The Washington herald., 1911-01-07

There have been fast pitchers by the
.'and all Of them in their time have fired
that old ball across the rubber just as
speedily as their strength would let
them. Have you noticed. though. that
just one man is taken as the standard of
speed. the one with whom all others are
compared? Whenever you speak. of any
speedy hurler what do you say? Fast as
Amos Rusie.' Got as much speed as Ru-
sic ever had That is how you will al
ways word it, and think it will be that
way forever
"As long as great names are remem-
bered, or baseball is the nations game.
Rusie will remain upon a pedestal as the
champion speed merchant. the one pitch
er who could send in the ball faster than
any one else that ever lived. When you
say fast as RuSie' you don't mean il.
either: you only wish to show that your
favorite pitcher is a very speedy boy.
There isn't any one as fast as Rusie:
there never was and perhaps there never
again will he.
Words fail really to describe the speed
with which RuSie sent the ball. He was
man of great height, great width. pro-
d'gious muscular strength. and the abil
itI to put every ounce of his weight and
Sinsw into the pitch. Coupled with this.
he had set OF dazzling curveS-curves
that almost baffied description and which
were manufactured with the same effort
required to produce the speed. Some
men can throw n straight bali with great
force. but have to slow up in order to de-
velop curves: but Rusie drove in a
curved ball with all of his tremendous
power
Facing Rusie. to timid man. was
like going into battle must be to an mex
perierced soldier. The distance was
shorter then. Rusie had the whole box
to move around in instead of being
chained to a slab. and this giant simply
drove the ball at YOU with the force of
a cannon. I have stood up to all the
great pitchers of nearly twenty years:
have seen scores of them come and go.
and none of them inspired the terror in
a batsman's heart that was put there by
the mighty Rusie. 1t was like a white
streak tearing past you without time to
balance yourself. figure the course of the
ball. or take aim mt the pill.
THE fellow with the wide curves might
fool you into reaching out and missing
them, but you weren't reaching out at
Rusie: you simply swung at white
streak as it hurtled past, and if you took
in the catcher'S hands before you had
half finished the swinging motion. II
took fat. well-balanced. heavy-buiIt
catcher to hold Rusie. as you can imag-
ins. and the most successful man who
ever received his thunderbolt delivery
was Dick Buckley.
rhe convincing proof of RuSieS ter
rible speed was this: If any other pitcher
hit man. the man swore. linped a mo-
ment and went to first. II Rusie hit
man. that man retired from the game.
went to the hospital. and. sometimes.
was never again tit to play ball. To be
hit by Rusie was worse than to have an
ordinary man smash YOU with a rock.
He copped me twice, I think. and all the
wallops other pitchers ever gave ME
didn't bruise tenth as much as those.
Yes: Rusie was the fastest of them ALL
the greatest i'm his way. and now he Is
poor and US. less. working for $50 a day.
with only the memories of the past to
Cfecr him. But what a star he was and
how few there are who can even half ap-
proach him.