiar push effect which characterize
es Caldwell of the Highlanders.
Doyle's lateral plane meets the ball
s%quarely, Caldwell, a sturdy hitter. ia
quite formess, awkward, crouching
and with no freedom of motion. With
him the arms are merely handles to
hold the bat while his body, princi-
pally the shoulder, is really the pro-
polling force. He is stiff armed and
.ungainly, but he biffs the ball.
Fred Merkle puts body as we'll as
arms into his swing and is a vicious
swinger. There is more independence
so far as arms and body are con-
cerned than in hitters of the Cald-
we'll type, a freer shoulder movement
and less rightly in the arms, but a
coordination which gets all Of his
weight in the swing when he lands.
Like other powerful swingers he is
bent on hitting the ball hard that
he sometimes swings his eye of the
ball and misses it a mile.
Here are the Models.
Two Of the best hitters, Cobb and
Jackson, stand in an easy, natural
position. So does Jajoie for that
matter, but a bit straighter than Cobb
and feet not. so close together. La
joie can hit anything, and, perhaps
more than an yother batter, persons
fies form" Yet he doesn't follow
through to any great extent. A splen-
did eye and quick, we'll controlled,
but not violent arm movement do the
work for him. His body is turned