Evening star., 1911-08-15
NATIONAL LEAGUE CATCHERS
BETTER THAN AMERICAN
Older Organization Has Seven Receivers
Who Are the Best in the
Profession.

ing into stars. Such is Oscar Stanage
The Detroit Tigers have been plunging,
tearing, banging their way pennantward
despite the masterful game of the Ath-
letics. The Jennings tribe are hard hit
ters and daring base runners; they are
about the best run getters in the world.
Ana Stanage sticks the pellet at a clip
that keeps him well ND with the band
wagon. But neither Detroit nor any other
team could win games by sheer scoring
unless II had some way of keeping the
other fellows tallies from being too nu-
merous. Detroit is not good fielding
team as whole. Consequently the bur
den of keeping the opposition safe de-
wolves upon the pitchers and the catcher
in keeping the enemy from running wild
on the bases. Leave the latter task TO
Stanage. He Is there; proba bly, the great
est young backstop in the business. figur-
ing him from any angle.
One Detroit writer has paid tribute to
the youth thusly: 'Coo-headed. quick
thinking. strong-arm Oscar. the boy with
the broad shoulders and massive muscle
development, who can throw the ball like
shot and hit il a mile. is the man to
whom much of the credit for the success
of Detroits pitching staff is due
Tiger pitchers have pitched not alone
good ball, but in several instances phe-
nomenal ball. against their rivals. There
are performances by Mullin, Summers,
Donovan and Lafitte that stand out as
accomplishments in pitching far above
the ordinary. Due credit is given these
twirlers for their mastery performances
but In this case. as In others. there is a
man behind" and in this particular case
the man behind is the youthful Cali
fornian. who receives the shoots. curves.
fast balls. spitters and slow ones OF the
Tiger hurlers. Be IL known. Stanage is
not ''one-pitcher man. He can catch
any member of Jennings STAFF
Hughie has always insisted that Stan
age has the makings of a wonderful
catcher: he said that a few years ago.
Since the present season has gone half
its route, many have been heard 10 agree
with Hugh Ambrose.
Quick to outguess batter sure i'm re-
ceiving, accurate in throwing and an al
most uncanny judge of hit-and-run and
base-stealig intentions. Stanage lis al
ways working his gray matter.
Stanage seldom asks for "A pitch-out.
He does not need ten yards elbow room
to get off his throws He depends on a
good arm to get the man stealing. When
he does ask for a wide pitch the chances
are four out of five that the runner for
whose benefit. or rather detriment the
wide pitch is ordered will try to ad-
vance. In three games during the re-
cent Detroit Philadelphia series Stanage
asked for total of five pitch-outs Four
times he guessed il right and got an
Athletic runner in an attempt TO steal.
once he guessed wrong. But four out of
FIVE is doing pretty well. I thank you.
When Jim Mcclure was catching Jim
always asked for pitch-out with men on
bases. Jim got the ptch-outs and he
also got the pitcher in hole. The pitch
er has to get the ball over the plate
then. The batter knows this generally
and counts on a fast bali over. So to
fool the batter. The result is that in
the majority of cases the curve goes
wide and the batter walks
Tiger pitchers do not find themselves in
hole because their catchers asks them
to pitch out When they do pitch out
something generally happens.
Was Stanage as brany when he first
entered the big league? No But he
used his think tank just as much: onv
he didn't know as well how to use Ii
then. Six months passed and he had
risen one peg on the base ball ladder Six
months more and he was another peg
higher; six months more and We find him
where he Is today. VIII he keen on
climbing? 1t certainly looks that way