Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-14
PITCHERS MUST WORK
CONSTANTLY TO Be GOOD
Lay-Off for Twirlers Usually
Means q Serious Setback,
FIELDERS ARE NOT
AFFECTED BY IDLENESS
May Remain Out Of Game for Long
Period and Come Back-Sev-
eral Instances.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

special Dispatch to The Star.
CHICAGO. November 14-How long
can major league pitcher stay out
OF the game and come back?
Mordecai Brown of the Cubs says
some pitchers can stay out year. a
very few two years, but the majority
have to keep on working season after
season.
pitchers are not like the other MEM
bers Of the team?" said Brown just be-
fore he started for California to visit his
old-time friend and fellow twirler, Orvie
Overall. "Outfielders have been known to
come back after an absence Of fifteen or
twenty years. as in the case of Sam
Thompson. Sam played twenty five years
ago with Detroit. Yet only three or four
years ago he came back again for a time
and played first-rate ball for the same
team. He hit in grand shape, too.
Then there's Jimmy Callahan Of the
White Sox. He returned to the squad
after an absence of five or six years and
really put up a high-class article OF ball
this past season. / know, because I pitch
ed against him in the Chicago series.
"1nfielders and catchers can return most
any time up to the date they get stiff
from old age. But It's different with us
pitchers. My case. for instance. will
ing i weighed about the same year in
and year out. 4 change of three pounds
in as many months gave me alarm.
Take on Much Weight.
'fBut now that I've been pitching ]
take on anywhere from fifteen to twen-
ty-five pounds before the end of the year
and the start OF the next. And it's mighty
hard shedding to train down again. Be
lieve me. it keeps me awake nights won
dering if l can do it. If 1 should skip
a season without that terrific drying out
process-it's the same with fighters, 1 be-
heve- never would get in old-lime
shape again.
Il had to laugh when I heard the re-
port that Overall might return to the
Cubs again next season. Say there isn't
a chance of such thing. Overall was a
grand, good pitcher when he left at the
end Of the 1910 season. He's been out OF
he's taken on thirty or forty pounds. II
would take him almost all season to work
that off. and then he still would be over
weight.
I'm cases likes this club owner can't
afford to carry along a pitcher who can't
do the regular amount Of work. He might
take chance with come back II IL
wasn't for the player limit. But under
those circumstances he would have d
pitcher trying to get into shape when he
his place That's why Overall can't come
back. That's why none of the old-time
twirlers who have laid off for while
never return"
Brown Is an authority on the weight
question, too, Although he is not what
you might call fat. he loses as much as
eight pounds in one game. I've lost
more than that sometimes when I've
worked against the Giants" he says. tits
not only the work. but the worry. I
reduce you as fast as anything. Why,
I've known as slender pitchers as Tom
Hughes-and they don't make them any
thinner-lose five and six pounds a game.
But all you have to do to get the weight
back is to sit down after dinner, drink
glass or two of water, and there you
are"
Matty Retains Avoirdupois.
Then the talk drifted to Matthewson
"Matty loses less weight in a game than
any other pitcher I know Of remarked
Brownie. There is one exception, when
he works against the Cubs It's Joe
Tinker that gets Christie's goat. Joe has
for long time had the idea he could hit
Matty. He goes up to bat believing
that and. as a result. he can hit the big
fellow to all parts Of the lot when the
rest of us can't touch him.
Then Matty himself admits he begins
to lose weight. The more Joe knows he
can hit Matty the more Matty himself be-
lieves 1t. Say, I may be a fanatic on
this question Of mind over matter or
whatever you call it, but Christie's worry
over Tinker makes him lose weight. Yet
he can pitch against Philadelphia or
Pittsburgh and scarcely shed an ounce"
Right now is the season when a large
percentage of the ball players are either
hunting or fishing. Richie and Sheckard
of the Cubs are going after tarpon In the
Gulf Of Mexico and later are going to the
east coast after silver fish. Jim Scott
writes that he's going to land an. elk and
a moose if the laws in Wyoming will
allow Il this season He says they re
thicker than spatter in his country.