Omaha daily bee., 1911-01-08
Rusie Champion of
Speed Through ALI
Base Ball History
Pitcher Fastest in Delivery that Game
Has Ever Seen-TerrOr of
Batsmen.

There have been fast pitchers by the
Dozen" said the veteran Jimmy Ryan the
other day, "and all Of them in their time
have fired the ball across the rubber with
the greatest speed imaginable.
''Haye you noticed, though, that just one
man Is taken as the standard OF speed,
the one with whom all others are COM
pared? Whenever you speak Of any speed
hurler, what do you say? Fast as Amos
Rusie;' got as much speed as Rusie ever
habitat is how you will word II, and I
think II will be that way forever. AS long
as great names are remembered, OF base
ball is the nations game Rusie will re-
main upon a pedestal as the champion
speed man, the one pitcher who could send
in the ball faster than any one else that
ever lived. When you say fast as Rusie,'
you don't mean It, either-you only wish
to show that your favorite pitcher is very
speedy There isn't any one as fast as
Rusie, there never was, and perhaps there
never again viii be.
Words fail, really, to describe the speed
with which Rusie sent the ball He was
a man Of great height, great width prodtgi-
Gus muscular strength, and the ability to
put every ounce of his weight and sinew
into the pitch. Coupled with this, he had
q set OF dazzling curves which were manu-
I ldGLQfeQ Win the same tlAtfA required 10
/ produce the speed. Some men can throw a
straight bali with great force, but have to
slow up IN order to develop curves but
Rusie drove in a curved ball with all his
tremendous power.
Pacing Rusie, to a timid man. was like
going into battle must be to an inexperi-
! enced soldier. The distance was shorter
! then. Rusle had the whole box TO move
! around in Instead of being chained to a
slab and this giant simply drove the bali
al you with the force OF a cannon. 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 batsmans heart that was
put there by the mighty Rusie. II was
like a white streak tearing past you, with
out time to balance yourself, figure the
course of the ball, or take aim at the pill
The fellows with the wide curves might
fool you in reaching out and missing them,
but you weren't reaching out at Rusie-
you simply swung at white streak as II
hurtled past, and It reached the eatcher's
hands before you had half finished the
swinging motion. II took a fat Well
balanced. heavily built catcher to hold
Rusie. as you can imagine, and the most
successful man who ever received his
thunderbolt delivery was Dick Buckley
The convincing proof Of Rusie's terrible
speed was this: II any other pitcher hit a
man. the man nmped a moment, and then
went TO first II Rusie hit a 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 10 have an ordinary man hit
you with o rock. He hit me twice, / think
and all the bumps other pitchers ever CAV,
me didn't bruise a tenth as much as those
Yes Rusie was the fastest OF them all
the greatest in his way. What a star he
was. ana how few there are who can ever
half approach himH