Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1911-09-07
P|TCH|NCPROBLEM
HARD TO SOLVE
Army Of TwifleTs Not Always
Big Help to Team.
CARRY TOO MANY NOW.
Past Records Show That Small Squads
of Hurlers Were Sufficient to Carry
Off FIas-Larse Stats Being Carried
by All Clubs This Year.
BY TOMMY CLARK.


One of the most difficult problems
that baseball managers have before
them is the number of pitchers to car
ry on the payroll for the best all
around results. More money is nee
essary at the present time to secure
a first class staff of box men than was
paid out to a whole team less than
twenty years ago. simply because
three times as many pitchers are con-
sidered necessary for a major league
team today.
Thirty years ago Tommy Bond pitch
ed the Boston club into the champion
ship single handed. At that time the
clubs only played about 100 games
each season, and there were several
very weak clubs in the circuit.
Some twenty years ago Tim Keefe,
Mickey Welsh and Ed Crane did the
pitching for the New York Giants and
landed a winner, playing a 1872 game
schedule. Keefe and Welsh were the
regular men. with Crane to fall back
on, while Titcomb was groomed for
emergencies.
Ten years later Boston won the
championship with Nichols, Kobe
danz, Stivetts, Sullivan and Lewis for
box men, still playing the shorter
schedule and having box men always
in condition.
Last season the Athletics won the
championship Of the world with six
box men Bender, Coombs, Plank,
Morgan, Krause and Dygert-and this
number Of pitchers was considered low
for such a grand performance, even
with big money in sight for winning
the final series.
A greater number of pitchers is en-
ployed by the major league clubs this
year than Eve before. Several man
ayers had more than fifteen pitchers at
the training camps. Of course some of
them have been sent back to the mi
nors, but the team leaders declare they
Will carry an extra supply of box men.
The demand for pitching material
has developed into a mania which is
fattening the expense accounts of the
magnates to an alarming degree.
Experimenting with untried twirlers
is a gamble that every wide awake
manager is willing to chance. But
there is such a thing as overabundance
Too many pitchers can ruin a first
class a team. Good managers with
an extra supply of curve artists can &C
astray in running things in accordance
| with a system. The juggling of the
box department generally produced in.
effectiveness, because there's nothing
so beneficial as a regular turn. With
nine or ten pitchers warming up OF
sitting on the bench III manager car
be expected to produce invincible work
on the mound unless he narrows the
staff's activity to five or six first class
men.
Pitchers nowadays complain thai
they are ,0verWOrked if they take par
In more than one OF two games a week
Some of them insist that they mus
have at least four or five days RESI-
after a siege of nine innings, no mat
ter how easy the opposing team may
be. That is why the club owners ani
managers feel compelled to carry 81
many box men, eve though more
than half of them are not first class.
Christy Mathewson is an exception
to the rule. He is willing to pitch as
often as McGraw calls upon him. Rus
sell Ford, who is receiving a big sal
airy this season, will not pitch unless
he is physically ready. That is al
agreement he made a year ago will
President Farrell.
There are a number of clever pitch
ers wise to the fact that the arm mus
give out sooner or later and that eacl
hard game brings the end in double
quick time to cut off the princely sal
airy for a new move on the checker
board of life.